Contractors Guide to Twitter

What is Twitter?

Launched in 2006, Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms. As of 2019, there are around 14 million active Twitter users in the UK, and around 300 million worldwide. It may not appeal to everyone, but with a capacity of millions and registration totally free, it’s worth getting involved.

Twitter is a site where members can post short updates, also known as tweets. These can be up to 140 characters long and can also include links to websites, which can be especially useful when sharing links to your website. You can also attach videos and images to your tweets.

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Getting started

Once you have set up your account, the next step is getting people to follow you. Remember, if you have a new account then it can be difficult to find potential clients who may be interested in your business.

Here are a few ways of growing your follower base:

• Post good quality content
• Engage with people
• Share other people’s content
• Follow companies relevant to your area of business

You may be thinking, why would you follow a competitor to gain followers? You can see what your competitors are talking about, this gives you an insight into important and popular topics. Plus, you can share their updates by retweeting them, your target customers may find these updates interesting and useful.

Increasing engagement

Advanced options

Once you have grasped the basics, we would recommend using the following options to further increase your chances of gaining more followers:

• Add hashtags to your tweets: A hashtag is a keyword or phrase used to describe a topic, and help users find topics that are of interest to them. To create a hashtag, you must put the hashtag symbol (#) before the word or phrase, avoiding spaces or punctuation.
• Add pictures: Depending on your profession, uploading images to your Twitter account is a great way to demonstrate your skills, products and more.
• Add links: Adding your Twitter account to your website, blog and email signatures will only increase the chances of getting more visitors and followers to your Twitter page.

Guide to Social Media