Grow Your Engineering Business Using Twitter

Social media has provided countless marketing and brand awareness opportunities for all types of businesses in recent years. Many engineering companies have also benefited from the use of social media as part of their marketing strategy. Indeed, the use of social media has become much more important since the dawn of GDPR, which makes email marketing a lot more restrictive and harder to implement.

If you're looking to use social media to grow your engineering business, then this series of blogs will show you how to use each platform to the best of its abilities. In this instalment, we'll be looking at how to use Twitter to draw in prospective customers.

What is Twitter?

Twitter can be used to convey any message up to 280 characters in length.

Twitter is a microblogging site - that is, it can be used to convey any message up to 280 characters in length. For that reason, posts on Twitter - known as 'tweets' - tend to be shorter than on other social media platforms. This means that you need to consider how to best word your message before posting.

If you want to reach a large audience, then Twitter is the platform for you. However, it does take some practice to understand how to best build a following on Twitter, so it's important to post consistently to get results.

READ: Grow Your Engineering Business Using Instagram

Who Uses Twitter?

You can use Twitter to reach engineering buyers of all ages and types.

One of the benefits of using Twitter to grow your engineering business is that it attracts such a diverse audience. You can use Twitter to reach engineering buyers of all ages and types, from dedicated purchasing managers and junior buying staff, to manufacturing business owners and everyone in between.

Many manufacturing companies also have a Twitter account of their own, making it easier to reach out to businesses you would like to work with. By engaging, liking and retweeting their posts, you may just grab their attention.

READ: Using Youtube to Grow Your Engineering Business

What Should I Post?

Twitter is a fast-moving site that's great for giving advice or weighing in on topical issues. This provides a platform to position your company as industry experts and share your knowledge. It's also a brilliant place to share your company's content - for instance, company videos, capacity lists and blogs all make for great Twitter posts.

While more personal content can - and does - work well on Twitter, its focus is more on discussion. Staff birthdays and company nights out lend themselves better to platforms such as Facebook, while Twitter is better suited for building a larger audience; therefore, consultative, informative content tends to work better in order to cover more ground. This is because the latter is more likely to be retweeted by other users, giving it a higher chance of being seen by more people.

On Twitter, the focus is more on discussion.

In order to ensure that your tweets are seen by the right audience, it's important that you use the correct hashtags. Hashtags allow users to search tweets by topic, meaning that they can easily locate tweets that are applicable to their areas of interest. Twitter provides users with detailed metrics on posts so that you can see how many 'impressions' your tweet made - that is, how many times it was seen by other users and how many users engaged with the tweet in some way. By using the correct hashtags, you will make more impressions and increase your chances of engagement. Therefore, it's important to pay attention to Twitter's analytics to see which hashtags are working best for you.

Twitter also has a list of 'trending' topics - that is, topics which are currently being posted about and discussed heavily. By contributing to current discussions with meaningful insight, you may also increase the likelihood of your tweet being shared and therefore, building the amount of impressions your tweet receives.

Some good examples of content to post on Twitter include:

• Informative content relating to your area of expertise. If you have company blog posts, or if you've read an interesting article relating to a topical subject, then why not tweet it to your followers?
• Company videos make great content to share on Twitter. By using the correct hashtags and posting at optimal times, you may be able to increase views significantly and grow your brand awareness. For instance, videos of machines in action may make interesting viewing to your audience.
• Photos are also a great way to draw attention to your tweets and increase chances of engagement. For instance, you could tweet photos of components you've recently made, interesting projects you've worked on, or your new machine.
• Your capacity list. Who knows which buyers may be in a jam and looking for a supplier with your capabilities?

READ: Using Facebook to Grow Your Engineering Business

When Should I Post?

Twitter largely remains a personal-use social media platform.

Although Twitter is widely used in a professional capacity, it largely remains a personal-use social media platform. Therefore, you can increase your chances of success by posting during times where people may be commuting - for instance, between 7:30am and 8:30am and between 4:30pm and 6:30pm on weekdays.

It's also a good idea to schedule your tweets at a time that coincides with lunch breaks. Therefore, posting between 12noon and 2:00pm may work in your favour.

READ: Using LinkedIn to Grow Your Engineering Business

Further Tips For Twitter Success:

• Use hashtags that will get your post retweeted to a larger audience. Some great hashtags to use are #UKEngineering #UKManufacturing #UKEng and #UKMfg. Posts using these hashtags are easily picked up and subsequently retweeted by other accounts that have an active interest in engineering.
• Don't be afraid to weigh in on trending topics! With the topics in question receiving a large amount of traffic, you can easily increase the amount of impressions your tweet receives by crafting an informative, relevant post.
• Remember to engage with your followers by liking and retweeting their tweets, as well as replying to comments left on your own posts. It's also a good idea to follow both existing and prospective customers - many large and smaller names within the manufacturing industry are active on Twitter.
• Twitter is an incredibly fast-moving site which is constantly updated, meaning that it's best to post multiple times per day if you want to build an audience.

Further Information:

If you would like further information on how to grow your engineering business using Twitter, then we're more than happy to help! Simply call us on 01256 394 500, or email [email protected].