How CEOs Can Use Twitter to Improve Visibility and Brand Awareness

Before you start exploring how to use Twitter for raising brand awareness and improving visibility, I strongly suggest you solidify your approach to using LinkedIn. Finished? Read on.

If you are an executive intent on raising visibility and promoting your company, Twitter can be one of the best tools to use alongside a strong LinkedIn presence if your audience is on Twitter. You can quickly determine whether they are on Twitter by typing in your top competitors into the Twitter search bar. If their Twitter handles pop up, click on them. Are they tweeting frequently, or at all? If so, be assured your audience is on Twitter.

The foundation list below includes the things you must do to get started on Twitter, but it will not set you apart from other executive leaders. Work through these steps before proceeding to the tactics list.

Though the tactics list is a bit more intriguing, be prepared to spend more time and resources. We’ve found that many executives prefer to train their personal assistant or enlist the help of a social-savvy team member to implement. Using these tactics, you and your brand will get noticed. It’s all about showing up consistently. 

Twitter Visibility Foundation

 1) Revisit your company’s Twitter account. This assumes your company already has a Twitter account. If you don’t have a company Twitter account, you must set a company account up first. If you do have a company Twitter account, you (or your social media manager) must be actively tweeting at least once per day, ideally 2-3 times per day. Meeting with your social media manager to find out how they are approaching Twitter and syncing your strategy with theirs is a good next step.

2) Claim your personal Twitter account. According to Domo’s recent study, only 39% of CEOs are active on any social media channel. You should be one of them. When buyers are researching your company they often search for “CEO” and your company’s Twitter handle. If they can easily find you, it’s a win. Here’s how to set yours up.

3) Activate your personal Twitter account. On LinkedIn, you can post only once per week and be considered “active.” On Twitter, you will need to tweet at least once per day, ideally 3-5 times per day. Consistency is the key, no matter what number you choose. The most popular tweets are industry-related news, your insights on business or the industry, photos, live events/appearances and company news. 

Twitter Visibility Tactics

 4) Start scheduling tweets. Those people you see on Twitter who post multiple times per day are not tweeting in real-time. They are using a social media scheduling service, like Buffer (my personal favorite) or Hootsuite. Buffer will help you to keep your queue filled with great content to share and remind you to refill your queue when it runs out.

5) Build your following. Twitter differs from LinkedIn when it comes to building your network. On Twitter, you can go broad with whom you choose to follow. If you want people to see your updates, you must grow your following. Some CEOs choose to be very selective about who they follow by hand-picking each account to follow. Others are more open to connecting with more people, and they often use a Twitter management tool, like Crowdfire (management tool) or SocialQuant (growth tool) to help them build their following.

6) Engage in real-time. Join a Twitter chat. Like, retweet and reply to other tweets. Occasionally reach out with a direct message to get into a one-on-one conversation. Even if you engage in real-time once to twice per week, you will make an impact on Twitter.

7) Invite your employees to join. Your employees are more likely to participate in a social media advocacy program if you set the example by consistently posting and engaging on Twitter. The more people sharing your content and your company’s content on social media, the better.

8) Monitor activities. It’s not enough to have a Twitter account if you do not know how to find and participate in trending conversations. Your Twitter feed is not good enough. It’s ideal to set up a monitoring system, where you keep track of industry news, keywords and specific hashtags. Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are two good tools to help you do just that.

9) Use Twitter Ads. If you are serious about promoting a piece of content, an event you are attending or want to get a message in front of your target audience, Twitter ads are a good option. You could experiment with different price points, but a range of $5 - $20 per day is a good start. 

What you can do today

Revamp your Twitter presence. Move through the foundational steps first. This short checklist should help:

• Do you have a personal Twitter account?

• Does your company have a Twitter account?

• Do you tweet consistently? (at least once per day)

• Does your company account tweet consistently? (at least once per day)

• Assign someone to monitor your personal and company account and also respond to activity on accounts.

Can you check all five of these items? If not, do those items first before you try the more advanced Twitter tactics. Once that’s done, share a tweet from your personal Twitter account. Then, look at the other advanced tactics and choose one of them to try next.