Can tweeting get you more clients and solidify relationships? That’s a question many small businesses, including spas and massage practice professionals, ask, considering that there are several popular social channels, and each one takes time to maintain.
Looking strictly at the numbers, Twitter has 319 million active users; Facebook, the most popular social media platform, has 1.86 billion. But don’t let those numbers deter you. According to Internet live stats, “Every second, on average, around 6,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter (visualize them here), which corresponds to over 350,000 tweets sent per minute, 500 million tweets per day, and around 200 billion tweets per year.”
Participating in that kind of activity can be a boon for any spa or massage professional if managed properly, and that’s the key. You may want to use Twitter to acquire new clients, build engagement with current ones keeping them up to date on your massage or skin treatment services, drive brand awareness, promote your mobile app or of them. However, the use of Twitter-like any other marketing activity, requires a goal and putting in place the strategy and planning to reach it.
Getting Started
In “Making the Most of Twitter for Small Business,” on the Wordtracker blog, Paul Chaloner offers some tips for getting started with Twitter. Among them:
- A photo is the main aspect of your user identity on Twitter. Use a high-quality image of your logo at least 120x120 pixels in size.
- You’ll also need a Twitter header photo at 1252x626px. Make sure to use your brand colors, but not your logo again.
- Complete the biography section.
- Include your website URL in the contact section.
- It helps to have a background image or color theme. (Again, they should be the same colors in your logo).
Maximize your Tweets
Jayson DeMers writes about “50 Free Ways to Increase Your Twitter Followers” for Forbes. Here are just some of them to help boost your Twitter influence:
Post regularly
You can use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule your tweets. Posting regularly increases engagement and the visibility of your spa or massage practice.
Use links
Tweets that include links get more retweets than those without. You can link to pages on your website that offer special promotions or to newly introduced products to your retail offering. But don’t use Twitter strictly for promotion. Use it to educate followers as well about industry research, trends, and health and wellness.
Use relevant hashtags
Hashtags boost engagement and can help attract followers who are searching for those keywords.
Listen in on relevant conversations
A tool like Social Mention lets you find out what other Twitter users are saying about your spa or massage practice. When appropriate, answer questions. You also can use the information to find out if you need to make any changes to your business based on input.
Tweet information more than once
Tweet the same content several times. Since many of your followers may not be on Twitter when you post, Tweet out the content you link to several times over the course of one to two days to give it visibility.
Share news
Your audience will appreciate it when you share the news that is relevant to them.
There is a lot of activity on Twitter. It can serve your spa or massage practice well to be part of it.