By now social SEO or SEO 2 as I call it is common sense.
Don’t believe me? You are probably using
- search
- social media
- blogging
to spread the word online about your business.
You don’t? Start now! It’s about time!
Twitter or now that Elon Musk rebranded it to X is despite all the drama still useful.
It might be one of the most beneficial social media tools for businesses. Why?
What are the X/Twitter benefits for business? Here are the most obvious ones!
What is X/Twitter for?
Never heard of X… I mean Twitter? Or still wondering about it’s actual use cases?
I call it X/Twitter so that everybody knows I don’t mean Malcolm X, the X-Men or the variable in math.
X/Twitter is a so called “microblogging” tool.
X/Twitter is made for short public text messages.
You can post short updates on X or you have to create threads to connect short updates to create a bigger one.
In essence one short bit or xit as in “x it” as I like to call it, is like a short paragraph (then).
Btw. It’s not “xeet” (formerly known as tweet) as fake news sources like Reddit declared it.
Musk himself claims that tweets are now “x’s” as in access, excess, or exes. That sounds way too ambiguous IMHO.
You can share
- text
- images
- videos
on X/Twitter by now. Yet text updates are still the main type of content shared.
Why? It’s hard to upload and share quality images on X.
The display is not ideal, there are no proper image and video sharing tools.
The competition is far better at sharing video (think YouTube or TikTok) or images (think Instagram or Pinterest)
Tweeting like a pro since 2008
First of all: who am I? How do I know about X/Twitter business usage? I started using it in 2008!
In recent years I also worked as a professional social media manager.
I managed often large Twitter accounts with sometimes tens of thousands of followers.
Yet I used Twitter properly from day one. What does that even mean?
You can use social media both to the advantage of the community and also for your own goals
In contrast most people do either or which is a major albeit common mistake!
Some just work for free for UGC sites and waste time on social media.
Others shamelessly self-promote by solely sharing their own content and linking their own properties.
The latter is indeed one of the most fundamental and wide-spread social media management mistakes to this day!
The best possible way to benefit from any social site is of course the middle path:
You contribute genuinely while you also get some return on investment from the effort.
Without further ado I present to you the 10 most obvious benefits of X/Twitter for business:
1. Sharing content
Do you want to spread the word about your content?
The best way is to to spread the word is X/Twitter.
Why? People can easily reshare (retweet) updates and thus your content can even go viral.
In most cases you will only get some engagement of course.
Yet sometimes a few people who share it are already enough.
You don’t need millions of people to flock to your site or X profile.
Often the right people or your preferred audience are perfectly enough.
By using popular #hashtags you can also get additional people interested in your subject matter to notice your tweets though.
In contrast sites like Instagram or YouTube only allow you to post your own content and reposting of content from other people is basically content theft.
You have to download it first using third party tools and reupload it again. Not on X though!
Resharing xits is perfectly fine and even encouraged by all parties involved!
2. Supporting customers
Do you have the budget for proper customer support?
Yes? Use X! No? Also use X!
When important websites are down I often look up X/Twitter to find out what’s going on. Each time my mail provider stopped working I did it.
Likewise I looked up whether popular services like Facebook are down or not before voicing my own concerns or contacting customer support.
So when I was unable to reach a site I checked Twitter first.
Then I often realized I was not the only one. Others couldn’t access it.
Sometimes I was the only one experiencing an issue though. Then I tried to find the cause of the issue and fix it myself.
I also often contacted customer support to notify them on Twitter.
Many businesses are on X/Twitter but solely automate 24/7 link sharing for self-promotion.
When you never respond you just get the bad publicity then.
3. Involving people and crowdsourcing content
Do you want other people to popularize your business, products or services?
During my first days on Twitter I asked a few people to reply to my questions concerning their Twitter usage. At least 5 did reply.
I posted the answers in my next Twitter post. I used Twitter to involve or even crowdsource content numerous times ever since.
The more people you involve upfront the bigger your potential audience. Why?
The people who contributed are also keen on spreading the word about their contribution.
X is very easy to use for both crowdsourcing and sharing crowdsourced content.
Just ask people questions and once the content goes live simply mention them using their @username.
4. Verifying information
Do you want to make sure you only publish and refer to truthful sources?
During my early days on Twitter I once shared a link just to discover it was a rip off of another story from years back.
In the era of fake news it’s easy to fall prey to “weapons of mass distraction”.
Corporations and governments spread manufactured or completely biased “news” to support their agendas all the time.
Most of the time people on social media just share gossip without proper credits or sources!
Sometimes even more nefarious sources are to blame. Think extremists.
In the case above I did not notice myself. Someone told me on Twitter!
Thus I could get it deleted before all of the Internet knew it and ridiculed me (psst, don’t tell anybody about it!).
Just, ask it and x-it or axe it or exit Twitter after being ridiculed in shit storm for spreading fake news!
5. Breaking news
Do you want to become the source of breaking news and get tons of free publicity?
Social media influencers and journalists often break news online and post them to X/Twitter first.
Why do so many people share great content on X/Twitter first?
X/Twitter is still the fastest way possible to share news.
On Instagram or YouTube it takes a lot of work to prepare and upload actual content in contrast.
Thus breaking news are often spread on X before they appear on blogs or news media.
As a blogger you can also be the first to report it on your blog by adding value to a story that appeared on X/Twitter first.
I once outranked Samsung that way because I wrote about their latest smartphone model before the news went live on their site.
6. Getting clients
Do you want to acquire clients just by listening to and overhearing what people say?
Welcome to the NSA! Sorry, I mean X of course!
In fact I found my first regular blogging gig on Twitter.
Business people often search for freelancers on X/Twitter or simply share that they need someone.
Full time roles are also often shared but over the years LinkedIn has become the most expedient site to look for full-time employment.
I also contacted potential clients on Twitter instead of writing a resume first.
My X/Twitter network and blogging experience was evident and enough to convince.
7. Getting traffic
I knew upfront that Twitter is not necessarily a source of “huge traffic”.
Yet the site can send you some visitors. These often do matter more than massive albeit irrelevant traffic.
Ideally you go viral by being retweeted and the people click your link.
Yet in most cases that doesn’t happen.
Sometimes it’s enough that someone important sees it.
- influencers
- journalists
- bloggers
can discover your content or update and then you get a share from a popular account, a story in a news source or a link from a blog.
So it’s often just a trickle of visitors but it’s also about who your visitors are.
It’s not just about the popularity though. In a sense everybody matters.
People whose content I shared or who read my content sometimes came back years later and became my clients.
8. Networking with influencers
Do you want to reach out to the fast and furious?
Over the years I made numerous friends (and some enemies) online and Twitter was often key to build a relationship.
Why is it so easy to converse with influential people on X-Twitter?
Influencers are more approachable by way of X/Twitter than elsewhere.
You don’t have to become friends like on Facebook or be colleagues already like on LinkedIn.
It’s informal. It’s like meeting someone in an elevator. You can pitch then in an X!
Yet ideally you just become friendly and friends before you ask for attention or worse favors.
9. Getting content ideas
Do you need inspiration on an ongoing basis?
Usually my head literally bursts of ideas!
There are just not enough hours in a day to implement them all!
Yet sometimes even my inspiration well runs dry.
I need to know what’s going on to get content ideas.
Then I need some external input to be able to blog.
In one such case I tried a little cheerleading first. Then a follower of mine suggested something crazy.
This inspired me to write about the 7 Completely Insane Black Hat SEO 2.0 Techniques.
That post was quite popular!
10. Building an audience
Do you need to build an audience, like with actual seats as in a theater?
No joke! Humor and Twitter actually helped to build my audience.
It was certainly an unorthodox social media optimization technique but resulted in genuine engagement so I could grow my following.
Yes, being ridiculous can be fun and help at the same time.
Everybody is trying to be dead serious but ends up sounding like a bot or corporate press release.
Behaving like an actual human being would in a social context – think a party – is of course beneficial.
You don’t want to be too obnoxious of course LOL! Some people hate me years later.
Twitter or X is informal enough to allow humor.
Unlike on LinkedIn your bizarre updates won’t show up in your resume.
So stop reading and follow me on x.com/onreact ASAP!!!
Is X/Twitter for business usage social or selfish?
These X/Twitter for business benefits might sound quite selfish.
Social media and social SEO is about being social not selfish though. Isn’t it obvious?
You are helping others and thus people appreciate you.
In the end you benefit as well as people consider you to be helpful and an authority on your topics.
It is always a give and take with giving first and then taking.
Let’s take a look at my own example. What did I do for the other X/Twitter users?
- I did #1 – shared their their content
- #5 – being the first to learn sth. on X/Twitter I shared it elsewhere as well
- #8 – as I became influential on Twitter I helped many others to spread the word about themselves.
That was enough for me though. I love to do #2, #3 and #4 for you but you must let me!
Ask questions, and ask the right questions! I might be able to help you too!
Anyway, #10 is not a joke! Obey and follow me on X/Twitter!
In case you do because of this post make sure to tell me below in the comments or on X-Twitter itself.
Do you need help setting up and updating your business X/Twitter account?
I can help you! I published on Twitter for clients for years.
Just ping me by mail to onreact at onreact.com or gmail.com then.
To be honest I’m mostly on LinkedIn and Pinterest nowadays. They work better for work and leisure in my case.
The content there is less hateful and offensive. Also there is more engagement.