4 Benefits of Twitter

Twitter (rebranded as “X”) is one of the top platforms to keep up with the latest trends and conversations. It helps you discover which TV shows people are watching, which social media challenges they’re trying and more.

You may already be using Twitter on a daily basis to follow your favorite brands and take part in trending conversations. But what about using Twitter for your business?

Perhaps you understand the benefits of Twitter but not sure how exactly to use it for your business. In this article, we’ll give you a detailed breakdown of why Twitter is important for business and how you can make the most of it.

1. Gain valuable customer insights

Twitter sees 6,000 Tweets every second. This puts into perspective how actively people are using it as a conversation platform. And for businesses, these conversations can prove to be a valuable source of customer insights. Using Twitter can help you research trends and topics that your audience cares about so you know how to reach them more effectively.

In fact, according to Joe Rice, who leads Twitter’s EMEA Data & Enterprise Solutions, “Twitter is the world’s largest focus group because at its core, Twitter is a consumer insights engine. What do people think about a certain topic or trend?  What are their needs, moods and mindsets?  It’s all there on Twitter and these insights can help brands do all sorts of things from launching new products or services to improving the ones they already have. It’s also a great place to engage with consumers in an authentic way, humanizing your brand.”

The Twitter Explore page gives you an updated list of topics and hashtags trending in your region and relevant to your interests. So you can use this section to discover the Twitter hashtags and conversations that are important to your audience.

2. Build brand personality and awareness

How you style your Tweets and engage with your audience on Twitter is highly effective for establishing your brand personality and growing awareness.

One of the top benefits of Twitter for business is that it lets you share information quickly and start conversations with your target audience. In turn, your audience would find your Tweets and content valuable and ideally, even share with their followers.

Make sure you use a tone that aligns with your brand voice and personality. The types of conversations and topics you’re interested in and the tone in your Tweets will help you attract an audience whose views align with yours. If you’re starting out or need a refreshed strategy, Twitter recently launched an Organic Tweets starter kit worksheet to help brands establish their tone of voice.

For example, Ben & Jerry’s may sell ice cream but it regularly talks about political and social issues through Twitter. It uses the platform to promote social causes that are important to the brand, so it’s been able to make a huge impact on people who care about the same causes. We even did a Social Spotlight on Ben & Jerry’s for this very reason.

Additionally, engaging with your audience’s replies and mentions  also improves your chances of showing up in non-followers’ feeds. These actions help you boost visibility and brand awareness, thus proving to be a major benefit of Twitter. The most successful brands on Twitter have both paid and organic strategies. To illustrate, a Followers campaign is more likely to be successful if your profile has a healthy stream of engaging organic content. Conversely, promoting a Tweet can give it organic momentum.

The Sprout #BrandsGetReal survey even found that the top three behaviors that help brands connect with consumers are:

1. Liking or responding to customers
2. Showcasing brand personality
3. Supporting a cause that consumers personally support

3. Deliver customer support and gather feedback

According to Rice, “The most advanced brands see Twitter as a vital marketing, customer care and market research medium that can provide valuable insights on every aspect of their business.”

And rightly so. The platform makes it easy for customers to reach out to brands and provide their feedback or ask for help. Brands can then use this as an opportunity to not only collect vital feedback to improve their products but also to deliver the support their customers need.

Companies such as Netflix have even set up a dedicated Twitter account to provide support. The company offers support through this page in multiple languages and in locations across the world.

Netflix also uses the same account to collect feedback on how to improve the service and user experience, which they then pass on to their research team.

4. Cultivate a brand community

With the ease of conversation between brands and consumers, one of the major benefits of using Twitter is for building and cultivating your brand community. Brands can use the platform to start and join in on relevant conversations, engage with their community and build a loyal following.

In fact, our #BrandsGetReal survey found that 55% of consumers want brands to help them connect with likeminded people through social media. And 36% expect brands to build communities that consumers can belong to.

So it’s no surprise that one of the top benefits of Twitter for business is to cultivate a brand community and bring people together around a common interest or cause.

Taco Bell has done an exceptional job of nurturing its brand community through Twitter. The brand regularly shares its customers’ and super-fans’ Tweets to show appreciation while getting others on board.

Unlocking these Twitter benefits

Hopefully now you have a clearer idea of how these benefits of Twitter can add value to your marketing mix. If you’re not sure where to start with using Twitter for your business, check out our guide on what to Tweet for some ideas.

Use of Twitter nomenclature across Sprout refers to newly rebranded X platform and related terminology.