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Growth Hacking Asia’s Bozena Pieniazek gives useful insights on how your startup can market efficiently on the microblogging platform

Not on Twitter? Then your startup is missing out on an amazing opportunity.

Did you know that by 2019, more than 40 per cent of Twitter users will be in Asia? The increase of users, especially in India and Indonesia, is a great opportunity for startups in the region to start leveraging Twitter.

So, why should your startup start tweeting?

These are pretty good reasons for your startup to join the world of Twitter (if you haven’t already!) The key, as with every social network, is to make sure you leverage it as much as possible.

To make it easier for you, I have put together a list of 11 best practices to get started on Twitter.

1. Flesh out your profile

Add a short description about your startup, location and website, as well as your logo with relevant header photo. A complete profile adds credibility to your account, so make sure yours is not empty.

2. Promote your Twitter handle

Once you have created a kick-ass username, called a @handle, make sure you promote it like a boss. Embed a link to your Twitter account on your website and newsletter, as well as in your email signature.

3. Create lists

Twitter lists are great for grouping users based on, for example, interests or expertise. You can either create your own or subscribe to others’ lists. Once you have created a list (or subscribed to one), you are able to view that list’s timeline of tweets. It’s a great way to stay up-to-date with the users in a particular list.

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4. Engage with influencers

There are great tools out there, such as buzzsumo and followerwonk, to identify influencers on social media. Once you have identified influencers that are relevant to your startup, you can engage with them on Twitter. It’s a great platform to easily reach out to influencers, bloggers and journalists.

5. Leverage hashtags

Hashtags (symbolised with #) are amazing tools if you know how to use them. By using hashtags, you can join trending conversations, get found in searches and add context to your tweets. The key is to use the ‘right’ hashtags for your startup and your tweets.

You can find trending hashtags under Twitter’s trends and trendsmap, or assess the power of a hashtag with RiteTag.

6. Manage your tweets wisely

Managing your social media accounts can be very time-consuming. Therefore, it is beneficial (if not imperative) to use a social media management tool such as HootSuite or Buffer.

As the lifetime of a tweet is approximately 24 minutes, it is key to repeat a tweet several times throughout the day. Social media management tools make it easy to do this through their scheduling feature. They even help you to optimise the timing of the tweets.

7. Grow with Twitter ads

Twitter ads is a powerful tool that enables you to accelerate your account and/or startup’s growth. Similar to Facebook ads, Twitter ads lets you select a campaign goal, directly target users and measure the effectiveness of your ads.

Sixty per cent of customers have purchased from an SMB because of something they saw on Twitter.

8. Keep track of your analytics

Analytics is key to digital marketing. Therefore, you should keep track of your Twitter data, analyse and optimise it accordingly. Twitter analytics provides you with invaluable information such as impressions, mentions, page visits, as well as top followers. It’s a great tool to get a snapshot of your account’s data.

9. Create quality content

Quality content is key! ‘Seventy per cent of respondents retweet because they like a business’s content’. Therefore, it is imperative that you develop a good content strategy for your startup. Don’t know where to start? Check out Twitter’s tips on how to create a kick-ass content strategy.

Also, set up a Feedly account to make it easier to organise, read and share content.

10. Listen more

Talk less, listen more – this is also the case on Twitter. Of course, tweeting regularly is key to success. However, do not underestimate the power (and importance) of social listening. Social listening is more than simply following a hashtag; it is listening to what your potential and current customers as well as your competitors say online.

There are some great tools out there to make social listening easier for your startup, so take advantage of them!

Also Read: Video: GrabTaxi Co-founder Hooi Ling Tan’s 3 tips for entrepreneurs

11. Tap into existing customers

One of the easiest ways to build your Twitter follower base is to leverage the customers you already have. Twitter enables you to upload your email lists in order to find your customers’ (or contacts’) Twitter accounts. This will make it easy for you to engage with them online, and invite them to follow you on Twitter.

With Twitter’s growth in Asia and its many success stories, it is really time that your startup jumps on the Twitter bandwagon to boost growth.

The views expressed here are of the author’s, and e27 may not necessarily subscribe to them. e27 invites members from Asia’s tech industry and startup community to share their honest opinions and expert knowledge with our readers. If you are interested in sharing your point of view, please send us an email at writers[at]e27[dot]co

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