What we learnt from analysing our first 8 weeks on Twitter

Credit Image of Kaizoku Alliance Twitter account

A startup business should always analyse or review your social media channels.  It is very easy for a business to get caught up in the data that is available to them on these social media channels.  If your business has set some social media goals (which you should do), then you should be able to use the analytic data from your social media channel and compare them to the goals you have set.  This will enable any business to determine if they are on the right course to meet their objectives or if they need to alter the plan.  We decided to analyse our first 8 weeks on Twitter.

When we first started out on Twitter, we only had a couple of followers.  We had no logo, bio, cover image and weren’t posting regularly.  The image below is what Twitter Analytics showed us after week one. 

Credit image of Kaizoku Alliance Twitter Analytic at start 

Credit image of Kaizoku Alliance Twitter Analytic summary at start

Here is what it looks like after 8 weeks.  As you can see there is a growth in new followers, tweet impressions, tweets and profile visits.

Credit image of Kaizoku Alliance Twitter Analytic - 8 weeks

Credit image of Kaizoku Alliance Twitter Analytic summary - 8 weeks (September)

After analysing Twitter’s data, we recommend the following strategy to start growing your followers:

• Post regularly
• Use hashtags that relate to your industry and business
• Provide information or articles that can help solve other businesses or people’s problems
• Use Tweriod to analyse the best times for you to tweet (we did this on week 7)
• Retweet other businesses or people’s tweets
• Use images or photos in your tweets – a must as people are consuming visual content now
• Engage and respond to tweets directed to you promptly

There are some tactics that we are yet to apply, such as:

• Targeting a list of followers to help promote your business i.e. influencers or industry experts
• Say thanks and mention business or people
• Cross promote content from other social media channels or blog articles

There are so many tactics that can be used to grow your followers in your startup business.  Do you use any of these tactics?  What tactics do you recommend using to grow followers? Do you find any of these tactics helpful?

5 Websites we find helpful for our startup business

Image from Foundr magazine website

When you decide to take the step and start your own business, it can be difficult to find resources or information on how to start your business.  There are so many questions that you need to ask.  How do I set-up my business?  What platform do I use to build my website?  What app or software can I use to build and scale my business? What do I do next?  What resources are out there to help me find the answers to these questions?

Here are several websites that we find helpful for our startup business.

Foundr – This magazine website is great as it provides entrepreneurs with resources to learn how to build and grow a successful business.  There are some great interviews with people such as Richard Branson, Joel Gascoigne (CEO of Buffer), Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma and Arianna Huffington to name a few.  The site also offers a great free tools guide which entrepreneurs are using that can help your startup business.  

GrowthHackers – This is a community where people can learn and share ethical online marketing techniques that drive effective, scalable and sustainable growth.  What we like most about this site is that when you enter the ‘Trending’ section you can search for articles on a topic that interests you like marketing, Instagram, SEO or analytics to name a few. 

Entrepreneur – This site is designed for entrepreneurs.  Here you will find articles that can teach an entrepreneur to how to start, run and grow a business.  There are so many topics that it is better used when you know what to looking for.

TechCrunch – This site is great in finding out about tech startups.  We use this site to find tools and to gain insights on tech trends.  With so many tech tools and apps being developed you need a site like this to keep track. 

Social Media Examiner – This site provides great tips for business and marketers on how to build social media presence.  What we like most about this site is that it provides a weekly wrap up of the changes that have occurred on social media sites.  It also provides case studies and research reports.

These are only some of the websites that we use as resources to help grow our business.  Do you use any of these websites?  Which website do you find useful in helping your business grow?