5 Pros of Twitter for Business (and 5 Cons)

Every social media platform has its pros and cons, especially when you are a business trying to establish yourself on the platform. For Twitter in particular, there are quirks and there are specialties they have that stand above the rest.

Yet, there are also a lot of negatives and downsides about the social media platform.

With that being said, we have listed below five pros and their counteracting cons to keep in mind when considering Twitter for business.

Pros:

1. It’s easy to use.
   • Navigating Twitter is pretty simple. You are limited to 280 words per tweet (for the most part), but it is very interactive and lets you post videos and photos. Every single tweet you put out these is also potentially visible to anyone searching for anything, so that is not necessarily a bad thing either.
2. It’s easy to interact with people, as you can engage with people by simply replying to certain tweets.
   • Whether the tweet has 1,000 replies or 10 impressions, as long as the content makes sense to interact with, replying to “randos” on Twitter is not as awkward or unprofessional as you may think. Interacting with different profiles can actually help drive up your engagements and impressions.
3. The age range is pretty solid.
   • In terms of demographics, you can find people of all ages and with all interests on Twitter. It is not a platform that is necessarily tailored to a specific age group… like at all… well except maybe one that we’ll get to later.
4. You can interchange between visuals and plain text.
   • Unlike on certain social media platforms, Twitter allows you to post either text and/or photos/videos. You can switch back and forth between the two, which allows for more variety in your posts.
5. You are more likely to get more followers than on a lot of other platforms.
   • The reality is, unless you are spending a lot of time working on growing your audience base, it is very difficult to increase your follower numbers on different social media platforms. However, on Twitter you are a lot more likely to increase your follower count based on how present you are on the platform. That is probably because it is super easy to see every single tweet and reply tweet you have put out there.

Cons:

1. It’s hard to sell your brand.
   • Twitter seems to be the least likely place to sell your brand. This makes sense as it is a place to essentially let out your thoughts and to have heated debates, so the last thing a lot of people want to see is you tweeting to visit your business’s site… Although that does not mean you cannot or should not try to market on Twitter.
2. Advertising is not super easy on Twitter, despite being able to get high interaction rates.
   • Again, just like it’s hard to get people to follow a brand who is selling their product on Twitter, it is difficult to figure out the best way to advertise toward these people as well.
3. Despite the solid age range, the demographics do not really include baby boomers.
   • Yes, Twitter has a huge demographic of people. Except baby boomers. Those are the people who tend to stick to Facebook.
4. Videos are limited in length.
   • On Twitter your video cannot be longer than two minutes and 20 seconds… 140 seconds, just like the 140 character limit they used to have… Anyways, if you want to post a longer video on Twitter, your best bet is to upload it to YouTube first and then share the link on Twitter.
5. Establishing your brand can be difficult, as Twitter is not really the platform for selling a product.
   • Not to sound repetitive or anything, but people do not go to Twitter to see ads or see brands sell themselves. Now granted, people do not go to other social media platforms to be sold on a brand either, but it seems like Twitter is the place people get the most annoyed with.

So, what’s our takeaway from this? Get on the blue bird platform if you are not there already. It is a platform that seems like it’s losing people, but it is also gaining users on the platform as well.

And while it used to be a platform that was pretty set in its ways, its new quirks are not something that you have to adapt to much. At least that’s some people’s perspectives.

Just get on there and tweet away!

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