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It’s all fine and dandy to have thousands of Twitter followers, but the truth is that the hearts and retweets from customers who live thousands of miles out from your store do not translate into bundles of cash. You are a local business that thrives off patronage from the community in your immediate grasp. How, then, are you supposed to use Twitter to attract people in your neighborhood to store? Follow this guide below on how to find local customers with Twitter for your business or blog.
You need to search for local people and start following them.
Your initial focus when you joined the Twitter community was to attract a crowd. You were not particularly concerned about where your followers lived. Your main aim was to get your name out there and, hopefully, garner a few meaningful connections. You’ve been there and done that. Now, you need to move on.
Conducting a search of Twitter users who are local to your area is fairly easy. Simply type in the city name in the search box and watch as the number of Twitter accounts linked to the region grace your computer screen or smartphone. You may also consider searching by way of local landmarks or events. Some Twitter users do not reveal the city in which they reside but will definitely show pride for their town by inviting folks to an upcoming event or shedding light on a statute that represents the best of their city.
Use hashtags to your advantage.
The world of #hashing a #tag is not just for your pleasure when you want to get your company’s name out there. This feature is also how to find local customers with Twitter. Many venues use hashtags to spread the word about upcoming events. You can typically decipher the locals from tourists by the way that they speak. Someone who says, “That’s great! I remember when we used to play in that park, and now it’s going to be the central station of _______” is probably a local.
The good thing about Twitter is that you do not have to provide an explanation for following someone. You also do not have to ask their permission (unless they have strict privacy settings, of course) to start following hard after them. You can become someone’s greatest fan on the platform and he will never know it. So, in using the perk to your business advantage, feel free to follow every local who responds to hashtags about events in a personal manner.
Twitter’s advanced search is here for you.
Too many times we shy away from social media when the notion of using advanced features arises. Your blessing of garnering more Twitter traffic from locals, however, is tied up in your willingness to get specific.
Twitter’s advanced search lets you narrow down your quest for locals by providing boxes where you can determine the radius. Perhaps your city is big and you want to attract locals who live within 10 miles of your store. You can limit your search to such quarters and come up with better results than if you were to type in the name of your city.
You can also limit the number of tweets related to your geographical search by the date they were posted. Someone whose last tweet about Houston that was five years ago may no longer reside in the area. You do not want to put your investigative hat on to determine if the person is worth following if there is no need for such meticulousness. The date feature on Twitter’s advanced search lets you type in beginning and end dates so that only those tweets falling within the range you have specified appear.
Sync your contacts and get the most out of the friends you already have.
Sometimes we search near and far for things that we already possess. You may be sitting on a goldmine of local exposure via your contacts. Sync those numbers and emails that are already in your phonebook and use those family members and friends as a way to build your local audience. The likelihood of your loved ones and associates having friends in town who are avid Twitter users is pretty high in this day and age. Sync your contacts, please!
Here are some of my favorite people to follow on twitter:
The question of how to find local customers with Twitter only appears to be complicated. The search for people in your region is actually easier thanks to search features offered by the platform.
How do you find local customers with Twitter?
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