Small business owners wear many hats, so efficiency in every part of your business is key. If you’re starting on Twitter, or even if you’re familiar with this social site, you might not be fully aware of all the elements that make a good Twitter account tick. Use these small business Twitter marketing best practices to boost impact on social media without wasting time.

1. Hashtags

If you’re not familiar with this term, a hashtag is a word or phrase that has a “#” in front of it. It’s used to identify tweets on a particular topic or idea.

Use hashtags to link your post to larger conversations. For example, if I was tagging this blog on a Twitter post, I’d probably use hashtags like “#smallbusiness” or #TwitterTips.” Remember, not every tweet needs a hashtag. As a best practice, don’t place any more than 3 hashtags on a tweet; when you do, it looks like spam.

Tip: Use specific hashtags so that they become associated with your brand. For example, if you post pictures of food, using the hashtag “#foodlove” every time will let people know what kind of posts they can expect from you when they see that tag.

Using the same hashtags will also help you get found easier by prospects. The more you post to a specific tag, the more visible you will become in that conversation over time.

2. Images & Media

Attach images to tweets when possible and when it makes sense. Twitter posts that combine images and text grab the viewer’s attention, making them more likely to stop and look at your tweet. In fact, tweets with images get 313% more engagement.

While images do allow for more engagement, some images are better than others. To start, Twitter guidelines recommend the image dimensions of 1024x512 pixels. If you have images that don’t match those dimensions, they might get cut off, which looks unprofessional.

Here are a few other items to check off your list to make sure your images are a hit:

• Focus on quality; make sure your images are clear, not pixelated
• Avoid photos of your product; these can provide poor context for the message you want to share
• Keep images simple; avoid busy images with too much going on
• Use stock photos sparingly (nobody wants to see another image of a laptop with coffee on a desk)

3. Best Day/Time to Tweet

The half-life of a tweet is about 24 minutes, which means you really need to be strategic about when you post.

As a best practice, Wednesday is the best day to tweet (at 12-1pm and 5-6pm). This may vary by industry and location, but try to plan your important posts during this time. Twitter users are likely to be on the site during commute times and lunch.

Note: B2B posts perform 16% better during business hours.

4. Tweet Length

While you might have a lot to say, Twitter only gives you 140 characters to express your thoughts and opinions, so remember to be concise.

Tweets should be short enough so people can retweet and add their own comments. Tweets that are too short have low engagement, so a good rule of thumb is to tweet around 100 characters. Aim for between 90-110 characters when possible.

5. How to Add Hyperlinks

Adding links to your posts allows you to drive traffic to your website and content, as well as to websites and content you recommend/share.

When adding hyperlinks in a post, a best practice is to build the post in this order:

1. Key message
2. Link
3. Add thoughts or opinions after

6. Mentions

When it makes sense, mention other Twitter accounts when tweeting.

A good example of this would be when you post an article by a person or company not connected with your company.

You could also do this when you write a blog or an ebook that mentions another company or person; give them a shout-out to increase engagement. Consider mentioning businesses or people at events you attend as well!

7. How Often To Tweet

The best practice from HubSpot is to tweet a minimum of 3 times a day. Social media automation site, Buffer, tweets 14 times a day on business days, and recommends leaving an hour in between each tweet; you don’t want to spam followers who may be following very few accounts.

Your posting frequency is up to how much you can handle, but using social media automation tools gives you the help you need to support a full social media posting calendar.

8. Engage!

Twitter is a social platform, so you need to engage with your followers, the people you follow and any other people you want to connect with. Do this by following others and engaging with their tweets (liking, retweeting, responding). Another good way to do this is through Twitter chats related to relevant business or industry challenges, ideas, etc.

What is a Twitter chat? A Twitter chat is a live Twitter event. All the “chatters” use a specific hashtag and follow that hashtag during the chat to have a conversation with others.

What other small business Twitter best practices have you incorporated? Share with me in the comments below.

If you’re looking for additional information on social media best practices, download our ebook, Get Started With Social Media (This Guide is All You Need).