Your Potential Customers are Tweeting

Nearly everyone on the planet has heard of Twitter, but what some people don’t know about Twitter is that it is one of the best platforms for companies to directly interact with their customers. Twitter allows businesses to get in touch with their customers so that they can answer users’ questions at the exact moment they’re asking them. Aside from bridging the gap between businesses and their existing customers, Twitter is also a great tool for your auto repair shop to find new potential customers in your area.

According to a Twitter study, of the 317 million monthly active users on Twitter, 66 percent have discovered a new small or medium-sized business on Twitter. Of that group, 94 percent plan to purchase from the businesses they follow. With so many potential customers using Twitter, why not take the first step and use Twitter to actually find the customer?

With Twitter’s Advanced Search, companies can search specific keywords to see what people in their area are saying about their industry. When searching, you are given an assortment of categories designed to narrow down the search results and find exactly what you’re looking for in the Twitter universe. Each setting in Advanced Search can help refine your search results to tweets that are specific to your business’s needs. CarCareCONNECT has broken down the Twitter search options to ensure that you know how to find potential customers with just the click of a button.

Words

First, decide what kind of tweets and users you want to find. Whether it be people who are unhappy with their current auto care provider, people with questions about auto shops in your area or just users chatting about cars in general, you should determine what information you want to search for.

Once you have zeroed in on your search subject, enter keywords that relate to the desired search. The “Words” section of Advanced Search gives you the option to search for groups of words that you want to be found all in one tweet, a few words that you want to appear one at a time in tweets, and specific phrases or hashtags.

We recommend entering a few keywords or phrases at a time into the “all of these words” search bar. For example, if you search “auto, repair, car, shop” in the “all of these words” bar, the results are going to be tweets that have all four of the searched words in them. If you search “auto repair” and then “car trouble” you’ll see two different results pages with two different sets of data. By searching for a few keywords at a time, you get a wider range of tweet results and have a larger potential audience to choose from.

People

Under the “People” category of the Advanced Search, you can search for tweets from, to, or mentioning specific Twitter accounts. Utilizing this setting is particularly useful if you want to target specific users in your area or if you want to see who is mentioning a specific Twitter account.

Places

For an auto repair shop, one of the most effective ways to identify potential customers is by narrowing the search to include only tweets from your specific area. This setting makes a world of difference when it comes to finding new customers for local businesses. For example, if someone sent a tweet seeking suggestions for quality auto care providers in Los Angeles, that isn’t especially helpful for your business if you are located in Atlanta. By limiting your search to tweets that were sent exclusively in your area, you have a much better chance of finding people that would be likely to use your service.

Dates

If someone is chatting online about needing a new auto repair shop, you want your response to be as relevant as possible. Responding to a tweet that someone sent six months ago isn’t going to be nearly as impactful to your business as responding to a tweet sent six minutes ago. You can add a date range to your search to ensure that your results are current, giving you the best possible chance at connecting with a potential customer when they are actually in need of an auto repair.

What’s Next?

Now that you’ve found a new audience of potential customers – what’s next? Make sure to create a strategy for answering potential customers’ car repair questions on Twitter. By answering the user’s questions and talking to them directly, you are not only making them aware of your business, but also creating a positive image of your brand in the user’s mind.

Sharing updates about things happening in your area is another great way to gain local traction. We know what you’re thinking – how is talking about events near me going to help my business? Since you are a local business, you should be part of the community. When users need a car repair, your business will be the first on their mind because you are a well-known member in the community.

Use Twitter to your auto repair shop’s advantage. By updating your Twitter account on a regular basis as well as responding to other’s tweets, you will make your shop’s presence known. While it does take time to monitor, the result of increased business will be well worth the effort.

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