Twitter was created back in July 2006 and since then it has come a long way. Though not very popular during the time of its conception, it was picked up radically by a wide variety of audience as a popular communication and social media mode later on, mainly because of it being short and precise. The Graph below will give you an idea of how fast Twitter became an important part of social media. To everyone’s surprise, it faired better than even Facebook in reaching the first 10 million user mark. According to Top, Charts Twitter has more than 200 million registered users, on an average, there are 155 million tweets every day, and there are approximately 460,000 people who join Twitter daily
When you search something on Twitter, it will return you all the tweets on that particular topic. It is understood that the people tweeting this information are also interested in that product hence the tweet. Right! There you have it, all your target audience. All you need to do now is make social connections with these people.
I will be honest, I was an early adopter of Twitter, and then I walked away from it. I couldn’t see the value. Recently, my viewpoint has changed. Think of Twitter as a means to get instant public messages out to your audience, whether it is an audience of colleagues or potential customers.
A Promotional Palace
It’s not uncommon for companies to post promotions, sales, or specials on Twitter. An example would be Dell; they do it well. It’s important to remember that Twitter is about conversation and breaking news, so be sure if you are posting promotional information that you make it conversational and personal. If I want an ad, I’ll turn on the TV.
Monitor the conversations in that search and jump into the conversations when appropriate,” Geoffery she says. “For example, say you’re a dentist in Buffalo. You could set up a search for the term ‘dentist Buffalo.'” Then, when “you then see someone in Buffalo tweet ‘I need to go to the dentist but it’s so hard to get an appointment,’ you could jump in and [tweet], ‘We’d love to have you as a new patient.'”
Twitter has effectively been our micro-blogging friend for a decade, which has even changed the face of marketing. It’s a great marketing tool & One can easily convert a 140-letter copy into an effective and succinct sales pitch. Here’s how…
- Profile Set Up:
Your profile picture and your bio are the most relevant info that will describe your brand and will stick to every tweet you send out. Make sure you incorporate appropriate business info, hours, menu and a personalized logo.
- Use ‘Lists’:
A business needs to engage with a myriad of organizations. For example, a restaurant may interact with bloggers for promotional activities; keep an eye out for competitors to stay on top of the game and vendors etc. You can now make up to 1,000 lists and each list can include up to 5,000 accounts.
- Be selective about who you ‘follow’:
Being selective so as to not have your Twitter clogged up is an important move. You wouldn’t want all the noise to drown up the tweets and interactions that actually matter. It is advisable to have the automatic follow feature turned off. You may even take the help of tools like Audience, FollowerWonk, Twitter Analytics
- Twitter Moments:
Twitter’s newly launched storytelling feature is also a great way to optimize engagement on your account. The content curation tool introduced by Twitter allows you to gather and share a collection of tweets about a specific topic. This can be used in case you want to market an event.
- Switch on your DM:
Direct messaging is often disabled by default. Learn to find your way around privacy settings and make sure this particular feature is enabled. These are the private messages sent to you and you need to be accessible to the ones that wish to reach out.
- Twitter Advertising:
Twitter marketing enables you to customize your ad to deliver to the people who matter the most to your business.Target followers of similar accounts through Twitter ads and capture the exact clientele. Ads also give you the option to search according to relevant hashtags and help target previous customers, using your existing customer database.
- Trending Topic:
Hopping in on the trending Twitter topic yields multifold benefits. Some of these topics are sudden events; some of these can be planned well in advance. These heavily trafficked and heavily searched trending topics can open your brand to a wide gamut of the new audience.
Customer Service Tool:
The last two years have seen a 2.5x increase in customer service conversations on Twitter. Immediate responses along with a solution will go a long way into showing you are a business that cares and ultimately having a loyal customer.
Engage as much as you can:
Twitter engagements work on the 80/20 rule: 80% interaction, 20% about you.e. Sending personalized messages to your customers, reviewing their opinions and criticism, and keeping a track of your followers will go a long way. Take the help of some apps that can help you better manage your followers, interactions, etc. This is especially appropriate if you are a 24-hour business.
Influencer Marketing:
Apart from the followers, look out for the key influencers to follow. Keep a check on the type of content they are sharing to hack some follows, likes and retweets. Klout is an imperative tool that helps in identifying the most influential Twitter users. Be sure to acknowledge them if they do share your content. A single share from an influencer can put you on the map!
Bring out some cool pics!:
Statistics show tweets with photos/videos get wider reach than plain content. Retweet percentage for such tweets increase by 150% and the number of clicks increases by 18%, approximately. These pictures/videos don’t necessarily have to be of professionally shot quality. You’re good even if you’re snapping away from your smartphone.
Keep a track: Tweets, as well as engagement earned:
Going through the tweets of the target audience will give you an insight into the pool of possibilities you should be tapping. Twitter offers Twitter analytics that can help measure the visibility and engagement your tweets are leading to. Use this analytics to understand what type of content is being preferred by your audience.
A company with a strong Twitter strategy keeps old and new customers engaged, attracts prospects, and funnels visitors to the company website where marketing efforts culminate in a sale or referral to a brick and mortar. In the end, Twitter builds sales and increases the profitability of a business; making its use an essential part of any marketing arsenal.