Twitter is a powerful marketing tool, but it’s essential that you learn how to wield it correctly. Creating an account and posting regularly are only a small part of marketing successfully on Twitter. You also need to understand how this social media site functions and how to best engage your audience in just 140 characters or less.
Get a Grasp of the Basics
Before you can achieve stellar marketing success with Twitter, you need to brush up on the basics of this platform. Start by searching topics relevant to your brand to see what people are saying. You’ll get a feel for the type of conversation taking place around your industry and may pick up on some smart hashtag ideas that will make your tweets show up in the appropriate searches. Just remember to include only those hashtags that are relevant to what you’re saying, and stick to two or three hashtags per post.
You’ll see a lot of mentions taking place on Twitter. Make a note of the people who are most active in your industry. These are the Twitter personalities you’ll want to connect with. Remember if you begin a tweet with a mention, it will only appear in the feed of that person and others who follow both of you. Include the mention in the middle of the tweet and it will show up for all followers.
Create Smart Lists
Curated lists allow you to organize your Twitter feed for more efficient social media marketing. It can take hours to catch up with every person you follow, but checking out the latest posts from a small group is much more manageable. Organize your lists efficiently so you can find the right people for a targeted tweet in seconds. If you’re hosting a conference, keep all your presenters on a list together. Bloggers and industry influencers in your area deserve a highlighted list as well.
With organized lists, you can easily check out the most important posts in your area when you’re looking for something to share, or locate the right influencer when you want to ask a question or otherwise engage. Twitter is more than a platform for shouting your message to the world. It’s a place for public interaction, and curated lists help facilitate that.
Add Visual Content to Tweets
It’s a proven fact that visual tweets get more love. A Twitter study revealed that tweets with a video URL get 28 percent more retweets, and those with a photo URL increase retweets by 35 percent. Vine streamlines the process of producing video by letting you record short clips of just a few seconds. These are ideal for capturing the limited attention span of social media followers. The more visual your posts are, the more your followers will pay attention.
Interact with Your Followers
At a minimum, you should favorite any positive comments or mentions that you receive on Twitter. In many cases, you should go above and beyond this. Use Twitter to chat with your followers, acknowledge their Tweets, and initiate an open dialogue about your products. Host a Twitter party with an original hashtag to really get the conversation going about a new product, current event, or major news in your industry. Encourage engagement by asking questions or requesting a retweet.
Don’t hesitate to jump into Twitter conversations as well. This is a public medium so there’s no shame in offering your assistance when it’s related to a relevant topic. With the right approach, you can not only engage new customers this way, you may even inspire lasting loyalty. Search “Toronto haircut” on Twitter and you may find a host of people in need of your services. Pick one and offer a free or discounted cut at your salon. Simple offers like these can generate big buzz for your business.
Maintain a Consistent Image
If you have different people working on your social media accounts, coordinate your efforts to make sure you maintain a consistent brand voice across all platforms. Come up with a list of key phrases and terms that fit with your brand’s personality, and put together a style guide for your social media marketing. This will ensure that your posts and Tweets maintain a cohesive voice, even if you have multiple people behind them.
Twitter is a great marketing platform when it’s used correctly. With a powerful Internet connection and smart marketing team, you can generate a significant amount of positive buzz with a low-cost Twitter marketing campaign.
