Social Media Marketing Primer: Twitter

Sal Iadicicco 12/06/2017 0 Comments

Note: This is the third in our monthly series of social media marketing primers. Check out our previous posts on Facebook and Instagram.

We’ve looked at Facebook and Instagram – and now we turn our attention to using Twitter marketing for your business. Twitter has evolved greatly since its birth in 2006. It started as a quirky, over-sharing, micro-blogging experiment and has become a powerful, fast-moving lead generation and networking beast.

And users have responded to the improvements over the last decade of Twitter evolution. In just the last seven years, their active user base grew from 30 million to 330 million. That’s 330 million active users that are waiting to hear your message and engage with your brand.

It’s easy to think that Twitter isn’t right for your business. But with a growing user base and unique opportunities, Twitter might be the missing piece of your social media strategy. That’s why we’ll tackle the basics of Twitter marketing in today’s blog post. Keep reading for our top tips on using Twitter to grow your business!

Twitter is a Unique Animal

Using Twitter marketing requires a unique approach – because Twitter itself is a unique animal. The speed that things move at on Twitter will take some adjusting if you are used to the slower pace of Facebook. There are over 350,000 tweets sent per minute and the average account has 700 followers.

There is a ton of noise on Twitter. So, your task will be to cut through the noise with content that is engaging, appealing, and unique – otherwise, you’ll get buried under the tweet avalanche. We’ll get into the specific tips in a minute, but keep these stats in mind as we talk about Twitter marketing. You need a fast-paced mindset if you want to see success on the channel.

Getting Started with Twitter Marketing

These days, no social media is hard to set up. In an effort to reach the broadest possible audience, the process is pretty simple. But there are still a few things to keep in mind when setting up a new profile.

Images: Your account will need an attractive profile and header image before you start reaching out to potential customers. Your profile picture will a 400px diameter circle (they will crop it down from square for you). Your header image should be 1500px by 500px – however, it might be cropped from that size to fit a smaller screen. It is always a good practice to test how your profile looks across a variety of devices before you go live.
Bio: When writing your bio, you get 160 characters to state your value to the world of Twitter. Keep it short and simple – and remember that you can also include hashtags and tag accounts directly from your bio.
Follow Others: Before you start earning followers, you need to follow others. There’s no right or wrong way to do this, but we suggest starting out by following influencers in your industry. This will get you plugged into the circles that matter most to your clients.

Top Twitter Tips

Now that you’ve got your account up and looking good, it is time to start building your followers. If you’ve followed industry influencers, you’re likely to start getting followers right away. But those followers are not likely to engage with your brand – so the real task is to attract engaged followers.

So, here are our four favorite ways of attracting (and retaining) a loyal Twitter following:

Engagement over Broadcasting

Many businesses that try to use Twitter marketing just broadcast every blog, event, and announcement. But if that’s all you ever do, then you will never build a real following. Somebody might stumble across your content sometimes, but you won’t achieve a positive ROI.

Repeat Yourself

Twitter is a busy place, so don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. Your followers won’t see every one of your tweets, they might not even see a fraction of your tweets. You should be re-posting all your content 2 or 3 times. And when you find a particularly successful piece of content, you should be posting it 5 or 6 times over the next few weeks.

Twitter Chats

If you find your follower count stagnating, Twitter chats can jumpstart your Twitter marketing growth. Twitter chats are group conversations that are organized around a single hashtag. They are usually hosted by an account that will pose questions while their fans offer answers and engagement in the discussion. If you want to use Twitter chats, just keep the following in mind:

Follow before you lead: Hosting a Twitter chat takes some practice, so observe the pros before you try your own.
Be helpful and personal: I know you want to generate leads, but nobody wants a sales pitch in a Twitter chat.
Build Relationships: Don’t just chat it and forget it. Continue following, retweeting, and engaging with contacts met through Twitter chats.

Set and Track Goals

I know I say this every time, but it really can’t be said enough. If you want to succeed at social media marketing, you absolutely have to have measurable goals in place. Your exact goals will depend on your business goals, but the need for goals can’t be argued.

For Twitter marketing, your best options are growing your influence (follower count), customer service (response time), lead generation (conversions), web traffic (click-throughs), networking (engagement). But whatever your goals and metrics, it is important to understand exactly what you’re getting from your efforts. Otherwise, you run the risk of wasting resources on the wrong focus.