Today nobody would dare question the importance of social media and influence marketing when it comes to building a brand or running a business. There are many different social media platforms with the algorithm that works as a perfect advertising or marketing assistant. The type of social media is primarily visually focused such as for instance Instagram and Youtube, or more recently Tik-Tok.
Usually Twitter is not a platform influencers reside on, therefore it may sound unusual to incorporate it in your social media marketing plan. But that is an incorrect way of thinking. If you are aware of the ways Twitter works you can take the most out of it and make it beneficial.
Here’s what you need to know:
Why Twitter
Before we say a little something about why Twitter can be considered as one of the most effective platforms when it comes to B2B and B2C marketing let’s look at the impressive numbers Twitter pulls. According to the latest statistics there are currently 340 million active users out of which 186 million use Twitter daily. Number of daily tweets reach as many as 500 million. Valued at 36.4$ billion ad revenue in the US alone was around 1.6$ billion as of October 2020.
Statistics aside Twitter has to be one of the most underrated platforms when it comes to using it as one of the tools in marketing strategies. Twitter is where most business owners spend their time. It has been proven that Twitter users are 38% more likely to make their opinion about a particular brand or product publicly known than the users of any other social media. Obviously these make Twitter the best place for B2B and B2C. Especially when it comes to high AOV B2C products as being active on Twitter results in high ROTS.
One last thing before we move onto the way Twitter works and how to use its tools and services. Twitter is free. It will seem like nobody cares about brands and businesses on there but everyone cares about what you have to say, and you. Decision makers and business owners use Twitter. Sounds like the so-called “Building In Public” works quite efficiently for the platform.
Tweets
Twitter is a microblogging social media platform where you generate tweets with the daily limit of 2400. Currently the character limit is 280. You can attach an image, gif, create a poll, or even schedule your tweets for later, which can be super helpful in social media management. You can keep track of unsent tweets and view, edit or post them anytime. The only downside of tweeting is that there is no edit option available so you need to be extra careful and double check before pressing sending your tweets on the timeline.
One of the newest updates concerning tweets features the option to make replies hidden from undesirable accounts. You can choose to let anyone reply, the people you follow or the account(s) you mention in a tweet. One last thing you need to know is that tweets that violate twitter rules by including something explicit or triggering will be hidden from the timeline or the reply section. The author of the tweet can choose to hide any reply they find uncomfortable. You need to be careful about the way you word your tweets as they can become the reason your account gets suspended.
Viral tweets are what lets your account grow considerably. With each viral tweet you get a virtually unimaginable number of engagements and this is not an exaggeration. The evidence can be easily found with a Google search. Usually, viral tweets get reposted on all the other social media including Facebook and Instagram, included in Youtube and Tik-Tok videos. Not to mention the recognition you will get on Twitter itself.
One last thing to be said here concerns deleting your old Tweets. Everyone needs to do this once in a while but it is a must if you decide to turn your personal Twitter account into your business account. You do not want something embarrassing or irrelevant to resurface one day; something that can have a negative effect or threaten the growth and success of your brand. Obviously it is not possible to delete old tweets one by one as Twitter does not even allow to view all of them unless you specifically search for it. Fortunately, there are options and special tools on the internet that allow users to delete their tweets fast and effectively. For the deeper insight you may want to read this manual.
Threads
The 280 character limit can be a lot or not enough depending on what you have to say. It is inconvenient when you have to bulk tweet and spam the timeline because you are not finished discussing the same particular topic. Previously it’s what Twitter users did because there was no other option. During one of the most recent updates Twitter has introduced Threads. With the new feature you can create a thread of tweets that stick together and do not take up much of everybody’s or your own timeline. Threads are especially useful in organizing your writing in more of a structured way. You can create as many as you want until you reach the daily tweet limit.
Polls
As mentioned above creating polls is possible on Twitter. If we take into consideration the fact that 93% of Twitter users are okay with the involvement of brands and businesses on the platform as long as it’s done in the right way, polls may be the option you can make a good use of. Polls are the perfect way to get fast feedback from the audience via direct source of communication. What is even better is the fact that you can make replies available, which is advisable by the way, to cause even more engagement and start a discussion surrounding what you offer.
RTs & Likes
How big your Twitter account is can be measured by the amount of retweets and likes your tweets gain. Here’s a very special thing about Twitter. You may have lots of followers but get only few likes and retweets, therefore not-that-expressive numbers in your Twitter analytics. If you want to make the most out of your Twitter experience you need to find the right timing and likely-minded people.
Twitter is divided into what can be called a number of different spaces. The division can be based on a language, region, interests or even race and occupation. You want to promote your business? Get on the business side. Once you show Twitter algorithms your preferences through the tags you visit or use more often, accounts you follow or like/RT from Twitter will start suggesting accounts you need to get in touch with. When you do that, you will get the desired number of RTs and Likes.
Visual Media on Twitter
The main tools for incorporating visual media on Twitter is done with pictures (4 per tweet), videos and a recent option of adding Twitter Story; It is not a secret to anyone that the visual side of any type of advertisements enhances not only engagement but memorability in the viewer. It has been calculated that people spend 26% more time seeing and viewing ads on Twitter than any other social media platform. This is a huge advantage that brands can basically take for granted without feeling guilty.
Previously unmentioned sponsored tweets could be especially useful when a picture or a video advertisement is attached to it. You can even pay to make the video longer as the current timespan is 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Sponsored tweets will be displayed and viewed by users on their timelines everywhere for a time being. A good way to grab somebody’s attention.
As for the Twitter Story, this is a relatively new option and it still needs some exploring from users but it works the same way Instagram Story does. You can add your own or others tweets even those that include a video or a picture; Once you click on those you will be sent to the source tweet. Do not forget the importance of including hashtags and making shoutouts on Story. Similarly to other platforms with Story option, on Twitter too, it can be only viewed for a limited amount of time.
Twitter Live
Live videos on Twitter are done through Periscope Lives and are used by the majority users quite frequently during their time on the platform. You can visit Twitter Help Center to learn how to create twitter lives. What you need to know here is that the number of viewers are being counted the moment they join the broadcast; the replay viewership counts towards the overall number as well. Twitter has retained the exact metrics for Periscope when they incorporated the app into their platform. The lives can be visited and watched at any time unless the tweet is taken down.
Ratio
Ratio is something that is kind of a big deal on Twitter. Ratio usually, and on all the other social media platforms has to do with the number of followers, views or likes. Now, of course it is as important to have a big account on Twitter as it is everywhere else, but gaining followers is a lot harder on this platform. You need a couple of viral tweets so users can mass follow, which is accomplishable if you are a newbie account. You need to get noticed by somebody with a considerable amount of followers and by getting noticed we mean retweeting your tweet onto their timeline.
This is not all there is about twitter ration though. Getting “ratioed” is also a thing you need to be aware of. Sounds threatening and it is. Basically what this means is that the number of “quote tweets” you get on your tweet is a lot more than the number of RTs and likes. Which hardly has a positive connotation. Unless you are into “negative marketing is still marketing” or something along the lines.
You need a good ration but you absolutely do not want to get “ratioed”. Again, take care if the way you word tweets, Twitter is an extremely socially sensitive platform which can have its downsides too.
Trends and hashtags
There is an entire separate space for live trends displayed on your timeline at all times (unless you choose to disable the viewing option, which is not advisable if you want to keep up with the latest news). You could set the trends setting to get global or local trends depending on what it is that you prioritize. Twitter trends hashtags, words or phrases based on the amount of users that mention them in their tweets. It also displays the topic under which something is trending and the number of times it has been mentioned. You can view most RTed/Liked or the most recent tweets with whatever is trending mentioned in them.
If you want to increase your twitter engagement enormously you need to get on either local or global trends. Now what you have to know is that you got to be realistic here and not think about yourself as Rihanna who trends at #1 every time quite literally anything happens that slightly concerns her. The simpler way to get on the trends is to start a hashtag or join the hashtag and get the most engagements. If you do this, there is a good chance your tweet will be the first one displayed every time a user clicks on the tag.
DMs, Bookmarks & Lists
The most popular and the older private outreach tools on Twitter is Direct Messaging. You can send anything via DMs. You can have them open publicly, so for every user despite their following status; or closed, which means the option does not appear on your account page and the DMs you get will be reviewed by you and on top of this you can choose to receive them or decline them. If you want to really get down to business and make it personal or discuss something in detail DMs are a good option. Just like on other similar social media you can create group chats in DMs.
Aside from DMs, Twitter allows individuals to save the content they like in bookmarks, only accessible to the owner of the account. Lists can be made public or private and create an alternative timeline, which, thanks to the latest update can be displayed beside your main timeline. Incredibly unique and convenient features that definitely can make getting like minded people together simple.
Personal Account
Twitter gives you the option to either have a private or a public account. Obviously it is advisable to have a public account as it guarantees engagements and makes you open for new opportunities. All of these are excessively limited when it comes to having a private account where nobody can interact with you unless you follow them and all of your interactions get unnoticed by those you do not follow. Keep your account public and customize it accordingly. To become a verified account you need to apply by filling out a form with the request. If your account represents a brand and is particularly big you will be receiving a blue checkmark. Usually replies from verified accounts are displayed first which will further guarantee success on your Twitter journey.
Conclusion: Use Twitter.
We have pretty much covered the basics and little bit of the details about the things you need to know when you decide to use Twitter to its full advantage. Unusual as it may sound at first Twitter can become one of the most efficient social media platforms in your marketing strategies. This is especially relevant nowadays when we live in a time of a global pandemic that even once it’s over will cause a shift towards more online based businesses. The influence of Twitter will certainly not decline in the years to come; on the contrary, with the decline of some of the similar social media platforms Twitter will only get bigger as more people will “move” their online presence there. On top of all these, Twitter is constantly striving to offer something new to its users or improve their services.
Everything considered together it is essential to think about becoming a part of the Twitter community and using the platform in building your brand or running your business, even if it’s done indirectly.
