Twitter is an extremely profitable social media platform for your brand to be on. Regular twitter users now tops 320 million, as of February 2016, while those who use it at least once a month are at 500 million. That’s a lot of of potential customers and clients out there, waiting to hear about your brand. If you want to raise the bar on your Twitter marketing, and you should, follow these helpful tips:
#1 Stop Tweeting Headlines
When you post a URL, like to a specific blog article, into a Tweet it automatically populates the title of the article as your message to your followers. While this may be the easiest way to handle your twitter account, it’s also the laziest and your cherished followers know this. Instead making this mistake, put more effort into the descriptions by trying one of these:
The best part about this tip? You can use all three methods to tweet the same blog post multiple times and get even more views to your blog!
#2 Follow Influencer Twitter Lists
Listening to influential thought leaders in your industry and then connecting with them is a great way to build relationships that can expand beyond Twitter. To do that, you can either make your own Twitter lists or follow lists that have already been created. Not only will doing one or both of these allow you to easily stay connected with the industry leaders, it will also help you find amazing content to share with your own followers beyond what you create.
#3 Use Images to Increase Retweets
Multiple studies have shown that images boost your Twitter engagement. In fact, the most recent statistics say that When you have more images in your tweets, you’ll get more shares and clicks and a 35% bump in retweets. That’s a huge increase for something done so easily. When you optimize your tweet with images, make sure to use images that are compelling and relevant. If you use a blogging platform like HubSpot for your social media sharing, it will automatically suggest the images you used in the blog post itself, which makes this a lot easier to stay on top of.
If you are only on Twitter because you were told you should be, you may have a hard time developing a real sense of purpose for your account. Do you want to gain new blog subscribers, or maybe get a certain number of new, qualified Leads each month? When you understand why you’re investing in Twitter marketing, you can better develop a focused effort that effectively leverages Twitter’s potential to work toward your purpose. This will also help measure whether you have been successful or not, by giving you a metric you would like to meet.
#5 Run Advanced Twitter Searches
Twitter’s Advanced Search was developed just for people like you, users trying to use Twitter for their brand’s success. You can easily “spy” on thousands of topic-relevant Twitter conversations with Advanced Search and find people interested in your products or services, who are looking for them and talking about them in real-time.
#6 Newsjack Whenever Possible
Market in the moment; don’t rely on scheduling Tweets days and weeks ahead of time as your only attempt to use Twitter. Potential customers definitely feel more of an affinity towards a brand when it’s relevant and on-trend with the things they care about. How can you jump on a trending topic? By newsjacking, a way of getting your brand name associated with a current subject or hashtag people are using in real-time. Clicking the Moments lightning bolt gets you to Twitter’s curated list of what’s important on Twitter at that exact point in time. Within Moments are several tabs including “Today”, “News”, “Sports”, “Entertainment”, and “Fun”. This is a great tool to use for your newsjacking efforts.
Never forget that Twitter is a way to reach real people, so your graphs and scheduling will only go so far towards your success. Before you Tweet something, think about what will encourage someone to click on a link. First, how can you phrase your tweet to appeal to someone’s curiosity? People love to read something they “should know.” Second, what word choices will nudge a person’s natural desire for self-improvement? Keep these goals in mind, and you can then connect easier to your audience with valuable content they are actually looking to find.
What do you think- have you used any of these tools or tactics? Tweet me and let me know if any of these have been successful for you, or let us all know in the comment section below. If you are just starting on on Twitter, you can download our free eBook Mastering Social Media for Business and get started with a solid foundation, boosting your chances for success.