Twitter currently has over 300 million users.
I always thought Twitter had an interesting angle when it first started.
For one, Twitter was and is basically one function of Facebook: The News Feed.
I remember when Twitter first launched that it seemed strange in that respect and I thought people wouldn’t use it.
But Twitter seemed to gain traction pretty quick. People seemed to appreciate the simpleness to the social network. And they had another thing going for them.
That is the second item and it was the fact that famous people were using Twitter. I’m sure the execs at Twitter had a few connections, but whatever it was, celebs were using Twitter and that brought users.
Since that early traction, Twitter has continued to be a place for people to get instant information. It’s different from Facebook in that respect. When you follow people on Twitter you want all the information they share.
So there are some unique aspects and those are important for businesses that want to use Twitter for marketing purposes.
And that’s where our focus is with this post. Here are some Twitter marketing tips.
1. Post More Often
The average user on Twitter follows 208 people or accounts.
Some follow many more than that.
The takeaway is that people follow a large number of people on Twitter. This makes for busy feeds. And if you’re trying to show up in those feeds you’ll quickly get lost if you’re only posting once in a while.
If you want to show up when your followers are using Twitter you need to post more often.
Even if you post 24 times a day that is only once per hour. Most users on Twitter would be entirely comfortable with that number and you could probably go beyond that depending on your resources.
But in general, you and other companies can post more often on Twitter.
2. Have A Diversified Posting Strategy
I believe the most powerful form of posting for businesses is to share useful content that the target audience would find useful. This could be one-off tips in tweets. I think that’s a good strategy. But it also often includes sharing articles – both ones you’ve published and others you find interesting.
But it’s still good to have a diversified posting strategy that includes:
- Sharing your articles
- Sharing articles others publish
- Retweeting
- Replying
- Live reporting from events
- Quotes
- Images
- Videos
- Short stories
- Jokes
- Etc.
There are lots of ways to mix up your tweets. I would start with a steady diet of sharing content, but also mix in a few of the others on a regular basis to really offer value to your followers.
3. Create A List Of Target Customers
Your business has a target customer. Identify the Top 100 customers you would like to have. This is a little easier if you’re in a B2B, but you can still do it if you’re a B2C.
Find 100 of these folks on Twitter and create a list on your Twitter account. Once you have your list follow these folks to see what they’re doing on Twitter.
Just by listening you’ll get insight into who they are, what they’re looking for and more. You can use that knowledge in your Twitter efforts, but also for your business efforts.
You might even once in a while find that a target customer mentions a need they have that your business could solve. That’s a perfect opportunity to reach out.
4. Create A List Of Industry Influencers
Also create a list of influencers in your industry. Just about every industry has influencers; people that influence your target audience. it might be business leaders, newspeople, celebs or similar folks.
Find the most popular people in your industry that are using Twitter regularly and create a list. Then look at what these folks are sharing. You can retweet and reply to their tweets on occasion, but also see what they’re sharing and you’ll gain insight on what you should be sharing.
5. General Strategy: Answer Questions
in general, you’ll be valuable to your target audience if you answer the questions they have as it relates to your industry. This keeps it relevant to what you provide, but also keeps it relevant to what your audience wants to know.
For example, you’re a web design company. You create websites for businesses. People come to you because they want to get more sales for their business using a website.
So online sales is your industry.
You can share content on Twitter that fits that criteria. It could be specifically about web design or it could be about social media or online advertising.
It could be articles, tips, quotes, etc.
It works on Twitter and really on any marketing platform from blogging to video to Facebook.
Answer questions.
6. Interpret Industry News
This could kind of fit with the previous point.
When big industry news comes out your target audience is probably asking:
What does this mean? How should I react?
So they’re asking a question, but I think it deserves its own point.
Whenever industry news comes out that affects your clients, take some time to analyze the situation. Then provide some insight and share it on Twitter.
This is very valuable. Your target customers can come to their own conclusions about news and trends, but they also want to see what industry leaders think the news means.
7. Master The Article Hook (Local News Hooks)
Have you ever watched the local news?
Really it works for the national news too.
I can be watching a show or something on TV in the afternoon and a quick commercial will come on for the local news when the anchor comes on and says something like:
Will it rain for the holiday weekend? Get the details 6…
Local news channels are experts at the hook. It’s part of their daily routine to record these little hooks or teasers to get people interested in watching the full show when it comes on.
That’s really powerful and Twitter works almost exactly the same way when you’re sharing your own content like an article or a video.
Instead of just sharing the title of the article and the link, focus on creating a hook just like the local news anchors do.
For this article I might do something like:
Twitter tips that could have a big impact on your marketing strategy. Details…
8. Share Your Content Many Times
That also leads us into another really good tip and that is the fact that you should share your content more than once.
It’s way too common to share something – an article, video or even a good tip – once on Twitter.
Go back to the stat earlier in this article. People follow more than 200 accounts on Twitter. The odds that they’ll see your tweet when you share it only once is very small.
You need to share and re-share your content. If you can share it 50 times or more that would be great. In fact, when you publish something like a blog post you should plan to share it on and off in perpetuity.
9. Show Your Personality
Even though you’re a business it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t show your personality.
People do business with businesses, but they really do business with the people at the business. That’s why the About page is often one of the most visited pages on business websites.
People want to know who the people are behind the business.
Comment on things like hobbies and interests. If you’re taking the weekend off to go hiking in the mountains then share that fact. And provide a little recap when you’re back on Monday.
It gives people some insight into who you are and that leads to a better connection on social media.
Think of it like you’re meeting a potential client in person. You often make small talk that includes discussions about hobbies.
Twitter is no different.
10. Commit
If you’re going to commit to Twitter then commit. I’m talking about possibly even only using Twitter for your social media strategy.
Twitter is one of the biggest social platforms. And it really hasn’t changed very much, which is a good thing for businesses that want to use it to reach an audience.
If you’re going to start using Twitter or start using Twitter more than make sure you have the resources to do all the things listed above. If you go in with a half effort you’re going to fail and then you’ll be frustrated.
Go in fully or leave it aside until you can commit.
Conclusion
Twitter is a great social platform. It’s the social channel I use most to market myself and the businesses I operate. I think it’s a great channel for reaching a specific audience and many businesses and entrepreneurs can benefit from using Twitter. But you have to be willing to make the commitment.