Assemblo’s Matt Dworakowski takes a look at some tricks for standing out on Twitter, and taking advantage of this unique platform in your campaigns.
Last week, I had the pleasure of taking part in an insightful webinar hosted by Twitter’s Nick Bowditch, ‘How small businesses can use Twitter to make themselves stand out from the crowd’.
The event provided me with some useful insights into how to best utilise the social media platform and make the most out of every tweet. I’ll share with you the most valuable points Nick raised in his presentation, which are often overlooked by social media marketers.
Content is still king
When it comes to Twitter, creating engaging tweets is the key to success. It’s all about knowing your audience and the timing of when they are most likely to engage with your content. But how do you go about this?
Reward and identify those who share your content with special offers and exclusive access
Here are some simple but effective social media strategies Nick outlined in his webinar which, when implemented correctly, can really help your business get noticed in the Twitterverse:
1. Use images and links in your tweets
They grab and hold attention, and tend to get more retweets and engagements than tweets with plain text. In fact, in experiments with rich content, Buffer Social found tweets were 94% more likely to be retweeted with images, and received 18% more clickthroughs.
For the best result, make sure your article includes images suitable for Twitter (ideally around 550px wide and over 300px high will work well).
2. Start a conversation
Start a conversation with your followers by engaging in a discussion on an event that is occurring in real time as you’re tweeting –Nick calls these “target moments”, such as the Melbourne Cup, the AFL Grand Final (the Aussie Super Bowl for US readers). Looking to your local market, and looking at what events are most relevant to your target audience can really help reap massive engagement here.
To make your life easier, there are amazing free tools like Twitter’s new #OwnTheMoment planner, which list upcoming events and opportunities to engage.
3. Gamify your content
Make it fun to engage with your Twitter and turn followers into VIP’s. Reward and identify those who share your content with special offers and exclusive access. You can creative exclusive offers and promotions to reward your Twitter audience, and offer a real reason for people to follow and interact with your brand on Twitter.
For example, working with our client the Camberwell Centre Association, we often retweet and give away free coffees and food to people tweeting and engaging with Camberwell and its surrounds.
4. Don’t fire and forget
Creating good quality content can be a lot of work, you want to really make sure you get the best mileage for you efforts. Tweet and share your best content several times to really get it out there. Make sure to leave a decent gap of time so you’re not spamming your audience, look at tying in with things like #ThrowbackThursday and #FunFactFriday.
Try experimenting with different copy (text and imagery) and even boost your tweets with Twitter advertising to reach new audiences.
5. Tweet to get feedback on your products or services
You should ask people for feedback on your products, service and their general experiences with your brand. It’s an extremely powerful market research excerise, that can even generate new customers, build trust, and you might identify exciting new opportunities for you business.
Set up Twitter searches to find people already having a conversation with your brand and join in the conversation. Hootsuite have some great examples of big brands engaging with their audience in great ways.
The goal of using Twitter is to engage with your followers and provide them with a means to connect through your brand, not just to your brand. Creating interesting and topical content is half the battle, presenting and disseminating the content is the second half.
Know your audience and give them a reason to share your content, and in turn, reward them for their efforts to build a strong follower community, and ultimately, a loyal customer.
As always, if you love the idea of taking charge but need help with social media management (including Twitter), advertising or other digital marketing, drop us a line and find out how we can help your business over a coffee (or drink of your choice).