Twitter Marketing and Content Strategy

You can choose to automatically post tweets to your Facebook Page’s wall under your Twitter profile settings. It is up to you whether you choose to use this, but I would advise against it for a number of reasons. You run the danger of spamming (and offending) your Facebook admirers because it’s likely that you’ll post on Twitter far more frequently than Facebook. Second, you want people to follow you on both Twitter and Facebook so that you can provide both audiences with a special, worthwhile experience. If they have access to everything on Facebook, they won’t use Twitter. Finally, and probably most crucially, automated posts (whether created by a machine or written by a human) are never as warmly received as posts that are specifically tailored for their target audience. It’s advisable to keep your Facebook and Twitter audiences apart because of the varied ways you can communicate with each of them.

Many clients now use Twitter to communicate their issues with a business, and they anticipate a rapid response when tweeting – surveys set the expected response time at 30 minutes or less! It is a good idea to let people know when you will be available to answer questions if you plan to use Twitter as a channel for customer care inquiries. Is it open from Monday through Friday between 9AM and 5PM EST, 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Is it simply “as quickly as we can”? Include details about when you will answer and how long it will take to assist and reassure clients that you will respond and set clear expectations. within your Twitter Bio or as part of your profile’s cover photo design.

When you just have 140 characters to make your point in a single tweet, spelling, punctuation, and grammar all matter. Practice crafting the ideal tweet, then check it twice for typos. It may be tempting to employ text speak to pack as much information as you can into Twitter’s 140-character restriction, but doing so is at best unprofessional and at worst renders your tweets unreadable. If you have numerous tweeters using the same account, make sure to leave room for a “sign off” at the end of each message, such as the initials “AM,” so that customers know exactly who they are communicating with. Why not include put a picture of the personanswering users’ questions in your Twitter cover design? Customers want to know who they are dealing with.

Avoid splitting up your Twitter status updates into multiple tweets whenever you can because this makes it difficult for your followers to follow what you are trying to say, especially if they have a really busy Twitter feed where your updates might appear sandwiched between tweets from other people they follow. If you’re unable to confine your Twitter updates to 140 characters or less, you might want to use a solution like Twit Longer (http://www.twitlonger.com). You are free to type as many words as you want on this website. Your Twitter account will be used to distribute the message to your followers when you submit it. The first portion will be visible, then a URL will be displayed to allow followers to click through to read the full message at the Twitlonger website.

Be cautious with your tweets so that you don’t overwhelm your followers’ newsfeeds and cause them to unfollow you. While Twitter’s own research revealed that brands that tweet two to three times per day can typically reach an audience that is equal to 30% of their follower base during any given week, independent research has shown that posting more than two or three tweets an hour can result in a decrease in engagement. The principle still holds true: quality always prevails over number. Of course, many things can influence this evaluation (for instance, if one tweet goes viral while the others do not).

Theoretically, Twitter displays all of the tweets from users who follow a certain account, but the site is so dynamic and quick-moving, and users check it at various points throughout the day, that your content is easily missed. Don’t be scared to submit the same content multiple times per day under different guises to assist prevent this (i.e. experiment with unique wording and different headlines for the same article one or two hours apart, then note which wording performed best). If you regularly create worthwhile “evergreen” blog content, i.e. that which will remain useful no matter its age, use a service like Buffer (www.bufferapp.com) to schedule and automatically post tweets linking to this content periodically. Here’s a free tutorial, which shows how you can upload in bulk: http://bit.ly/scheduleoldblogtweets

Note: On Twitter, many people simply share the title of a blog post followed by the link. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but you might also want to experiment with other methods to lead into the content and to see if they garner more clicks and engagement. These including sharing a short quote from the article, giving a brief opinionor asking a question about it – particularly through Twitter’s simple two-question Poll function (click the poll icon in the tweet box to set one up).

Share the engaging and selfless content we discussed in this book’s chapter on “The Best Types of Stuff to Post on Social Media,” along with links to additional fascinating and helpful content, to increase your following and foster relationships with your consumers (whether your own or by others). To find entertaining, current, and pertinent material for your Twitter feed and followers, use Google Alerts. Always shorten a link to your own material before putting it in a tweet using a service like bit.ly. Twitter will automatically shorten links, but you can also make them look nicer and track the click-through rate by using bit.ly. This is helpful for determining the content types that your followers respond to the most. Make sure a shortened link is operational before posting it on Twitter. A single faulty link could result in a buyer never clicking again on your URLs. Add a picture to a tweet that includes a link to increase its effectiveness and make it stand out in people’s news feeds.

Use hashtags to emphasise your message and group tweets of the same kind. Top-trending hashtags can be searched via Twitter search and are displayed on Twitter’s home page. It is crucial to use hashtags because research shows that they increase engagement twofold over tweets without them. Avoid using more than one or two hashtags per tweet because doing so can confuse followers. According to studies, engagement with tweets that contain more than two hashtags falls off significantly. The finest hashtags are brief ones.

A hashtag like #ilovechocolatecakeandeatiteveryday takes up valuable character space in your tweet and is difficult to read. Use legible formatting as well. Symbols don’t always function, and capitalising words makes hashtags a little easier to read, such as #BigSale instead of #bigsale. More significant advantages of using hashtags on Twitter and other social media include the following

Use unique hashtags to strengthen your brand identification and geographic region, such as #billysburgers #BerwynIL, which are particularly helpful when potential customers click to learn more about you. Fans also enjoy posting text, images, and video updates on their social activities with friends. Promote and encourage the usage of a relevant hashtag before, during, and after your event or the introduction of a new promotion to ensure that these fan updates are closely related.

Users of Twitter and other social networks are “tagging” their updates more frequently than previously “motion” hashtags, such as “Today I had a fantastic lunch at Betty’s Grill! Best hamburgers ever, #stuffed.” Whether the feelings are positive or negative, they can frequently give you more information about your brand’s image than you had previously thought. Tools for finding the most recent tweets using a certain hashtag, conducting competitive hashtag analysis, and monitoring hashtag usage across several platforms include Hashtagify and Tagboard .

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