I’m pretty active on Twitter. I’ve made some amazing contacts and developed some important relationships there. It’s a very serious part of my social media marketing strategy too. I feel pretty comfortable there now. However a new client of mine is just getting started on Twitter this week and he asked some questions that have prompted me to make sure you’re aware of these 5 important things beginners on Twitter need to know.
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If the reason you are on Twitter is to promote your business, brand, products or services it is very important to understand that the purpose of Twitter is not to promote your business, brand, products or services. So how can Twitter serve as a marketing channel then?
I reckon a great way to approach your Twitter marketing strategy is to focus on serving your audience. Think about what’s in it for them, rather than what’s in it for you. Why should they follow you, stay following you, re-tweet and share your content and engage with you? I kind of cringe when I say that because it sounds like such ‘social media speak’, but relationships are the glue that binds social media together.
So here are 5 important things beginners on Twitter need to know:
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Your tweets should offer some value
Contrary to what many non-Twitter users think, Twitter is not just about what you had for breakfast. We have Instagram for that now. Twitter is about tweeting things that your audience will find interesting, helpful, valuable, entertaining, or all of the above.
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Your ‘notifications’ is like your email inbox
Checking your notifications and responding accordingly is how you build relationships on Twitter. By regularly checking your notifications you should be able to identify potential clients, brand advocates, important influencers and people worth connecting with. Most importantly it’s where you join the conversation.
If you are new to Twitter it’s possible that you don’t quite understand hashtags and their purpose. If you don’t have many followers yet, using the right hashtag will expose your tweet (with that tag) to everyone who searches for or clicks on that hashtag.
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Leave enough room at the end of your tweets
Hopefully your tweets will be shareworthy. So that people can include your Twitter handle (that’s your @name) in a retweet, work out how many character spaces to leave to allow enough room for your username. I try and keep my tweets under 119 characters (including spaces). You’ve only got 140 characters to work with and Twitter counts down as you compose your tweet, so I know to stop (and edit if necessary) when I get down to 21 characters remaining. That will leave enough space to include: via @SocialStratMatt (in a retweet, or share).
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Avoid broadcasting tweets about your business, products or services
It’s just not what Twitter is meant for. You’ll notice if you see a brand that just tweets about their own stuff all the time there aren’t many conversations going on. Try the 1:10 guideline. For every ten tweets about cool, helpful or interesting stuff, sneak one in about what’s important to your brand. When composing that tweet, try and keep it social (as opposed to salesy). Tweets aren’t ads.
Conclusion
We’re just scratching the surface here, but hopefully these will help you grow your followers, develop relationships and enjoy your Twitter experience. Please consider sharing this post with your friends, followers and circles to help others new to Twitter with these 5 important things beginners on Twitter need to know. If you have any questions, or would like some pointers about how to plan your social media marketing strategy please CLICK HERE to contact me. I’m here to help. Thanks for reading and sharing. See you back here on the 17th.
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Clik here to view.
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Image credit [Shawn Campbell]
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