Twitter Is An Excellent Social Channel Build Relationships With Thought Leaders
By Amber Smith, Marist College Intern
Twitter’s tweets are posted all day, all night — every moment of the day.
The network news agencies report all the news as time and space permits. The news-hole is finite, only relevant and engaging news is broadcast during the evening news. Tweets stream continuously, engagement and posts occur in real-time — during the time-frame when you “tune in” to Twitter’s news-feed of tweets.
Building relationships takes time, Twitter followers unfollow frequently. Twitter is a strange and lovely bird . . . those who master this platform, engage and excite with just 140 characters.
- When posting on Twitter, always first consider the relevancy, urgency, and importance of the content.
- Posts can be shared frequently on Twitter, throughout the day as long as it is fresh, original and engaging.
- Think of Twitter’s frequency of messages (frequency of posts) to that of the traditional broadcast mediums such as television and radio.
Twitter users also tend to be younger than social media users in general. They tend to use the service heavily—the majority several times a day—and their use of the network is increasing how much news they consume. Almost all Twitter users are also consumers of other forms of news media.
Twitter’s Do’s & Don’ts of Engagement:
Twitter DO’s
1) Use #hashtags. Hashtags double your rate of engagement.
The hashtag symbol # before a keyword or phrase catalogs your tweet, trending topics often create conversation
threads.
2) Tweet during the day and on weekends. Tweeting during the day will generate 30% more interaction because that is usually when people are checking their Twitter feed. Don’t stop tweeting on the weekends. Research shows engagement to be 17% higher on weekends than weekdays. Go to Tweroid to find out exactly when your Twitter followers are online. Remember, your content will not be seen if there is no one on Twitter to see it.
3) Keep tweets under 110 characters. Allow people to reply with their own reactions when retweeting (engagements are 17% higher).
4) Follow key influencers, verticals and publications that pertain to your business. Learn about what your competition is doing: monitor, listen and learn from their successes and failures. Start building relationships.
5) Share images. Including an image more than doubles the possibility of a retweet. When sharing images consider how the image relates to your audience. Is this image something they can connect with, as well as relate to your brand in some way?
6) Include links in tweets (92% of ALL twitter interaction comes from tweets from links). A tweet with a link will receive 86% more engagement than a tweet sans one.
7) Keep track of your followers. Keep your following within 10% until you reach 2K, then you may follow 150% of your followers. Monitor who follows you using the CrowdFire app.
8) Share humorous, interesting, and uplifting facts. Know the line between humorous and inappropriate. And as always be relevant and relatable to your consumers.
9) Respond to DMs. This is a key part of building both consumer and business relationships. Don’t miss your chance to grow your business by ignoring a DM.
10) Call to action. Always use words and phrases such as “please retweet,” “help” and “follow” to garner interaction from Twitter users. You must not be afraid to initiate engagement and ask for retweets. When constructing your tweet read it from the point of view of the consumer. Would you want to complete the action you have just suggested based on that tweet?
11) Amplify your brand by engaging in threads that lend authority and credibility. See Google + Ripples.
Twitter DON’Ts
1) Post more than four tweets a day.
2) Include more than two hashtags in one tweet.
3) Post lifestyle / personal tweets.
4) Follow back profiles that do not have a balance of followers to following (unless your consider them to be highly credible and authoritative).
5) Follow anyone who offers “get rich quick” or other “click bait” gimmicks.
6) Initiate interaction or follow people who consistently post negative content. Keep it real, no propaganda, no B.S.
7) Follow sites that make fun of public figures.
Follow The 4-1-1 Rule.
The 4-1-1 Rule was coined by Tippingpoint Labs and Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute. The rule states: “For every one self-serving tweet, you should retweet one relevant tweet and most importantly share four pieces of relevant content written by others.”
To learn more check out these great articles on how to growth hack across social media platforms:
Facebook—LinkedIn—Instagram—Pinterest—Google Plus—YouTube
To learn more about digital media contact one of our experts today.
Sources:
Patel, Neil. “10 twitter tactics to increase engagement.” Retrieved 6/1/15 from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/twitter-tactics-to-increase-engagement/
Carson, Mel. “Increase engagement on twitter with solid tactics backed by research.” Retrieved 6/1/15 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241463
Kaye, Lauren. “5 twitter marketing tactics that generate the most engagement.” Retrieved 6/1/15 from
Photo source: http://www.copyblogger.com/influencer-plan/
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