12 Ways To Crush on Twitter
So you’ve probably heard, that Twitter is a great platform to get free leads. All you have to do is retweet and post and the money just flows for free. But somehow it’s not the case, is it?
So I put together a few tips all beginner marketer should keep in mind when working with Twitter. Twitter is a great platform indeed, and you can get a load of leads using it. But you have to use it right. Read on!
Twitter Basics
Before getting into it, it’s a good idea to clarify a few things about Twitter. As a beginner, it’s not a shame not to know things. If you’re that kind, the kind who’s afraid to ask, this is the perfect opportunity for you. Also, I encourage you to ask questions in the comment section! I’m always eager to help!
@mention
When you want to “tag” someone in a tweet or a direct message on Twitter, you can do it by “mentioning” their username, prefixed by the @ character. Doing so, they will be notified in their “Mentions” section of their account. Essentially, this is the way to get into public conversation with people on Twitter.
#
Hashtag. You most probably heard about it. It’s widely used on other social network platforms. It’s kind of a tag for your tweet, showing that your post is about some topic. By clicking on a hashtag, you can see all the tweets in that topic. It’s a great way to categorize your tweet. Although there is no limitation, be careful. Don’t overuse hashtags. Read this guide to make sure, how to use it properly.
Bots
Forbes defines bots as “a social networking account powered by artificial intelligence.” Basically, bots are scripts, written by people, listening on Tweets and do some automatic tasks. You’ll see them in action soon. You follow someone, and you’ll get an instant welcome message. Or an automated “Thank you for the retweet” message. Use it smart, and you will see great result. Misuse it, and you’ll be marked as a spammer. Be smart :) Tip for SocialBrew users: You can use the Automation features to automate a great deal of tasks. But still: be smart!
DM or Direct Message
Direct Message is a private message between two Twitter users. DM can only be sent to a Twitter user who is already following you, and you can only receive one from users you follow. Some users use it for spamming.
FF #FF
#FollowFriday started in January 2009 as a way to recommend other Twitter users to your followers. It happens on Fridays, and you can search Twitter for the hashtag on Fridays to watch the kudos pour in. Tip for SocialBrew users: You can create #FollowFriday campaigns at the Automation menu.
Retweet
A retweet is the basic form of currency on Twitter. When you see “RT” in front of a tweet, it means the person found the content valuable enough to share with their followers.
There are two kinds of Retweets: the classic “manual” Retweet and the now-standard “web Retweet.” In a manual Retweet, you simply type “RT” before the @username and content of somebody else’s Tweet. This used to be the only way you could retweet, and it’s the still only way to add your own comment to a Tweet when you pass it along.
A “web Retweet” is what happens when you click the official Retweet button: the full Tweet appears in your timeline in its original form, complete with the author’s name and avatar. Since a web Retweet allows your followers to easily retweet or favorite the original Tweet, it’s generally considered good etiquette to use this method unless you have something valuable to add through a manual RT.
Reply
When you hit the reply button on Twitter, you’re responding to a particular tweet someone has tagged you in with a @mention. Unless you replied by DM (direct message), the reply will be public: It can be seen by anyone and everyone, regardless of whether they follow you or not.
Feed
Your twitter “feed” is any list of tweets that constantly updates when new tweets that fit the specified criteria pop up. Your home feed updates every time someone you follow tweets.
Quote Tweet
A way to retweet where a user can include their own comments along with the tweet.
Unfollow
When a Twitter user who previously followed you decides to not follow you anymore. Twitter will not show your tweets on their timeline. Also, you can unfollow people anytime. But be careful, aggressively follow and unfollow users is a way yo get yourself banned from Twitter…
Via
This term is sometimes used in place of “RT” as a way to let people know where your content is from and to give credit to the original content creator.
The Tips Themselves
Now that you have the basic knowledge of Twitter terms, you can dig into Twitter marketing. The following things are must known by every savvy Social Marketer to survive!
Use keywords
In order to attract your targeted audience, include discoverable keywords with a link to valuable content. By valuable content, I mean content, which your targeted customer base values. It doesn’t have to be a “Forbes-quality” post, but it has to provide value. A “5 Best Recipes for Thanksgiving” article can be valuable for the audience of a cooking blog.
As explained by Twitter itself here, “Keyword targeting allows you to connect with users based on words and phrases they’ve recently Tweeted or searched for on Twitter.” This allows you to reach your target audience in a time when your business is most relevant to them.
There are two types of keyword targeting on Twitter:
Search and Timeline
Search keyword targeting is: “The phrases that people search for on Twitter are indicators of what’s top of mind for them in that moment. Keyword targeting enables you to target your Tweets so that they show up when people are searching for topics related to your business. This type of targeting is particularly effective during cultural, seasonal or industry events that relate to your business.”
Timeline keyword targeting is: “Tweets send important signals about what users are experiencing in the moment — their thoughts, feelings, wants and needs. With keyword targeting in the timeline, you can act on these signals by targeting your Tweets to users based on something they’ve Tweeted.”
Target influencers
It’s always a good idea to know the influences in your niche. Following companies, influencers, and like-minded individuals provides you the great opportunity to step in conversations, show your competence, increase your brand’s visibility. If you can start a public conversation with one of your niche’s top influencer, you’ll online visibility will be through the roof.
Imagine: an opinion leader with 400k followers. Four hundred thousand people, who interested in the same thing your business is about. 400k targeted potential lead.
Don’t miss this great opportunity!
Use hashtags
Hashtags are a must-used feature of Twitter. With proper use, you can laser-target your audience and can get a great visibility.
Tweets with hashtags get 2x more engagements that tweets without.
Meaning you will get twice more clicks, retweets, likes and replies. No brainer, isn’t it.
Although you want to keep it no more than two!
More than two hashtags drops the engagement by an average 17%.
Give credit
Don’t be selfish. If you see content that has value, give credit. Share the love. Like, quote and retweet all the Tweets you find helpful for you or for your audience.
It has two great outcomes:
- You’ll get more followers by sharing good quality content without being the guy, who always talks about himself
- You can keep your followers fed, and get engaged with them
Twitter is a great way to generate content without writing even one word!
Schedule your tweets
By planning for Tweets to go out at peak times, you can ensure you are improving visibility. There is no reason to tweet, when your audience is sleeping or not checking their devices.
Social Marketing Management platforms ( like SocialBrew ) offers tools to define the best time to tweet. At SocialBrew, you just need to set the number of tweets you want to send a day, and we calculate the best times, based on your existing community.
Pretty cool, isn’t it :) Start scheduling today!
Encourage engagement
You have been and will be hearing from us, time to time: Engagement is the key to Social Media success. Getting more and more followers, providing valuable content is very much important. But engaging with your non-followers is very much important as well.
Publicly engage with people, respond to their questions, mentions and opinions give you credibility and the feeling of accessibility. Think about it: Who would you like to work with more? A huge, inaccessible, silent giant company, or with an accessible, responsive, fun smaller company?
The latter, yeah? See, numbers are important, but not just them.
Use lists
Twitter lists are great way to keep tabs on your competitors, influencers and topics. You can actually follow the timeline of people you don’t follow.
Also, when you add someone to your public list (you can have private lists as well), he/she will get notified.
“Lists offer a way to see updates from specific people you have decided to focus your attention on,” and in doing so, allowing you to be more engaged and up to date on those who add the most value to your online efforts.
Optimize your profile
You have to stand out from the crowd. This is the golden rule of marketing. And it applies to your profile setup as well. So here’s a few advice from Neil Patel:
- Don’t do what everyone else is doing. If you see a trend popping up in bios, don’t immediately change your bio to reflect that trend. Everyone ends up using the same verbiage, the same phrases, the same descriptors.
- Choose the most important things you do; state them in a clear, compelling way; and then explain why your skills should matter to the visitor. The challenge, of course, is brevity.
- Stretch the truth a little bit. And I’m not talking about straight-up lying. Just about tongue-in-cheek obvious exaggeration.
- Update frequently. Smart Twitter users know that a static profile is boring and uncreative. Change it up based on what’s current in your career or marketing initiatives.
Use images
It’s a fact that Tweets including images receive more engagement, which is reason enough to make sharing images and videos on Twitter a priority. As Twitter itself emphasized in their blog:
“Research has shown that Tweets with photos get 313% more engagement. To spark your creativity for using imagery, here are examples from several small and medium-sized businesses that illustrate this best practice.”
- You can extend the 140 long character limit
Adding text into visual can help you get around the 140 character limit. Though you have to make sure your text is clear enough to be readable on smartphones and tablets.
- Play a game
Photos can be used to create games. Sweepstakes, interactive games, and promotions are great ways to attract visitors
- Use graphs and charts to make data more accessible
A screenshot of a data visualization or infographic adds interest to a B2B Tweet.
- Pull back the curtain
A casual behind-the-scenes shot helps humanize your business.
- Showcase your product
Put your products front and center on your Twitter timeline.
- Inspire and delight
Finally, it’s easy to simply share a photo that perfectly aligns with the personality and mission of your business.
Be consistent
Starting to post regularly and stop after a while is a great way to loose your audience. Matthew Woodward (he is a great blogger and content marketer. I’m a big fan of him) once stopped blogging for a month. It takes 4 months to recover from that.
Don’t make that mistake. Stick to your schedule and keep posting. You don’t have to produce 126 posts a day. But you need to be reliable. If you’re going to on vacation, prepare and use automation tools like SocialBrew. Put together some old but great posts put it into a queue and sit back. SocialBrew will do the rest.
Toot you own horn
If you have a great performing post, which gets lots of retweets and likes, don’t be shy! Promote it until to the end. Squeeze every visitor out of it. At the end of the day, this is why you made it.
Pinned post is a great way to keep your best post in sight. Choose you best performing post and pin it. Bring more attention to it and enjoy it!
Monitor
Social listening is an incredibly valuable asset to building and growing your Twitter strategy, and using a social media monitoring tool can help you do this as easily as possible. Being able to see what your customers and potential clients are discussing, whether it be directly related to your brand or just generally to your industry, has incredible value in your ability to establish marketing forecasts and initiatives.
