Twitter me this! Twitter me that!

Posted by Suki Sadik on Thursday September 17 in: Blog Content Marketing

It was 10pm on a chilly Thursday night in Canberra.

The aroma of my intensely brewed cardamom tea filled the room as I hit the refresh button on one of the pages I had opened on my laptop.

A click or two later I yelled out ‘its show time’.

It was 8am in Cleveland, Ohio which meant it was time to hit the ‘lift off’ button on our international social media campaign for the announcement of the Bachelor of Journalism majoring in Content Marketing being offered at the University of Canberra, commencing in 2016.

I was nervously excited about this campaign. I mean this was big news! And even for a person like myself who mostly sees things in a positive light, you know, the glass is always half full type, I was slightly shaky.

At the exact moment when I saw a kick off tweet from my colleague, I have to admit, it felt like someone had tossed my half full glass out of a fast moving train.

@SukiSadik it’s happening https://t.co/uW2jDbNCix

— Samir Mane (@SamirMane) September 10, 2015

We had 24hours to make the most noise on social media about a world’s first degree, during its official announcement at Content Marketing World in Cleveland, Ohio.

As we led ourselves into what was going to be a long night of tweets, retweets and favourites. The earlier nervous feeling I had was soon taken over by complete confidence in the power of technology and what it could mean for organisations and their target audience. Our campaign was off to a huge start as CEO and Founder of Content Marketing Institute, Joe Pulizzi informed 3,500 attendees of Content Marketing World about the degree.

@JoePulizzi announces @unicanberra #contentmarketing degree to opening session day 3. #cmworld pic.twitter.com/Dpoovbdo0S

— davidpembroke (@davidpembroke) September 10, 2015

A live tweet from the event using relevant handles, hashtags and precise wordings created the perfect multiplier effect for our campaign!

You may have heard @JoePulizzi mention this at #CMWorld — good news out of Australia. https://t.co/yz5gpGTRXJ

— Content Marketing (@CMIContent) September 10, 2015

Congratulations to @UniCanberra for being a leader in the space of #Journalism #CMWorld http://t.co/cWTOhuJfDK

— contentgroup (@contentgroup) September 10, 2015

Australia getting shout-out from #CMWorld stage by @JoePulizzi for first uni degree in #contentmarketing. Congrats to @davidpembroke too.

— Sarah Mitchell (@globalcopywrite) September 10, 2015

The University of Canberra has launched a journalism specialisation for… content marketing. Seriously.

— Kylar Loussikian (@kloussikian) September 10, 2015

In the middle of the night in Canberra and the voices in my head were wide awake, screaming at the top of their lungs!

‘It’s alive… It’s alive!’

And indeed it was, it didn’t matter what time of the day or night it was in any part of the world, I was connected to my target audience in the most personalised way, without even meeting them face to face!

My audience was now in the driver’s seat and they were taking me along for the ride!

@davidpembroke is sitting behind me! #CMWorld pic.twitter.com/T4adTNlJBJ

— Angela Hursh (@webmastergirl) September 10, 2015

Within two hours of its initiation, a campaign that started off as a single tweet had become a global conversation. All it took was a well-planned tweet, using relevant hashtags, twitter handles and consistent retweeting.

Fortunately, tweets are no longer limited to what you’ll be having for lunch that day. A tweet can have a massive impact on a consumer who is more connected, than what we think.

Our campaign reinforced some basics for me; we should make the effort to personalise our tweets because that is what will make them unique, giving our message a higher chance of being retweeted which in return will help reach a larger audience.

Don’t be shy of adding a relevant picture to your tweet; it will further enhance audience experience.

All this Twitter talk made me think of tweets that easily made Twitter history!

Like the famous 2014 Oscar tweet from Ellen DeGeneres, it had everything that would please the Twitter gods! Catchy tagline, not too many hashtags and yes having the right celebrities in the picture must’ve also made it easy to reach that retweet number.

If only Bradley’s arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014

Can’t forget about President Obama’s first ever tweet!

Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.

— President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015

And some other random tweets from 2014 that caught my eye!

[sees girl reading The Catcher in the Rye] “Ah I love that book. The way he just [clenches fist] catches all that frickin rye.”

— David Hughes (@david8hughes) June 1, 2014

-Does it have apples in it? -No. -What about pine? -No pine either. -Perfect, we’ll call it a pineapple.

— brandon from school (@peeznuts) April 22, 2014

Is it wrong to eat a Blueberry Muffin that looks just like your dog? pic.twitter.com/QgJnsKvjOF

— Renzo Soprano (@Renzo_Soprano) July 26, 2014

If you think you’re ready to make progress from the Twitter beginners’ circuit, you should start exploring some of the existing short hand techniques to effectively communicate on Twitter.

Some of these tricks of trade will help you stay within the Godforsaken 140 character limit.

Handy abbreviation list: RT — When you manually retweet (copy/paste the content from a Tweet on your own Tweet) MT — Modified Tweet (you can place a ‘MT’ before retweeted text to be able to add on your own message in addition to a modified version of the original) # — Hashtag symbols are used in front of words to turn them into links, which makes it easier for people to find and follow a conversation HT — The ‘Heard Through’ or ‘Hat Tip’ is used to let people know that the information you are putting out, you have found through a Twitter user. OH — Stands for something you might have ‘Over Heard’ or can also be used when quoting a fact in real life or when mentioning a quote from someone. .@ — A dot before the @ symbol means that the reply is meant for all followers Some blame twitter for being a rumour mill while others take full advantage of its reach for their social media campaigns and actively use it as their news source.

Do you see such social media platforms as your friend or foe? Would you base your Content Marketing strategy around such platforms? Drop me a line in the comments section; I would love to hear your opinion on this subject! Who knows maybe our conversation becomes our next blog topic!