3 Simple Ways You Can Master Twitter in 2017

Begin to leverage Twitter like a master — starting right now.

Twitter is weird. And I mean that.

How are businesses that aren’t Dominos (or any Enterprise-level organization) actually expect to drive significant amounts of traffic — let alone leads — from a tool that’s in the middle of an identity crisis.

If you went to download Twitter’s app to your phone right now, it categorizes itself as “News”. Twitter no longer calls itself a social media network.

You can try to “monitor hashtags” and “join in on the conversation”, but in full transparency, success on Twitter goes way beyond that. And it actually requires way more thought, attention and agility then just stamping down a dozen tweets in your monthly social scheduling tool.

So let’s dive in. Let’s remove the broad-stroke recommendations and get a list together that is actually actionable. Here is how you can master Twitter in 2017.

• Create an account that supports your customers.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you first need to create a Twitter account. And not just a Twitter handle + Twitter pic combination. Go through the proper steps to ensure your business Twitter account is ready to be a support resource for your customers.

In the Settings of a Business account on Twitter, there’s an option for Customer Support + Business features. Add all the profile elements here that make sense for your business.

Incorporate Support hours so users are aware of your team’s availability. Have a direct message / short link available to take any public tweets that require attention over to a private forum. Add in the “MESSAGE” button to your profile header to make it easy to contact you.

Pull all of the right levers here to ensure that your appearance shows where and how users can request support from you.

• Produce content. A ton of it.

What is worse than not having a Twitter account is a Twitter account that isn’t put to work. The best Twitter accounts post — and post often. Have a constant stream of content daily.

Have it be a combination of direct links back to your website (lean heavier on blog content, but also sprinkle in landing pages and offers direct) as well as other publications + websites that your audience would find helpful. What’s great about Twitter is that because the feed moves so quick, you can often times repurpose the same links multiple times over the course of a week or month.

And when posting someone else’s article, don’t just copy-paste into a tweet. Provide commentary and speak to why you would post it. What did you find valuable? Why is this important to your audience?

So publish, publish, publish. And candidly, to be able to tweet this frequently means you have a substantial library of blog / written content. But did you write a blog article that covers 12 tips? Each tip can be it’s own tweet scheduled, posted, and repeated.

• Make the right searches and follow the right people.

Unfortunately, Twitter followers aren’t going to magically appear. To start obtaining followers that make sense and belong in your industry, begin by being someone else’s follower.

Google search: “influencers in [my industry]” and “top [my industry] leaders”. Who are these people? Follow them.

Search directly in Twitter for “[industry]” or “[product type]”. Who are these people? Follow them.

Look at our competitors’ follows. Who are they following? Identify the blue check marks and follow them.

Who are the leads and or customers already in our database? Do we have their Twitter handle? Are we asking for Twitter handles on forms? Find these people and follow them, too.

Twitter is also a unique tool in that it allows you to create streams around keywords, phrases and hashtags that you can monitor — a feature other networks do not have. Monitor your brand name, your competitors’ brand names, your industry, your product line, and other terms related to your field. Anything (or anyone) valuable pop up? Follow them.

Lastly, if budget allows, there are tools that help simplify this process. Try Klear or Followerwonk to help hunt for influencers.

• Tweet in the moment.

Social scheduling isn’t going away. Continue to map out your baseline content month over month. However, you need to also prioritize content that cannot be mapped out.

Twitter’s label as a “News” app and the initiative it took to purchase the rights to broadcasting last year’s Thursday Night Football games shows that Twitter wants to be a network where people talk about stuff as it’s happening.

Did the refs make a controversial call against the Celtics in a critical moment during tonight’s playoff game? Tweet about it. This goes way farther than a “Celtics vs. Cavaliers — who ya got?” tweet.

Tweet about current events, viral sensations, popular memes, and things that are occurring in the now. Include the right hashtags and be seen.

And include hashtags. They help you specify what you’re talking about. You can also get your tweet to display in other folks’ streams or searches regarding a core topic. Via Buffer, tweets with hashtags receive 2x more engagement than those without hashtags

But keep in mind there’s a limit to #how #many #hashtags #you #should #include. Tweets with 1–2 hashtags have a 21% higher engagement than those with 3+.

[Side note here: tweet about the Celtics or basketball in general as long as it matches your target audience. Are you Boston based? Is your buyer persona a basketball fan? Post content accordingly.]

So in short, if I had to summarize this whole post in a Tweet’s worth of characters:

“Pull all levers in your account settings, follow influencers, produce a lot of content and promote that content. #TwitterTips #SocialMedia”