How start-ups should Tweet

This is the second part of our series on social media management for start-ups. Whereas our previous post focused on the Instagram platform, we will be discussing the best marketing or account management strategy for Twitter.

To summarise and recap the previous article, at Latent, we believe that social media allows start-up businesses to do the following:

1. Firstly, having a strong brand identity: Potential clients need to be able to have a sense of what your start-up is about, what it does, how it does it and your ability to deliver immediately. Your brand identity is essential in your marketing efforts. First impressions do count and can determine whether clients/consumers respond to your marketing efforts.
2. Secondly, maintaining strong customer relationship management: Communication between your business and clients/customers is essential. Your responsiveness to customer service issues will determine the conversion your Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) to Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs). Strong CRM is necessary for the highest return on investment of marketing resources.

All social media platforms bring your company closer to its consumers. However, each platform is unique and has its own conventions.

An online news and social media site, users on Twitter post messages called ‘tweets’. Whereas Instagram has a great emphasis on the aesthetic and visual format, Twitter is known for its short and concise posts. With a limit of 140 characters, users have to convey what they want to say in shorthand.

Social Media Management of Twitter

2.1 Tweeting

Navigating the 140 character limit:

• Choose what you want to say… and say it. Remove unnecessary, filler or words that dress your main point.

Be versatile in what you tweet:

• For example, if your product is a SaaS. Tweeting information about your products, news articles and blogs and insights on your industry is highly relevant and insightful to your target audience, in building your brand identity and in establishing credibility.

Tweet to your target audience:

• Your tweets will appear on the home feed of your followers, who probably follow you because they are already interested in your brand, product or industry.
• Keep your information relevant so as not to lose your followers.

Proofread your tweets before uploading:

• The Twitter platform has no edit option to change your tweets. make sure there are no typos, errors or incorrect information. Once your tweet is posted, there’s no turning back (unless you delete it completely).

2.2 Re-Tweeting

Retweet interesting content related to your industry

• For example, regarding the SaaS industry, re-tweeting content related to AI, start-up culture, coding, business trends, Singapore). Essentially, remain relevant to your user and keep up with industry updates.

Retweet relevant events, news, incidents related to your brand’s mission, values and ethics.

• Social media is a great opportunity to develop your start-up’s identity as more than just a business. Whereas Instagram is a great way to share the behind the scenes of your start-up, Twitter offers another opportunity to share information on more than just your business.

2.3 Hashtags

Use the hashtag symbol (#) before a relevant keyword or phrase in your Tweet to categorize them:

• Hashtags can be included anywhere in a Tweet.

Use hashtags to show your tweets more easily in Twitter search:

• Clicking or tapping on a hashtagged word in any message shows you other Tweets that include that hashtag.
• Users can type hashtagged keywords in the search bar to discover content and accounts based on their interests. This is one way your start-up can build up your following.

Check out Twitter’s trending topics to see very popular hashtags:

• If the topics are relevant to your brand, it may be a good opportunity to capitalise on these trends if you have any value add, opinions or comments to share.

NOTE: Twitter recommends not using more than 2 hashtags per Tweet as the basic practice:

• While hashtags can optimise your reach, it can also cheapen your brand identity. You may use as many hashtags in a Tweet as you like but be aware of how that makes your brand come across. Although Twitter is a social media platform, maintain professionalism as a business.

2.4 Images, Videos, Media, Attachments

Twitter enables you to attach photos, videos, gifs, polls and embed article previews into your tweet.

• With all the monotony of text on Twitter, this is a great way to make your tweet stand out.
• However, again, make sure that this additional content is relevant to your message and not distracting.

One way to get around the 140 character limit.

• Many celebrities or business share images with text to communicate information that exceeds the 140 character limit.
• While this is an efficient way to communicate more, your business should not rely on images as the principal way of conveying information on Twitter. Twitter is text-based and your company should adhere to its conventions to get the most out of the platform.

2.5 Schedule Tweets

As a business account, users have the option to schedule tweets under the ‘Creatives’ section of your Twitter.

• Twitter offers you to post scheduled tweets to all your followers organically (like a regular tweet)
• There is also an option to post scheduled tweets to users targeted to a ‘Promoted-only’ campaign.
• Read more about Twitter’s options here

The convenience of scheduling Tweets is useful for posting on weekends, public holidays and other dates.

• Note that unlike Instagram, whose analytics provides insights on which timings are optimised for your followers, Twitter does not share which timings are best to post tweets.

2.6 Direct Messages

Have conversations with consumers and businesses:

• Helps in understanding the specifics of the industry where you hold a competitive advantage.
• Have discussions and conversations with other users on Twitter to share your knowledge, expertise and perhaps learn something new as well.
• Create awareness of your brand by being vocal and sharing your insights and opinions.
• Following top accounts from our industry will allow you to understand your strengths, weakness, and ways to gain competitive advantages.

2.7 Community building

Follow like-minded businesses.

• When following similar accounts and posting similar content to other brands, Twitter’s algorithms will recommend your account to followers that they predict are your target audience.

Follow your competitors.

• By following industry influencers, your start-up will have a clear image of the competition in your market. This can give you an idea of where to improve, or alternatively what to avoid doing.

Social Media is simple once you get the hang of it. The success of its management is reliant on your ability to remain authentic to your brand and its goal. Across your various social media platforms, have a consistent brand image. Market yourself. Build credibility. Establish a following.

This was originally posted on Aug 8th 2019 at https://www.latentapp.com/2019/08/08/how-start-ups-should-tweet/. For more posts like this, visit Latent App’s blog.