Twitter is a social networking site that allows the user to post an update in 140 characters or less and the people following the user will receive those updates. With over 100 million active Twitter users and 250,000,000 tweets per day, Twitter has been aptly identified as a huge but challenging opportunity to reach users online, and as a potential marketing tool.
Before embarking on Twitter, however, one must clearly have a defined strategy- Conrad Bugeja
Before embarking on Twitter however, one must clearly have a defined strategy including the type of content and updates that will be used. Without such a guideline, one would end up sending random tweets hoping to get enough user interaction. Creating and posting useful content regularly, will attract more users to your profile and getting the desired engagement. Used wisely, Twitter is a great tool to share content, to drive traffic to your website or to create a specific interaction.
Posting updates and engaging in the conversation contributes to an increase in the impact of Twitter as a marketing tool. But to get the desired value one must direct users to a specific landing page such as a blog post on your website. In this way you are indirectly exposing the users to your products and services. Of course, a good customised profile with a proper bio, avatar and URL helps a lot as well. One useful way of using Twitter is to spread your content around. Creating a blog on your domain and posting tweets with your latest blog posts will create a community interested and willing to share your stuff. The two major factors that make users retweet (users sharing your original tweet) are: first, if your tweets are interesting enough for retweeting and second, if there is some type of personal connection.
The worst way to use Twitter is when information about the company is pushed out to the users. These promotional tweets alone would not make your account very popular, unless the tweets include great deals for your products or services. One can vary tweets with a mixture of own content and other tweets with content from external sources. Besides increasing the number of daily tweets this will also enable to share more interesting content. Hence creating a more valuable reason for the community to follow your account.
The more useful the content is for the users, the more you are likely to grab their attention and increase the click-through rate. This will demonstrate your company as a wider leadership on the subject. The community on Twitter will return the favour with retweets, mentions and studies have shown that users are more likely to buy from the company if they connect on Twitter.
Promoting the Twitter account will also increase the amount of followers. Including your Twitter handle where suitable such as on your website will allow users browsing your website to know that the company is using Twitter. Furthermore, include your Twitter handle (username) on offline marketing material so you are giving the opportunity for your audience to connect.
The Twitter aspect of engaging into the conversation will contribute to boost the value of the community. If users respond and retweet to updates one must clearly acknowledge and respond to most of them, if not all. It is a great opportunity to connect with your community and acknowledge their contribution. With the progression of the strategy one must always monitor and measure the performance of the tweets. Using certain URL shorteners will provide you with click statistics for every URL. If poor results are achieved one must consider testing different strategies.
However, sometimes only certain adjustments are required such as posting updates during the different parts of the day. Online one must take into consideration of the different time zones users are located. Hence one should analyse the audience and tweet during specific times each day.
A Twitter strategy used wisely can lead to huge potential benefits and exposure. While getting more recognition for the effort done for creating the content, Twitter will also help people to discover your products and services.
www.alert.com.mt
Mr Bugeja is a search engine optimisation expert and e-marketing consultant working with Alert eBusiness.