If Twitter marketing puts you out of your comfort zone, great! In life and marketing, exploring new grounds is the only way forward, so turning the unknown into familiar terrain is the way to go.
In what concerns us, although Instagram was our first social media love, we have to admit we’ve been seeing other platforms. Yes, we have an open-relationship with social media. Sure, Instagram looks excellent, it’s spontaneous and exceptional at storytelling. But Twitter also has its charm: it’s witty, great with words and always on top of things, fast.
To declare our love for Twitter, we’ve launched a new Preppr feature for scheduling Twitter posts. Now, we’re ready to help you fall in love with Twitter marketing by telling you all there is to know about this social media platform.
But first, let’s get something out of the way.
Twitter and Instagram: Opposites attract
A robust social media marketing plan shouldn’t focus on only one platform. Yes, you can have your favourite (we all do). Still, you need to distribute your efforts to hit all your objectives and reach the diversity of your audience.
Fact is, Instagram and Twitter are two sides of the same coin. Each helps you reveal different facades of your business and enable you to reach several types of audience segments.
Instagram sure looks good, and its stats even more so. The platform’s usage among users is on the rise (from 34% to 37% out of social media users in the US) and the daily time spent by each is also growing. Not to mention that 73% of US teens actually state that Instagram is their favourite way of connecting with brands. And no wonder! Instagram enables quick visual gratification and exposure.
On the other hand, Twitter is as timely, but in a more wordy manner. It channels the latest news and boils them down to just a few characters to extract the essence. On Twitter is all about quick, witty content. In your brand’s strategy, this can translate in a great way to deliver news, jump on emerging trends or boost your customer support. With an average of 48 million active users in the US and 6000 tweets sent per second, Twitter is definitely a platform to include in your marketing mix to reach a more mature audience.
Twitter Marketing can and should be done
If you’re thinking that your brand is too visual to have a say on Twitter, Matt Pinner’s account will make you reconsider. A professional landscape photographer, Matt gathers 350k followers on Instagram and 135,7k followers on Twitter.
While he promotes his photography on both platforms, Twitter enables him to create a multi-dimensional persona by presenting a different side of his individuality. On Twitter, he can reach out, speak out and broaden his audience.
Employing various marketing tools to achieve your brand’s strategy is not only advisable but a must. If your audience covers a wide range of audience segments, then you need to address them differently and, most of the time, on different platforms.
Use Twitter Marketing to excel at:
- Engaging your audience
- Generating high-quality leads and even sales
- Nurturing a community around your brand/idea
- Providing fast and timely customer support
- Building a positive opinion/driving the conversation around your brand
Get Started with Twitter Marketing
Now that you know just how vital Twitter Marketing is, it’s time to get started. Uhm, how? You know we’ve always got your back. Here’s the A-B-C-D-E:
A. Pick the right handle
Your Twitter name and handle are two different things.
We, know, a bit confusing at first, but it will soon all make sense. The handle is the name that appears at the end of your Twitter URL and needs to be unique. It’s also limited to 15 characters and allows no spaces. When choosing a handle, you should make it as memorable, simple and easy to remember as possible. Stay away from special characters or too many symbols. Try to keep a consistency between your social media accounts.
On the other hand, your Twitter name, which appears on your profile, just under the profile pic, can be anything you want it to be as long as it fits the limit of 50 characters.
Take, for example, Dolce & Gabbana. The brand’s username is the full brand name, whereas the handle is simplified to be easier to write and remember.
B. Select your profile and cover pics
Your profile pic should be instantly recognizable and memorable. For brands, using the logo might be the best straightforward solution. For influencers and public people, their headshot is what usually works best.
Save your wild, creative, fun (we love those!) ideas for your cover photo. Here is where you can play around with different symbols, visual cues, perspectives or even reinforce brand messages with text.
C. Nail it with your Bio
And “nail” is the perfect word, because a Twitter bio is only 160 characters long. Instead of looking at this as a limitation, think of it as an encouragement to be creative and impactful. The focus should be on what your brand is and what it does.
Try to capture a tiny part of your brand’s personality in the tone of voice. Be humorous, be sober, be insightful, be whatever your brand is and, if you can make it sound natural, even boast a bit. Don’t forget to add relevant hashtags (you’re already familiar with the hashtag game from Instagram).
Or, if you’re @elonmusk, you only need a few emojis.
D. Create a schedule that follows peak hours
To gain track power with Twitter marketing, you need to be consistent. That means you need to accustom your followers (or future followers) with a posting schedule. Of course, you should always consider that spontaneity is one of Twitter’s significant benefits, but creating a backbone posting schedule is also crucial.
When creating your schedule, consider the peak hours on Twitter. While various studies try to determine the best posting windows, common sense is also a great indicator. The best times to post are usually around noon when most people have their lunch-break and are free to scroll around. After-work hours are also great (5PM onwards). Without any surprises, the weekend is a great time to tweet.
Speaking of the weekend, we know that you’d instead be tweeting for personal matters yourself (or simply lying low), so we’ve introduced a Twitter schedule feature. Give it a go and enjoy your weekend.
E. Strike the right balance of hashtags
Not too few, not too many. Hashtags make Twitter go tweet, tweet, so any good Twitter marketing strategy should be built on these. To start with, do your research. Then, strike the right balance. Studies show that posts containing hashtags perform twice better than posts without hashtags. However, add more than 2 hashtags, and your engagement will start to slide downwards. The best hashtags are those that add context to your tweet or even are part of your text. Don’t overuse and abuse them, because hashtags can come back to bring down your reach.
Ready for Twitter Marketing? Preppr’s with you.
The only acceptable answer is yes. Once you balance all the pros and cons, you’ll conclude for yourself. We’ll soon be back with more great tips and tricks that will make you (too) fall in love with Twitter marketing. Until then, get started!
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