Two-thirds of US companies use Twitter for marketing. In total, 500 million tweets are published every day. That’s a lot of noise to cut through.
We’ve collected a lot of expert advice over the years and learnt a lot from our own Twitter marketing. We’ve put together an easy to digest list of tips from the experts to help you develop a Twitter marketing strategy. With the right plan, you can cut the noise and maximise your engagement.
Twitter marketing strategy for content
Create great content
Twitter is a great tool for promoting your content, but it isn’t a magic box. Make sure your content is valuable and relevant to your audience.
Create great content that solves pain points and work on building as much earned attention on social media that is as global and engaged as possible.
Jeff Bullas (@jeffbullas)
Tweet the same content more than once…
Unlike most social networks, Twitter doesn’t curate the content you see by using an algorithm. Instead, the reverse chronological timeline displays Tweets from everyone you follow in one continuous stream. The sheer volume of Tweets means that a single one about your newest blog post will be missed by a large number of your followers.
Don’t be afraid of tweeting the same content more than once. In fact, one study suggests that the second or third tweet relating to a particular topic may perform better than the first.
…but make the Tweets different
While it’s a good idea to publish multiple Tweets pointing to the same content, making the text and image of the Tweet different each time ensures that your feed looks more engaging and interesting. This method also allows you to analyze the types of Tweet that are most successful, by looking at clicks and engagement in an analytics platform.
Be consistent
Your Twitter handle should have a specific identity, rather than trying to be all things to all people.
Publishing a stream of fragmented, unrelated posts on your social media channels is an easy way to lose followers – and credibility. This is a tactic that is easily said, and harder executed. Pay attention to industry news, read other people’s posts, and think before replying.
Will McInnes (@willmcinnes)
Twitter marketing strategy for curation
Be a resource, not an advertiser.
By sharing highly relevant content from other sources, you position your brand as an authority. If you can be a helpful source of information for your industry, your own content appears as another helpful piece of content rather than pure self-promotion which is lest trustworthy.
The number of people publishing content on social networks is growing at a staggering rate. Standing out means not trying to be all things to all people. Stand for something specific and focus on going deep on that topic with your messaging, engagement, connections and content. Become the best answer for what you want to be influential about, and stand out by being unique.
Use social media to find fresh content
Twitter lists can be a great way to monitor what the industry is talking about. You can make several lists. The most influential people, the thought leaders, the top websites. All will be publishing their own content that can be retweeted.
Using social listening for content marketing research will help you to discover topics to write about, but also will surface interesting articles to share on Twitter. The more channels you can discover content through, the more sources you are likely to be able to share.
Use tools and more to discover content
BuzzSumo is a great tool for discovering relevant content, from monitoring popular domains to particular topics. The problem is it will surface content that is already being widely shared.
To show yourself as a leader, you need to start rather than follow conversations. Sign up for newsletters, LinkedIn groups and other sources of fresh content.
On social networks be helpful 85 percent of the time by sharing and engaging, 10 percent publish original content and less than 5 percent talk about what your organization does.
David Meerman Scott (@dmscott)
Make your tweets look good
Use link shorteners
Link shorteners were popular for the character space they saved, but now any URL will take up 23 characters, whether it is longer or shorter than that.
Link shorteners are still used though, as they will make your tweets look neater. Popular services include Tinyurl, Ow.Ly and Bitly.
Be visual
Adding videos and images is a must for your Twitter marketing strategy. It makes your Tweets stand out and look more attractive.
They also earn more engagement – Twitter research has shown videos gain 2.8X more retweets than Tweets without. Buffer discovered that Tweets with images earn 1.5X the engagement.
Use the right size images
All images can be JPG, GIF, or PNG. Your header photo should be 1500 x 500 pixels. Your profile photo should be square, and is recommended to be 400 x 400 pixels.
In-stream images should be a minimum of 440 x 220 pixels. The maximum size to appear expanded is 1024 x 512 pixels. The maximum file size is 5MB.
Go here for more details on Twitter image sizes.
There are several free image resize tools available online, but Resizeimage.net is easy to use and flexible.
Write a good bio
Writing an engaging bio that clearly explains what you do will help people to know whether they want to follow you or not. Include a link to your website to drive referral traffic and allow users to discover more.
I won’t shame them, but I recently came across a company who’s bio was so short and obscure I couldn’t work out what they did. When I clicked the link it took me to a login page, meaning I would have had to sign up just to find out what they did! Needless to say, I didn’t bother.
Twitter marketing strategy for higher engagement
Perfect your timing
There are several studies that outline the best times to post for increased engagement. Often these aggregate a lot of data, but don’t assume the large dataset makes it foolproof. Every business is different, so brands should conduct an analysis of their own tweets to discover tailored schedules.
Use an analytics program like Tweriod to understand the best time to tweet. Tweriod will tell you when your audience are online and when your Tweets gain the most exposure.
Make sharing easy
Use tools like Click to Tweet or the Digg Digg WordPress plugin to allow readers to share posts direct from your blog. Make it easy for people to share your articles with only a couple of clicks.
Lead the conversation
You can use social intelligence tools like Brandwatch to ensure that you are leading conversations and developing a winning social media content strategy.
Make sure you are part of the conversation, or even better, leading the conversation on social when something is going viral. If you’re not part of the moment, you cannot influence it.
Respond to questions quickly
When Tweeting a brand, 42% of survey respondents want a response within an hour. 57% expect the same level of response regardless of the time of day. Social customer service can make customer care cheaper, deliver quicker response times and lead to happier customers.
Schedule your Tweets
Tools such as Hootsuite allow you to schedule tweets, meaning you can get the whole day’s worth of tweeting done first thing in the morning, and cover the weekends too. This allows you to plan out your Tweets and promote each piece of content multiple times.
Create a competition
Competitions can drive a lot of engagement. You need to make sure it is fitting for your audience, but done well a good giveaway can increase engagement and expand your reach. Honda grew social buzz by 1221% by drawing a lucky winner from the thousands of users who had retweeted a Honda Tweet announcing the competition.
Twitter chats
Twitter chats can help build authority, help you connect with customers and prospects, promote your brand beyond your usual audience and increase your reach. We’ve put together a list of the top free Twitter chat tools to help you run your own.
