How many of you love Arianna Huffington? She's the brain behind The Huffington Post and now Thrive Global. I love her because she's just a simple person with high values to follow. And I need not mention her work ethics and passion she brings in.
Here's one of my favorite quotes from her about Twitter, which makes absolute sense to me.
"It's not just about consuming content, but sharing it, passing it on, and adding to it." — @ariannahuff
Whenever I chat with entrepreneurs and marketers running SMB shops, they all opine that Twitter should be a part of their social media strategy. Ok, no problem; I couldn't agree more. I believe that Twitter is a "must" social media platform for individuals and brands alike.
Why do I say that? As Arianna Huffington mentions in the quote above, Twitter is a platform where brands can pass on relevant information for their audience and add on to it. But sadly, if you do a random search for your favorite SMB brands, what you will witness is this - some random tweets like 6-7 months ago.
Want to know the reason behind the same? All SMB owners believe or come with this notion that all social media platforms function pretty much the same fashion, and every one of them is useful only for lead generation. So every SMB owner joins the platform, tweets some random stuff about their product or service, and expect retweets and likes. As that doesn't happen, they pass the judgment that "Twitter sucks".
Let me burst that bubble for you. Well, the platform doesn't suck, your strategy or tactic sucks. Twitter is a platform which you can leverage in multiple ways like
A platform to stay on top of the latest trends in your area of expertise
An avenue for content curation
An ideal place to meet your customers/prospects
A perfect meeting place to build relationships with the right influencers
A podium to show the "real" you to the world
Before we proceed, I want everyone to check out some brands that leverage Twitter as a platform not only for just sharing information but also as a customer service channel, as an entertainment channel for their audience, as a channel to collect feedback and so on.
Check out brands like Dominos Pizza, Starbucks Coffee, Buffer, JetBlue, and Burger King. These brands fall back on Twitter to keep their audience entertained, educated, and taken care of.
So before you write off Twitter from your marketing plan, I wanted to present 5 hacks that will help your Twitter marketing efforts. These hacks when deployed with the right goals, efforts, and patience will deliver immense results for your brand. So here we go:
1. Make Use of Your Bio
The bio is the most important element of your or your brand's Twitter profile. The bio, along with the profile picture, is the first thing that your audience will notice when they find you on Twitter. So you must ensure that your bio is well written and is complemented with a good profile picture.
Here is an example of a perfect Twitter profile from the bio perspective:
Why Gary Vaynerchuk's Twitter bio is perfect? First of all, he always is relevant - look at the black profile picture to show his support towards #BlackLivesMatter. He has also used twitter handles of all his ventures, which will be of interest to his audience. He has also shared his credentials - 5 times NY Times bestselling author and so on.
So how can you leverage your Twitter bio?
Here are a few ways to make use of your bio section
Highlight your relevant experience (use links, hashtags, or even other twitter handles)
Leverage hashtags relevant to your expertise (#Marketing, #SocialMedia)
Showcase your accomplishments (Where do you guest post, awards, and accolades)
Don't hesitate to show your passions and hobbies too. But make sure you aren't going too generic. (P.S: Nobody wants to know which flavor ice cream you prefer unless it makes real sense)
2. Participate in the Right Twitter Chats
Twitter Chats - Have you heard of them or participated in one of them? Well, they are like a virtual interview that is conducted by individuals and brands on Twitter. These chats will normally feature a guest and discuss a particular topic every time.
What can you do about Twitter Chats? Identify the right chats in your area of expertise or interest and be diligent in participating. Check out TweetReports and select the right chat based on your area of interest and schedule etc. Add a reminder for the chat in your calendar and join in every week.
Why Twitter Chats? Because these are
The perfect place to meet the right audience for your products and services
The perfect place to connect and build relationships with your target audience
The ideal place to meet and greet the right influencers from your industry
The perfect avenue to showcase your expertise to the right audience
The perfect place to learn and stay on top of the latest trends in your industry
3. Leverage Twitter Lists
How many of you know or have used Twitter lists? If you haven't, do not worry. Let's do this now. Twitter lists are an aggregation of profiles you can create based on your preferences and area of interest. These lists can be made public or kept private if you like.
How can Twitter lists help? Twitter lists help you:
Curate content from the right sources or people
Build a list of influencers you want to follow
Build a list of your prospects whom you want to build a relationship with
Build a list of customers who are your brand advocates and engage them better
Follow the latest trends by adding the right sources together
And the list goes on
4. Use Tools Like Followerwonk
Most of the SMB owners and marketers leave Twitter because they cannot find the right audience or people on the platform. This is tricky because it can get tough to find the right people if you don't know the keywords and hashtags they might use on their profile.
Enter - Followerwonk.
Followerwonk is a tool that can help you find the relevant twitter bios, compare twitter accounts, analyze your twitter account, and do a thorough analysis of your followers. It has both free and paid versions starting at $29 per month if you need advanced features.
This is the result which I got when I searched for the keyword "Marketing" in the tool. You can see the search results are around 50,000 profiles which I can sort by following or their followers. Another important feature you must take note of is the Social Authority score at the end of the results which depicts the influence of the profile.
5. Make Use of Innovative Twitter Features
Twitter is one of my favorite platforms not only because of Jack Dorsey, their cool CEO but also because of their relentless innovation to keep conversations happening. That is the reason behind the 330 million monthly active users and 145 million daily active users of the platform.
Now my last hack is for you to leverage all the innovative features Twitter has to offer. These features will help you be a very modern and authentic brand on the platform. So let's have a look at some of these features.
Have fun with gifs
Gifs are fun and short video snippets that convey your message or response in an entertaining fashion. Twitter allows usage of gifs in the platform and loads of brands make use of the same.
How to use them?
Schedule your tweets (Latest Feature Alert)
Now Twitter allows you to schedule your tweets in the platform itself. This allows to plan your messages without having to rely on some tool.
Make use of a series of tweets to share your message
Sometimes individuals complain that the character limit hampers their messaging. So now you can share your longer messages and communication using a series of tweets. Instead of a single tweet, your message will be shared across a series of tweets.
How to use a series of tweets?
Final Thoughts
So these hacks will help you generate better results from your Twitter marketing. The most important thing to keep in mind while striving to build your community on Twitter is that, like any other social media platform, it takes patience and persistence to accomplish your goals.
Happy Tweeting!!! Stay Safe; Stay Healthy.