Twitter attracts 288 million active monthly users, these users send over 500 million tweets back and forth everyday (Twitter, 2015). Using twitter can give a face to your otherwise faceless company, it can add a personal touch to promotions, it can provide you with insight into your customers minds, and it can provide you a way of reaching huge untapped potential markets by getting involved. And here’s how you can get a brand popular on twitter!
Social Conversation
According to Patel (2015) there’s an increasing trend of social communication between brands and social media users, meaning it’s a better time to capitalise on this growing trend now more than ever! Replying to users and getting back to them will make them feel valued (Stelzner, 2014), it’s a fantastic way to boost PR and it’s quick and easy.
Social Conversation doesn’t just mean tweeting to and in response to your current followers it includes other elements like following current trends and sharing your brands voice! This can be done via the use of hashtags, something which Twitter has really revolutionised social media with! By brands using hashtags they are expected to gain a 16% bump in retweets than if they hadn’t, according to a 2014 Twitter study.
A great example of brands utilising social conversation with hashtags was the hashtag known as #TheDress, which was somewhat of a phenomenon where a photo of a dress appeared to be black and blue to some people, whereas to others it was white and gold. Whether the dress was black or blue/white or gold was irrelevant, what really mattered was how brands capitalised on this!
Palmer (2015) has compiled a list of lessons learnt from #TheDress when it comes to brands utilising social conversations:
– Make the most of your canvas, use the trends to promote your product, but have this done early.
– Keep an eye on the clock, timing is key and being late can prove fatal to the success of the campaign.
– Don’t try too hard, be engaging but be laid back about it, don’t ram the jokes down the users throats
If you’d like to see more discussion about #TheDress, click here. Additionally, if hosting a Twitter chat interests you, read Millers step by step guide.
Favouriting
Favourite someone’s tweet can make a user feel like what they said was valuable, as if it was appreciated, the user could then look at the page who favourited the tweet in question, if it interests them they might give it a follow, or better yet click on the brands website. This can be done by searching for keywords such as ‘street style’ and favouriting tweets relating to this, potentially reaching a larger target audience, obviously however, this can take considerable time so investing in apps such as Twitfox may be a good idea (Patel, 2015).
Twitfox allows you to enter keywords that you’d like to monitor and automatically like tweets with such keywords. By using this method Writingfloor received 467 followers from this in days, these followers visited their websites, and joined their communities giving them early criticism. However a word of warning, using an app like this may actually be disadvantageous, if the tweet favourited was negative there’s no way to monitor if you’re mass favouriting.
The use of images and videos
According to the aforementioned Twitter study upon what gets the most retweets, it would appear that including a picture or a video in your tweet will boost potential retweets by 35%(for pictures) or 28% (for videos), on average. So the use of pictures and videos is a surefire shortcut to your brands twitter success (Rogers, 2014). This doesn’t have to be particularly relevant to anything even being sold but still it’s a quick and easy way to generate more attention for your brand.
To see the full article on what engages users more on Twitter, follow this link.
Here comes the sun! Meet Firefly, our new addition to the Lattice Jelly Flat—coming soon! http://t.co/zLfZ8E3cMG pic.twitter.com/ww6OBTEW1J
— American Apparel (@americanapparel) June 13, 2014
American Apparel provide a very good example of using photos to get advertise your brand and products. This picture really promotes th shoes and the brand well, you have the vibrant yellow shoes contrasted against a bright blue sky in a way that looks effortless and natural Not only this but you also get to see the American Apparel logo, which is a nice touch!
The world asks ‘is Brazil ready?’ There is only one answer… #allin or nothing #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/zGTjsylEEG
— adidas UK (@adidasUK) June 12, 2014
Another great example is Adidas, they don’t push any particular product in this photo, but they promote the world cup, which their products will subsequently be used in, it was a great way to engage socially due to the mass excitement of the world cup and to subtly promote a brand.
Get your tees for the summer http://t.co/ZqBcA6QnPV
— AIFF Apparel (@AIFFApparel) April 23, 2015
If you look at AIFF Apparel’s tweet, I feel like it could have really utilised a photo or even a video, showing their new range, it would have been quicker for their followers, and got the point across like American Apparel or Adidas did!
Searching
Most users don’t know how to accurately use the Twitter search function. The search function will only find results for all terms included in the search, so searching ‘AIFF and OBEY,’ for example will only get tweets with the words: AIFF; and; OBEY, which may not really be what the user is looking for. However, using the advanced search engine you’ll essentially be able to search for either term specified in your search ensuring better results, (Gladstone, 2014)
A further tip for searches is to search phrases in quotations, ensuring you get the exact phase; note singular words do not need this!
Retweet
Users have no action to reply to a retweet meaning that you could be retweeting for no real reason, they can’t favourite it, nor can they reply automatically, so it’s somewhat futile for instant interaction.
Also if it’s a post that many people retweet you can become just a number, meaning that you’ve essentially clogged someone’s timeline, potentially discouraging them to no real avail. A good thing to do would be to Modify tweet, where the tweet starts with an MT and then puts the username, quotes the tweet and replies to the quoted tweet (Gladstone, 2014). Another option would be to quote tweet, which is a feature only available via the mobile app these days which essentially is the same as a MT. The issue with these two methods is that with 140 characters, quoting a tweet doesn’t leave much space to reply.
Here’s Gladstone’s example of a modified tweet:
Interact with the fans
Interaction with users is key, replying to them and making them feel valued is a sure fire way to go from a public entity to a having a more personal connection with users. This works well whether you’re the Twitter account represents a brand or a personal brand, the closeness of the relationship turns a casual fan into somewhat of a brand ambassador who’ll push your brand onto other people giving you promotion via word of mouth. It’s effective and it’s free, it also provides the brand with a deeper insight into their target market, allowing them to angle a campaign more effectively.
Here’s an example of Radio One host Greg James having interaction with a fan:
On a similar note this can be done in reverse to create valuable cross promotion (Patel, 2015). By reaching out to celebrities via tweets, there’s a potential that they’ll write back. If this persists over time you may get some valuable promotion for your page, think about it if your page is promoted by someone with 2 million followers you have 2 million eyes on the brand! If you don’t believe me check out the success of pretty much any product promoted in Oprah’s Favourite Things!
Reply to the right audience
If you start the tweet with an @ only that user and then their followers will see it, meaning a very limited scope of potential users can see it. This is good for customer service, in which problems can be dealt with somewhat privately but it’s not ideal if you want people to actually see the response. Say its someone singing the brands praises, an advisable approach to use this as a marketing tool would be to say thank you in a subtle way that lets all your followers know about it, starting the tweet with a . or a ‘Thank you very much @ will do this (Gladstone, 2014).
Check out Gladstone’s example of this:
Timing and Frequency
Now I personally am a huge fan for knowing how much to post on any social media site and then how frequently, Twitter is no exception to this. With the help of Social Bankers 2013 study, I’m able to guide you to the optimum posting time and frequency.
Their study highlighted that 3 tweets per day was optimal for maximum replies, however this seemed pretty minimal. Track Social (2013) also found that 3 tweets per day is the optimum for interaction per tweet, however if we consider the optimal number of tweets for interaction with followers overall their study suggested that tweeting up to 30 times per day would get the most interaction as a whole.
So for a personal page it looks like 3 tweets per day is a good benchmark, but for a business site, anywhere up to 30 is advised!
But what time is ideal to tweet?
in 2014, Mongello undertook a study identifying the best times to post on social media, this is a great tool for not just Twitter, but for any social media platform your brand operates on
In this she suggested posting on weekdays, between 1-3pm. However, if you are planning on tweeting up to 30 times per day please have some discretion for your poor followers who probably don’t want a barrage of 30 tweets all at once!
Some further ideas to enhance the success of your Twitter page;
- Use lists to organise your followers, it turns a wall of noise into an organised way of seeing what people are saying (Stelzner, 2014).
- Share interesting discoveries from the net to you followers (Taparia, 2015).
- Use humour to appeal to human nature, giving a face to the brand (Sprung, 2014).
Conclusion
The use of Twitter as a marketing tool cannot be underestimated follow the aforementioned tips in order to successfully market your brand on Twitter. Here’s a recap of the principles discussed in this entry:
- Be interactive with your followers
- Show your followers appreciation by quote tweeting and favouriting
- Show your brands human side with humour, and share discoveries with your followers
- Use lists to organise a somewhat confusing list of followers
- Enhance your tweets with pictures and videos
- Use hashtags to get capitalise on trending topics
- Remember how to search effectively
- Tweet up to 30 times per day for the most engagement, between 1-3 on weekdays is the optimal time!
Obviously Twitter cannot be the sole focus of your brands marketing campaign, but it’s a very big opportunity to capitalise on, in which this entry has summarised the ways in doing so.
References:
Gladstone. (2014). 7 Simple Twitter Marketing Tips. Available: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/7-twitter-marketing-tips/. Last accessed 16th April 2015.
Lee. (2014). Social Media Frequency Guide. Available: https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-frequency-guide. Last accessed 21st April 2015.
Mongello. (2014). Timing is Everything. Post Smarter Right Meow..Available: http://blog.sumall.com/journal/timing-everything-post-smarter-meow.html. Last accessed 21st April 2015.
Parker. (2015). How Brands Fit into #TheDress on Twitter. Available: https://blog.twitter.com/2015/how-brands-fit-into-thedress-on-twitter. Last accessed 16th April 2015.
Patel. (2015). 10 Digital Marketing Trends Of 2015 That Will Boost Your Strategy. Available: http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2015/03/09/10-digital-marketing-trends-in-2015-that-will-boost-your-strategy/. Last accessed 15th April 2015.
Rogers. (2014). What Feuls a Twitter Engagement. Available: https://blog.twitter.com/2014/what-fuels-a-tweets-engagement. Last accessed 16th April 2015.
Social Bankers. (2013). Tweeting Too Much? Find Out the Ideal Tweet Frequency for Brands. Available: http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/1847-tweeting-too-much-find-out-the-ideal-tweet-frequency-for-brands. Last accessed 21st April 2015.
Sprung. (2014). 12 Twitter Marketing Tips From The Pros. Available: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/12-twitter-marketing-tips/. Last accessed 16th April 2015.
Stelzner. (2014). Twitter Marketing: How To Succeed on Twitter.Available: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/twitter-marketing-with-mark-schaefer/. Last accessed 16th April 2015
Taparia. (2015). 5 Effective Twitter Strategies You Don’t Know.Available: http://www.forbes.com/sites/nealtaparia/2015/02/24/5-effective-twitter-strategies-you-dont-know/4/. Last accessed 16th April 2015.