5 Ways Brands Can Harness Full Power of Twitter

Emily Maupai Zinberg - 04/17/2020

Before you create a brand presence on Twitter, review these 5 tips that will help you harness its potential for your greatest benefit.

alt=twitter-users-graphicIf you’re looking to create a brand presence on Twitter, it’s important to understand the platform’s features and tools so you use it to your advantage. Twitter differs from other social media platforms in many ways; from the type of content shared to the way users engage with it. Throughout this blog, we will review five tips that will help you harness the power of Twitter for your brand’s benefit.

1. Set Goals
What do you want to accomplish for your brand on Twitter? A larger following? Increased engagements? More website traffic? Goals and objectives are unique to each business or brand; not everyone is looking to achieve the same thing. Some brands use Twitter to spread brand awareness; others use it to directly engage with their consumers or provide customer service. Talk with your marketing team or social media agency to identify your goals. This will ensure everyone works to achieve the established objectives and your brand is getting the most out of Twitter.

We recommend setting measurable goals to help track success. Here are some examples:

  • Email/newsletter sign-ups
  • Follower growth
  • Website referral traffic
  • Contact form with inquires
  • Purchases
  • Downloads of an eBook or guide

A sound social media agency (we know one, if you’re looking ?) can help you set goals before implementing a social media program on any platform. We also provide monthly social media reports to keep you updated on the strategy’s effectiveness and return on investment (ROI).

2. Incorporate Hashtags
Twitter originated #hashtags, with Instagram close on its heels. Hashtags should be a blend of trending items/news and your brand messages. They are essential because there are about 500 million tweetssent out per day. That’s around 350,000 tweets each minute. Users can narrow their searches for topics of interest. This is also why it’s important to research relevant hashtags  and identify those that make the most sense for your brand.

Conversation Hashtags
A fitness brand might tweet, “I will not erase all my hard work this week because it’s the weekend. #FridayMotivation”.The fitness company is using the popular hashtag #FridayMotivation to contribute an inspirational quote to the conversation. By doing this, the brand is plugging itself in to a broader conversation and increasing its visibility beyond existing followers.

If someone is looking to stay motivated in health fitness journey through the weekend they can search the hashtag #FridayMotivation. In doing so, this user could come across the fitness brand’s tweet and potentially become a new client.

Here’s another example. If you are a local restaurant in New Jersey, popular local hashtags you might utilize are #NorthJerseyEats or #NJFoodie, while broader ones would be #Foodie or #FoodieFriday. We recommend using 2-3 hashtags per tweet. If you add too many your tweet will be harder for users to find and can get lost in the “Twittersphere.”

Branded Hashtags
Another tactic is to establish a hashtag for your brand or a specific event. 3E PR implemented this tactic for a healthcare client by creating hashtags featuring their brand name and affiliate hospitals. Through social media monitoring, we were able to pick up Twitter chatter from users who started incorporating those hashtags into their own content when talking about our client. This is a perfect example of how your own hashtag can lead to something bigger.

Trending Hashtags
Lastly, it’s always a great idea to utilize hashtags that are trending, which can always be found on the left side of the Twitter homepage. Most correlate with popular news. For example, as I am writing this blog, #COVID19 is currently trending.

Trending hashtags are a great way for brands to join popular conversations in real time. It’s important to not jump into any conversation just because it’s trending, though.  We only recommend participating if your brand has something relevant to contribute.

3. Utilize Twitter Tools
Twitter has been around for over 10 years and in that decade some neat tools have been developed, especially for brands. Here are some to consider:

  • Twitter Brand Surveys: Quick, easy queries that appear on users’ timelines prompting them to share their perceptions on companies and products. Results are posted from the @TwitterSurveys account. This is a great tool to get feedback straight from the source (your consumers) and Twitter sends a report back to you within 10 business days.
  • Tweetdeck: This feature creates a more convenient Twitter experience for brands looking to track and monitor activity surrounding their account. It lets you view multiple timelines in one easy interface. You can also manage multiple Twitter accounts, schedule Tweets for posting, and organize/ build Tweet collections. The collections are great feature if you are ever interested in tracking a certain event or hashtag. You can create “searches” to filter tweets so you only see those that are relevant. You can refine your results with filters for each timeline as well.
  • Fleets: Twitter’s new and cleverly named tool is its own variation of “Stories,” similar to what you see now on Facebook and Instagram. The biggest difference is that Fleets aren’t overly public; people can only react to them by direct messaging. Brands can use Fleets to tease a new product or upcoming promotion in a quick and visual way to a very targeted audience.

4. Interact with your Consumers
One of the biggest advantages of Twitter is its direct accessibility to users in real time. With endless conversations on the platform 24/7, brands can find a relevant topic/conversation to join. More importantly, they can monitor the ones surrounding their own brand.

Twitter has become a popular place for people to complain, talk about or advocate for a brand/product. That’s why many companies, including Apple, create a dedicated Twitter support account. By doing this, brands have seen their response time go from hours to mere minutes.

Beyond support, brands can truly engage and interact with users in a way that has powerful and lasting impact. Take a look at this viral tweet from a user asking Wendy’s how many retweets he needed to get free chicken nuggets for a year. Wendy’s actually replied to him with “18 million” and, wouldn’t you know, the user received that number of retweets and Wendy’s kept its promise! You never know when a simple reply could lead to something bigger.

5. Twitter Influencers
Speaking of impact, brands and users alike know the value of social media influencers. What may be surprising is that some influencers specialize in certain social media platforms. An Instagram influencer might have less impact on Twitter. When considering this type of campaign, many brands overlook Twitter. That would be a mistake, as nearly 40% of Twitter users say they’ve made a purchase as a direct result of a Tweet from an influencer.

Twitter is more conversational, which is why a simple “shout-out” from a Twitter influencer about a brand can spark a word-of-mouth marketing campaign. Due to the rapid nature of content sharing on the platform, it is more likely that influencers will post about your brand multiple times a day or week compared to one post or story on Instagram.

Twitter is a great place for your brand to be if you are looking to grow your audience, interact with consumers and make a lasting impact. If you are interested in talking about a social media strategy, feel free to contact us!

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