I know. You have seen this kind of heading before right? True, there are many folk offering sturdy advice on using Twitter for business. But they all seem to leave out 5 really significant deal breakers that could mean your tweets get maximum visibility and actually WORK for you rather than disappear into Twitter cyberspace with nothing but a poof of turquoise smoke!
Get it into perspective. Many of my clients really worry about not being on Twitter at the right time to catch the relevant info but with careful planning, scheduling and knowing what to look for, you can safely turn your lappy or phone off and… well…Get a life!
Let’s face it, Twitter accounts won’t mean much to us when we’re long gone but depending on what your brand is, they could be a legacy or be passed down as assets. I’m deadly serious. Ahem. Yes so it you have a strong and steady online network, forget about the real estate! Double Ahem.
Hmm. Even more reason to build up a indestructible account right? (She says with little finger strategically placed on corner of mouth)
Ok, so here we go. 5 things to remember when engaging on Twitter for your brand or business:
1. Timing: Make sure you schedule or tweet at a good time for your brand.
i.e. if you are an event, tweet about it on Monday when people are looking for what to do at the weekend. A fashion brand? Tweet on the weekend as your industries engagement is 30% higher on Saturdays and Sundays. Also, first thing in the morning is an all round winner. Remember, the early Twitter bird, catches the worm.
2. Trends: Check out the relevant trends on Twitter, I said RELEVANT and do some quick Google research on them. Compose relevant tweets from that information that will enhance your business strategy and in turn increase brand visibility. Don’t get involved in complaints wars or angry discussions, unless it’s on brand of course. Keep that personal. I refer to my post on ‘A Day in the Life of an Opinionated Tweeter” as reference to the fact that sometimes, enough is enough!
3. Links: When using links in your tweets, please please please make sure they work! There is nothing more frustrating that following a dead link and wasting time. If you use social media monitoring software, they will offer you the brilliant service of shortening your link to half the size, which is great for Twitter posts. If not, you can use www.bitly.com. It’s a great way to keep all your links together, shorten them to smaller more versatile sizes and share with your friends/colleagues etc.
4. Hashtags. Referring back to a post ‘How to build a community online” we cover the importance of a hashtag. At this moment in time, hashtags are wrongly overused, used mostly for comedy value and not utilized enough to gather valuable information for your brand of business. Just like with your SEO and keywords, when writing content, you should keep a list of relevant hashtag words on your desk and get involved with the conversation. For other uses of hashtags within social media, click here.
5. Ask for an RT: What’s wrong with that? As long as you don’t do it all the time and ask in a polite manner, I see no reason why you shouldn’t just ask for people to share your stuff. You will be pleasantly surprised and also subtly educate those that aren’t in the know! Hey! If you don’t ask, you don’t get!
Andrea Britton is a Social Media Consultant and Strategist.
Her blog can be found at www.onlinepruk.com
Email her at info@andreabritton.com
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