Tweet Smarter To Make Your Brand Outstanding
To most people, Twitter comes in one of two forms. It is either a go-to news source and information highway, or simply a daunting, endless platform that spews out new information every millisecond. Please trust me when I say that it is important, even though it can be daunting. If you want to know just how much people really tweet, and how popular this social media platform is, then check out this live feed: Live Feed of Tweets. That’s 350,000 tweets per minute, 500 million per day. How do you compete with those tweets? What kind of content do you put out so that your customers will engage with and respond to it? Here are my top tips for how to Make Your Twitter Brand Outstanding.
Provide Quality Content
Let me tell you right now, that if you’re going to create a Twitter account for your business, don’t just create it to tweet about useless information, or about things that don’t offer value. Twitter is a fast platform. People’s Twitter feeds zoom by, and if you tweet without any thought to how your content will be received, I guarantee you that you’ll see nearly zero interactions. So just how do you create quality content? Here’s a quick tip. Look at your market, and your audience. Ask yourself, who am I talking to? You probably do this in every day marketing strategy, but when it comes to Twitter, it almost couldn’t be more important.
Think about who you are talking to, and then think about what those people would like to hear. How can you offer them value? Here’s a little chain you can use to get to “the point” of the tweet. I’ll use the example of a local coffee shop.
Who is my target audience? What kinds of things is my audience interested in? How can I convey that 
interest into a snappy tweet that offers value?
The key here is to know your audience. Here’s an example of a good tweet for the above scenario:
Stuck in a coffee rut? Sick of your home-brewed bev? We’ve got you covered. Here are our Top 5 Secret Brews to Try. #CoffeeYum
What’s trendy about this tweet? You tell your audience right off the bat that you’re giving some hot info on some hot drinks, which is essential to the brevity of Twitter, and to the constant stream of content on users’ Twitter feeds. That 140 character Twitter limit? No prob. You offer your audience valuable content, are upfront about it, and aren’t just saying, BUY OUR COFFEE. You’re offering something to your customer, and in turn are creating a relationship with them, which is what social media marketing is all about. A fun hashtag doesn’t hurt, either.
Of course, this tweet should be followed up with a short link (Twitter shortens links for you) to a feature page on your coffee shop website with the new drinks you have available, along with some delicious descriptions and professional photos. Voila! Now you’ve not only worked on building a relationship with your customer, but you’ve also had the opportunity to turn a tweet into a sale.
You’ve answered the Who–people who appreciate great coffee–the what–the great coffee–and then have created an interesting tweet from that info.
When it comes to hashtags, a great idea to consider is to create a store hashtag. Be careful what you choose, because you want it to be something that’s only attached to your store, but try to come up with a creative hashtag that you can use for your coffee features at your store.
Key points: offer solid content, offer solutions, make sales.
Respond Like a Friend
One of the beauties of Twitter is the friendliness of it. With Twitter, you’re able to interact with celebrities (if they’re kind enough to let you), major brands, and even news anchors if your little heart desires. Where does this leave you as a company? It leaves you with the most important connection of all: the connection to your customer.
There are a number of ways that you can approach responding to your customers, admirers, or fellow business people, but the key here is in the response. A customer tweets to you? Respond with courtesy and timeliness. A businessperson says that they like your page? Respond with a pleasant thank you. One of the biggest mistakes that a company can make, is getting so wrapped up in their tweets and profile that they don’t see the value in responding to other people. Trust me when I say that there’s a goldmine of value in it.
Don’t Automate
What’s important about social media, again? The connection and the relationship. One of the biggest ways that this can be ruined is by automation. I’m talking about automatic response tweets, and automatic Direct Messages. There is nothing worse than getting a message like this after following someone:
Thanks for following! We appreciate it. Go check out our new products: (insert obnoxious link)
If someone followed you, most likely it’s because they’re already interested in your website, so why would you bombard them with guerilla-like Twitter marketing tactics? You don’t need to do this, trust me. I know a lot of people and businesses who use this technique, and though there is a click-through rate, and there is some response to it, mostly there isn’t, and most times the messages are left unread. Usually you just end up with the possibility of losing the opportunity to personally interact with your customer.
Key point: go for the real, not the artificial.
In summary…
On Twitter, the goal is to make a connection with your customer on a friendly basis. You want your customer to be interested in your Twitter account, not because you bombard them with links or useless tweets, but because you offer helpful, informational—perhaps humorous, depending on your brand—140-character-or-less snapshots of awesomeness. Remember that you don’t have to automate to be on top of the game, and that your goal is to be someone your customer responds kindly to. The name of the game is interaction, and the more interaction you can kindle, the better. Kindle that interaction, you incredible entrepreneurs and businesspeople.
Image attribution: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/twitter-adds-translation-tool-powered-by-bing-9998166.html
http://rockyourwriting.com/2011/06/target-audience-profile-pt-1-2/
http://blogs.aspect.com/category/consumer/social-networks-c/
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- Tweet Smarter To Make Your Brand Outstanding - April 7, 2015
