Everyone knows that blue bird logo and iconic whistle anywhere. Twitter, the microblogging website with more than 217 million active daily users, is the ground floor where pop culture references are created and where the word “trending” came to be.
With so many users actively tweeting about their day and what they’re watching, using hashtags and mentions, this platform is an essential way for your business to immediately interact with your followers and users, engaging in UGC and retweeting any positive mentions of your brand. Big brands like Wendy’s, Ryan Air, and McDonald’s Chipotle all interact with their followers in a very relatable way almost breaking down the barrier between brand and consumer. This strategy allows the brand to create an interpersonal relationship moment with the person tweeting, addressing them by name, responding to their comment, and maybe even asking a follow-up question to create second-level engagement which leads to more exposure for your brand.
If you’re asking yourself, how can you leverage this website for your brand? Here are steps to make that happen.
1. Audit your account
The very first thing you want to do is look inwards. Checking your own account for follower count, engagement rate, and how often your post, is important to set a base level.
2. Check Competitors
Look around you and see what other brands in your industry are doing. It’s important to not stay inside the bubble that is your own account. See how often other brands are posting, the voice they are using, what kind of content are they posting, and how they are engaging with their followers.
3. Set Realistic Marketing Goals
Once you’ve got your basis covered you can now see how you want to grow your account. Using the SMART goal method you can set strategic, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely goals that you can check up on monthly and see how much progress you’ve made.
4. Use Trending Topics to Your Advantage
If you see that a specific topic or event is trending, like the Golden Globes or a specific topic is trending on Twitter, think creatively about how you can use that topic to talk about your business and tweet about it.
5. Use Hashtags Strategically
Like Instagram, Twitter uses hashtags for searchability and for message association. A super common use for this is when a show is airing and people want to talk about it they add the hashtag at the end of the tweet an example is #GOT, #Euphoria, and #TheWhiteLotus. However PR campaigns use this too, a famous example is #ShareACoke by Coca-Cola. Finding your hashtag for your brand can help deliver awareness and associate a certain message tied to your brand.
6. Engage with Your Twitter Followers
It can be easy to just Tweet into the void and never think about your Tweet again. However, engagement is key. Keep your notifications on for mentions and search your brand in the search bar to see what people are saying. When you see a Tweet that is positively mentioning your brand, make sure to reply to that tweet. When you engage in conversation with that follower, your reach expands and so does exposure. People will be more willing to tweet about your brand knowing you are active on Twitter.
