Companies recognize that engaging on social media networks is important. Many just aren’t sure how to approach it. Fact is, there are often more pressing initiatives to handle day-to-day.
Consider Twitter. Some people can’t see what the value is. You probably need to “dive in” to understand the attraction, but here’s a primer:
Some folks view Twitter as a “microblogging platform.” It enables a business or individual to communicate a thought, idea, or opinion in an immediate, yet concise way. (140 characters or less to be exact.)
“Start your social media strategy with Twitter. More than 60 percent of users pass along content that they think aligns with their goals and values.” —Laura Montini
Consider the advantages of Twitter for the individual user: There are thousands of ideas floating around the Web. Rather than having to meticulously search for the ones you care most about each day, why not have them come to you?
With Twitter, you can follow just the users whose ideas and opinions you care most about. It enables you to select the news sources, thought leaders, tastemakers, personalities, and brands you allow to stream through your Twitter feed on a daily basis.
Also, many of those sources will include weblinks with their tweets. That enables you to find long-form stories quickly and conveniently.
“Times such as lunch or before and after a meeting are when folks are likely to be taking a quick peek at Twitter, so try timing posts for the lunchtime period and for just before or after the hour to take advantage of the postmeeting crowds.” —Jeff Haden
Next, consider the upsides for a business. Certainly the microblogging aspect can help you comment on industry events and easily get your ideas out. But adopting a Twitter handle also provides visibility and helps you drive traffic to your website. Additionally, you can categorize the tweets you post by topic using #hashtags, so people can find ideas they want to learn more about. When you leverage hashtags in your tweets on a regular basis, it can help you build authority as a resource.
“When you use a hashtag that’s trending, you have a substantially better chance of getting engagement from people who aren’t your followers.” —Gary Vaynerchuk “A brand can experience up to a 50 percent increase in engagement when they use a hashtag.” — Aj Ghergich
As a business on Twitter, it will serve you well to contribute. If your tweets are all self-serving, folks won’t be as motivated to follow you. Offer relevant ideas, useful updates, or even some humor on a regular basis, and your business can build an audience of followers that are uniquely open to hearing from your brand.
“Once you’ve established connections with followers, you can start to drop in offers to turn social media activity into online and offline sales. You can even personalize offers to specific social media in a hyper-targeted manner.” —Rebecca Borison
There’s no doubt Spark Creative can help you leverage Twitter better and help you gain twitter followers. It will help to have a point-person to collaborate with us from the inside. But, once your Twitter handle is selected and secured, we can help apply branding that helps synchronize your efforts with other channels. From there, we can work together to gather relevant ideas, develop new content, fine-tune hashtags, optimize timing, and then evaluate social engagement levels after posts go out. We can write a setlist of tweets, research hashtag ideas, and structure tweets to be retweeted.
Surely, social media marketing can seem like an ever-expanding initiative that requires ongoing attention. But you only get what you put into it. The Spark Creative team can help you establish a good content foundation to begin with, then help you build it out and lead on engagement activities.
We offer comprehensive content development and social media marketing assistance that can include just about any related activity — like posting updates, blog articles, photo research and customization, infographics, illustrations, and more!
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Sources may include:
9 Best Practices for Promoting Your Business on Social Media, Rebecca Borison
7 Simple Social Media Moves That Work, Allison, Fass, Inc. Magazine
How to Master the 4 Big Social-Media Platforms, Gary Veynerchuk, Inc. Magazine
14 Powerful Social-Media Sharing Strategies You Aren’t Using, Jeff Haden, Inc. Magazine
The Best Social Media Tips of 2014, Laura Montini, Inc. Magazine
Hashing Out the Almighty Hashtag, Aj Ghergich, SocialMediaToday