Remember the number one rule of social media: ‘no-one logs in to be sold something'. So your business communications on Twitter need to give value and to promote your brand without seeming to do so.
Before starting to tweet, look at the setup of your Twitter page. This is a great place to begin your low-key marketing. The background can be changed to show your corporate colours or images, and the avatar can carry your logo. The bio space gives a few lines about your company and what you do, and you can also add links to your websites.
The main rule on Twitter is forced upon users by the site and is simply to ‘keep it short'. Twitter gives you just 140 characters in which to make your point. If you are including a website address, that will only give you 117 characters of content excluding the URL in the shortened Twitter format. Hence every word needs to count. The standard rules of grammar and spelling are not in abeyance on Twitter – ‘txt-speak' and misspelled words must be avoided as they simply make you look unprofessional. One or two standard abbreviations are acceptable, such as using the ampersand sign instead of the word ‘and'.
The next item with which to catch user attention is the hashtag. This is simply a word prefixed by a hash sign, and links together all the tweets that contain the hashtag. This makes it easy to search for conversations and also provides measurable results when used with various apps. Keep your hashtag short, byusing abbreviations where they are understandable. You don't want your hashtag using too much of the character limit.
Search engine keywords can be another key part of the strategy. These can be included in your tweets, provided that they fit in with the context. Some forward planning on tweets is helpful when trying to incorporate keywords – this needs inspiration, so keep a notebook handy as you may find that you get sudden ideas at unusual times. Sitting staring at a screen awaiting ideas is not a constructive use of time.
In all this, don't forget that you must be interesting! No-one will follow a Twitter feed that contains nothing but links and repetitive announcements. Promotional activity has to be balanced with conversation. Think of things that will attract replies and re-tweets. Keep your tweets positive and lively. There's nothing wrong with being controversial but always remember that you are the voice of your brand. This is a big responsibility for social marketing – management won't be happy if you have said something that shows the company in a poor light.
Be credible: accounts that follow many more people than they have followers usually belong to spammers, so make sure that there is no ‘auto-follow' app that puts you at risk of this situation. Consider ways to attract more followers before starting to follow large numbers of other accounts.
You will also want to make sure that people believe that you are who you say you are, and not an impersonator. This is more of an issue for celebrities, but companies will also want potential followers to feel confident that they are talking to the right people.
Twitter has a process for confirming who owns accounts. The coveted ‘verified account' badge shows users that the page is really that of the brand concerned, but it is not possible to request one of these badges. Twitter will verify accounts that they consider to be at high risk of impersonation, which applies to both celebrities and high-profile businesses. The methods of verification are not published for obvious reasons.
Follow basic Twitter etiquette. Be careful how you set up your Twitter apps, and make sure that they aren't going to discourage followers. For instance, don't send an automatic direct message to every new follower, and certainly don't acknowledge every tweet or re-tweet. Even the most dedicated fan of your brand will quickly switch off if you smother them in unwanted input.
It is important to know when it is better to use a direct message, as opposed to replying on the public feed. A direct message is private and is a better place for a long conversation or details that should not be broadcast. Make it clear that this has happened on the public feed, so that your other followers do not think that you are ignoring someone.
Keep the feed active: Twitter accounts where nothing is happening do not look good. Plan a strategy for coherent content, and try to associate your tweets with relevant events. For example, a sporting brand would run activity around big matches or races, and a fashion brand will be talking about upcoming shows or the new seasons' trends. Use suitable hashtags so that people discussing the events will be more likely to come across your feed.
There's no need to be clock-watching to get your tweets out at the right time. Automated tools allow you to schedule tweets at regular intervals, or at times when you know that your target audience is likely to be listening and available to respond. This is especially useful for sites with a reach across time zones. The automated tools mean that the social marketing management team do not need to work antisocial hours, nor do they need to be claiming costly overtime.
Protect Against Hacking: Twitter has been subject to some mass hackings where passwords have been compromised for many users. There is no such thing as a totally secure website, so make sure that your Twitter password is not the same as that used on other accounts. Other precautions that you should take include:
• Choose a strong password, be careful who knows that password and change it regularly.
• If the account is used by several people in the social marketing management team, do take care that the password is kept secure. Post-it notes on screens are not the place to record passwords!
• Be on the watch for ‘poisoned tweets'. These are tweets that lead you to a link that could infect your computer with malware, and then acquire your
Twitter account login details. Once that happens, you have lost control of the account.
It is interesting to note that from the metrics, a hacked page produces huge amounts of activity that would cost a great deal of money to purchase. However it would be risky to leave your account vulnerable to take advantage of this.
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