Tweet the talk: 5 ways to make the most of Twitter for your business
Filtered Media's very own social media whiz, Sarah Fairley, lays out her top five tips for getting the most out of Twitter for business...
As a social media manager I'm often asked how to make the most of Twitter for business and why it's so different to Facebook when it comes to sharing content. Here are my top tips:1. It's important to consider what you're trying to achieve.Ask yourself what you want your followers to do with the tweet: Do you want them to click through and read the piece of content? Do you want them to engage with the post by retweeting, "favouriting" or replying? Do you want more hits to your website? Do you want to provide customer service or support? Are you looking for information that will help you learn more about your audience? Do you want to increase your Twitter followers?Then depending on your end goal, you can determine the best way to compose a tweet to reach your target.2. If it is an increase in click throughs you're after, sell it and sell it well!Just as you would create an alluring headline for a story you write, the same goes for a tweet. You want to attract your audience and then entice them to click through, so to do this you need to create an impactful statement or sales line.Consider a great quote or statement from the story itself that would leave a follower begging for more. Usually something short and sweet, without giving too much away, is most effective. For instance:https://twitter.com/filteredmedia/status/5997262951870955523. Make sure to 'mention' people and brands to increase reach.If the story touches on companies, brands or spokespeople, include them in your tweet. This means that the tweet will show up in their @mention notifications which brings it to their attention, and then there's an opportunity for them to retweet it from their account. This casts a wider net for your business as well as giving your tweet credibility if they are well-known.There's a way followers can search @mentions of certain accounts - if they are already fans of the person mentioned and your tweet is in the search stream, there's a greater chance they will be interested in clicking through and reading your content.https://twitter.com/filteredmedia/status/597350440448196608https://twitter.com/filteredmedia/status/597509041280155648Hashtags are also a great way for your tweet to become part of a relevant conversation happening on Twitter - but only include if them if they're appropriate to your objectives and to the story. Hashtags are another way your tweet can be found by the right audience through a different channel than simply following your account.4. Consider your characters.As you know, Twitter allows you 140 characters in total for your tweet. However when you are including shortened links and images, these are included in those 140 characters.
Want more? Try this: Is the last piece of content you made worth sharing?
An easy way to ensure that you are within your limit is to compose the tweet in Twitter (just don't hit post!), Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. The Social Media Manager will love you if this has been considered before forwarding on, as it is a challenge to try and shrink tweets that are too long when you don't have the context of the story.5. It's all one glorious experiment.Feel free to try different techniques and then analyse the effectiveness of those techniques, if you are privy to the analytics, to determine what was most successful with your audience. This may mean experimenting with different types of content and different posting times throughout the day and week.
Want more? Try this: How to handle negative publicity on social
At the end of the day just remember that every audience is different and there's no real right or wrong way or set rules (unless governed by the brand or client, of course), so be creative and have fun!
All tweets are taken straight from the Filtered Media content team. You can follow us on Twitter here.
Want more? Try this: Why social media is crucial for brand storytelling