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What is the Purpose of Twitter Anyway?

Those that are unfamiliar with Twitter, think of it as a place to share “what you had for lunch” and spam each other with useless information. This is true of some Twitter users, but for the most part the purpose of Twitter is to find and share interesting information relative to your industry and interests and connect with prospective customers/business partners.

Social media – including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube – is quickly becoming an important element of a company’s overall marketing strategy to acquiring and engaging customers. The decision to use social media is no longer an option for many companies – it is a requirement to reach their target market.

Twitter is a way to communicate with customers and send brand updates. You can network with others in your industry, answer customer questions, and create campaigns to promote an event. What you can do and find on Twitter is endless.

Six Steps to Develop a Successful Twitter Strategy

To be successful on Twitter, you can follow this 6 step process to create a Twitter strategy.

  1. Have a goal in mind: Why are you on Twitter? To increase membership by 50 members? To raise $20,000 for your upcoming event? To secure 5 new company investors? To increase whitepaper downloads and webinar subscriptions by 20%. Be mindful of your goals and you will be able to measure success. Depending on your goal, your Twitter strategy will change.
  1. Assign an official social media manager: Your official social media manager can be an internal employee or outsourced company to help manage your Twitter feed. The idea of having an official social media manager is to have someone responsible for monitoring online mentions and staying active on your Twitter account.
    It is important that the person is familiar with your business goals and understands the ins and outs of using Twitter successfully.    
  1. Develop a Niche: Stay consistent in sharing information related to your industry and your business. You will get better qualified followers if you develop a “brand” for yourself on Twitter.
  1. Tweet Often: “How often to tweet” is a gray area in social media execution. But, the more often you tweet, the more interest and followers you will receive! I would suggest minimum once/day. There are some really great Twitter management tools like Hootsuite, Twuffer, and Tweetdeck that will allow you to schedule tweets. They are free to join and great time savers!!! You can schedule tweets to go out through the week without having to log in and out each day. Tricks! However, it is a good idea to check into your Twitter to see what sort of activity is going on that relates to you.
  1. Engage!!!: By continuing to post interesting information, some of your followers will help share your updates in their stream. But to develop real relationships with Twitter users, you need to engage with them by retweeting their posts, thanking users for sharing your updates, and sending personal messages/mentions.
    The purpose of twitter is to share information and connect. Reach out to those that you would like to develop a business or promotional relationship with.
  1. Track Campaigns: A popular Twitter term is a “hashtag”. A #hashtag is used to track conversations and campaigns. Attach your custom #hashtag to the campaign you have developed and engage in other conversations using hashtags.
    For example, “Join us at the ABC Social media conference #abcsocial”. A hashtag allows you to track user that are mentioning your campaign.

Hopping on the Twitter bandwagon

Everyone is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon. You are safe to jump, but will only be successful if you understand why you are there.

If your company has been exploring the idea of developing a social media strategy but lack the internal knowledge or time to commit, an online marketing and website services company could be a valuable asset in growing your online presence.

Mediaforce, a reputable website services company in Ottawa, has a diverse team of technical programmers, designers, social media specialists and SEO strategists who take the time to understand your business and get the job done. Ask us. We can help.

Contact MEDIAFORCE for help with your social media management.

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