12 Things to remember when marketing on Twitter

With more than 320 million active users, Twitter truly is a great marketing Tool if used correctly. It gives a marketer a platform to connect with the potential target audience. But a marketer needs to keep in mind a few important factors while working with twitter, otherwise it may lead to loss of brand image, followers and potential Customers. A few key points one needs to always remember while marketing on twitter.

#1) Not having a twitter marketing strategy: “Oh! It’s just twitter, I need to just formulate 140 character marketing Messages for my Brand and schedule my posts.” This is probably one of the biggest mistake a twitter marketer can make. Twitter is about constant engagement and engagement can only happen if one listens to and understands what the audience wants. One tweet going viral doesn’t mean that all your tweets will go viral. It’s important to constantly record the metrics. One must always have a long term and a short term communication strategy for twitter. This will result in better engagement, more re-tweets and Higher ROI.

#2) Not having a Defined Voice and Tone on Twitter: Like all communication strategies one needs to have a constant communication strategy, a constant tone and consistent message. People are following you on twitter to listen to something that is special only about you, steering away from that path can lead to losing followers. Define your brands voice before going on twitter.

#3. Overselling or Over-tweeting the Brand Message: Although Twitter is a dynamic platform where usually the life of a tweet is less than an hour, but having the same tweet in your feed multiple times can deter followers. It’s important to not only to tweet your own brand message, it’s also important to engage your audience and the best way is to re-tweet relevant content or Third party Content.

#4) Not Using Graphics in your Tweets: Research has shown that messages with graphics and Images tend to attract more attention as compared just plain text Tweets. This is also true for tweets thus remember to add interesting pictures and graphics to help your Tweet.

#5) Not Using analytic: It’s imperative that one measures the effectiveness of each tweet, although there are numerous analytic tools available, Twitter makes the job easier. The site has its internal analytic system which helps in understanding how each tweet is performing. One can also learn the demographics, the affinities and the locations of all followers. This in turn helps in creating tweets that are most likely to resonate with your followers.

#6) Ignoring Feedback: It’s important to address the feedback of customers ASAP on twitter, be it negative or positive this helps in increasing engagement. It’s important to nurture both negative and positive feedback. Ignoring customer comments on any form of social media is like ignoring emails, but as it is a public platform it is even more damaging. Replying to negative feedback tactfully and timely helps in creating an impression of customer focus.

#7) Buying Followers: “Oh! I have very few followers let me buy a few thousand followers” is what many marketers think. But one needs to consider a fact that twitter is all about engagement, and these bought followers may or may not engage with the brand. Many a times these followers consist of fake accounts and Bots which may add zero value to your twitter engagement. A good method instead could to promote your brand on twitter to increase your visibility and have more followers who would actually like to see the content you share.

#8) Not Using Hashtags correctly: “Oh! These are the trending hashtags, let me use them in my tweet.” Many a times a lot of marketers fall prey to this tactic as they would like to reach to a bigger audience, but is it really useful? Many a times, yes; but in most cases this may result in a situation where your tweet is drowned in thousands and millions of tweets. Also not using Hashtags in tweets is another big blunder many marketers make. Hashtags are used in twitter searches, also certain individuals follow certain hashtags. By intelligent use of hashtags one can reach the right audience.

#9) Automating everything: Many marketers and entrepreneurs schedule every tweet and send automated direct messages. While automation can decrease your workload, it reduces genuine interaction and your followers may start to feel like they are engaging with a corporate robot. When you automate everything, you turn your account into a ghost town. Your followers may start to wonder why they follow you as you are never available. As a result, you get unfollowed. If you schedule your tweets, be sure to monitor your account. Auto-tweeting can lead to epic blunders – and it has in the past.

#10) Creating a smart copy: “Want to Buy ---- Please follow this Link #discount” Such tweets lead to lesser engagement and re-tweets. One has 140 characters to play with use each character wisely. Also make sure that all spelling and grammar are correct, so proofread each and every tweet before posting.

#11) Availability is extremely important: Most twitter user are on twitter to connect with people and engage with brands. They would like to learn more about the brand and thus engage with it. Brands that focus on only promotional content loose out to those that engage better with their followers, Engaging with followers leads to higher impression share and improved brand recall.

#12) Not using the direct tweet Function: Many marketers know but shy away from tweeting directly to followers/non-followers. Twitter is a platform in which people can also directly tweet to people who they would like to engage with. This feature can help in initial follower building as well as well as help in defining the type of followers a brand will like to have.

Twitter might be easy to use, but marketing on the platform can be a difficult endeavor. Many social media marketers struggle to leverage demand generation from Twitter.

                                          

                                                                    By Ruben Das