When it comes to social media marketing, some channels are more intuitive than others. Facebook, for example, is so commonly used that just about everyone has at least a basic understanding of how they might market their business there. But what about Twitter? Apart from posting links to your company’s blog posts and articles, this platform isn’t quite as easy to crack as far as marketing goes.
That’s why we here at Zen Media have put together this guide to a few of the secrets we use when helping our clients with their Twitter marketing. It’s not really difficult to do – you just have to know the strategies and approaches that work, and have the resources to put them into action. Using these three strategies, you’ll be able to reach larger audiences and get them to engage with your content more than you ever thought possible.
1. Reach out to influencers.
This secret requires a little bit of upfront prep before you can put it into action. First, you’ll want to do some research – and some strategizing. Which other businesses or public figures active on Twitter are relevant to your target audience? If you sell nutritional supplements, think healthy lifestyle bloggers, fitness gurus, gyms, and companies that sell complementary products such as workout gear. If you sell software, think business advice bloggers, tech companies, and IT experts. Focus on the people and businesses from this group who have respectable followings on Twitter, and who generally see good engagement with their tweets.
The next preparatory step is to write blog posts and articles that somehow give a ‘shout-out’ to one or more of those influencers. You could compile a list of the top five fitness products for the summer, making sure to link out to each one on its company’s website and share the reasons why it’s such a great product. Or you could pen a response to a software blogger’s blog post, agreeing with a point they make and discussing it further, and encouraging your followers to check out their blog. You could even gather quotes from various bloggers, whether through actual email requests or just finding appropriate passages to quote from their sites, and then link out to each guru’s site.
Once your post is written, it’s time to tweet it out to your audience – but the trick here is to tag each influencer the post features in that tweet, as well. You could even create a separate tweet for each one, just letting them know you’ve mentioned them in a post.
Human nature being what it is, the influencers you tag are likely to retweet or share your post with their own followings, maybe with a thank you or a little humble brag attached.
And THAT is what gets your content and your business in front of a new audience full of potential new customers.
2. Learn the art of the hashtag.
You’re probably already aware that Twitter is all about hashtags. But do you know how best to use them to increase the reach of your tweets?
There are several different ways to take advantage of the benefits of using hashtags.
- Topical Hashtags – Hashtags are used to organize tweets based on content. So if you are sharing a blog post about new workout ideas, you could add #fitness. That way, people searching Twitter for content on the subject of fitness would easily be able to find your tweet. It’s a smart idea to add a topical hashtag to most of your tweets, so that they are findable by anyone looking for info on those topics, and not just seen by your current followers.
- Trending Hashtags – Of course you’ve seen the list of trending hashtags featured on the side of the page on Twitter. These can be news-related, humorous, or specific to the day of the week. Using these hashtags in your tweets is another great way to expand your reach and get seen by audiences you may not otherwise have reached. By jumping into a trending Twitter conversation, you demonstrate your brand’s relevance, and often, its fun personality – which is just what will encourage more people to follow you.
- Original Hashtags – Creating your own hashtags is an effective way to run a campaign or show off your existing reach. By encouraging your audience members to tweet relevant content using your hashtag, their followers will see your company’s name and be interested to see what it is their friend is so enthusiastic about – thus gaining you new followers.
- Event Hashtags – Attending or presenting at a trade show or conference? Be sure to use the event’s hashtag in all your posts sharing event news and related content. That way, anyone who is searching for information on the event – whether they’re in attendance or not – will see your helpful content and hopefully follow you for more.
3. Take advantage of Audience Insights.
Finally, just last year, Twitter began offering businesses an exciting tool that allows them to see the demographics (and much more) of their audiences, and of those who have engaged with their tweets. Audience Insights provides in-depth data about your audience’s:
- Demographics (such as gender, income, marital status, and education)
- interests (for example, fitness, or technology)
- lifestyle (such as occupation)
- purchasing behavior (such as buying style or past purchases)
- TV viewing behavior (which TV shows they watch)
- mobile usage behavior
Knowing this information gives you a huge benefit in terms of knowing what kind of content will appeal to your audience, and what will garner the most engagement with your tweets. And having the ability to produce strategic, data-driven content, rather than simply throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks, is how marketing pros find real success.
By using these three Twitter marketing secrets, you’ll soon be marketing like a pro, too! All it takes is some research and strategizing, some smart content creation, and some creativity, and you’ll be well on your way to growing your Twitter following and getting them to engage more than ever before – and that engagement is what leads, ultimately, to more sales.
