Social Media Spotlight: Twitter

Thinking of getting on Twitter? This bite-sized platform is a great place to market your business. But it can also be intimidating if you aren’t familiar with the platform. Here, we cover important information about Twitter so you can be comfortable with marketing your business on this social media platform!

Twitter was started in February 2006 by Noah Glass, Jack Dorsey, and a German contract developer, Florian Weber. Noah Glass had recently started a podcasting start-up named Odeo with investor Evan Williams. When Apple announced that iTunes would include a podcasting platform, Odeo executives and employees chose to change the direction of the company. Employee Jack Dorsey came up with an idea where sending a text to one number would broadcast it to all of your friends. Glass named it “Twttr.” One month later, Odeo had a working prototype. By Fall, Twitter had thousands of users. In the spring of 2007, Twitter took over the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas. Now, Twitter is one of the biggest social media platforms, and a popular marketing platform, with 330 million monthly active users and 134 million daily active users.

Twitter is primarily compromised of “tweets.” A tweet is a 280-character post that can include images or a short video. Tweets can also include “hashtags” which are words or phrases prefaced with a pound sign (#), which are collated into trends that users can view. Users can view tweets from other users that they follow on their home feed. Users engage with tweets that they see by liking them, replying to them, or retweeting them onto their own profile. Their followers can then see these interactions on their own home feed, resulting in a chain-effect where content spreads through online word-of-mouth. These interactions keep users up-to-date with the latest information from businesses that they may follow, making it a strong platform to keep your customers in-the-know.

Twitter’s emphasis on bite-sized information makes it a tough but rewarding platform for businesses. Users scroll through their feed quickly, so the average lifespan of one tweet is only about 18 minutes! That means that it’s critical that your tweet is witty and engaging to spread among users. The character limit means that every word must inspire the reader to engage with your content. However, businesses are not limited to text only. Multimedia tweets, tweets with images or videos, often get 150% more retweets. Additionally, effective hashtag use can start trends that engage an audience wider than your followers. In fact, tweets with hashtags reportedly receive 2x more engagement than those without! Twitter is all about sharing easy-to-consume information on a regular basis to keep users engaged with their content and products, and it pays off: 40% of Twitter users report making a purchase after seeing a product on Twitter!

Twitter is an influential platform that is especially popular for people in media such as actors, entertainers, musicians, authors, and journalists. As a business, it might seem like your tweets can’t make headway compared to all of these influential users. But here are some quick tips to get started on Twitter:

-Try a Twitter tool that can help you schedule tweets at optimal times when your customers are engaged.

-Try using only one or two important hashtags in each tweet; tweets with hashtags get 100% more engagement than tweets without but using too many tweets can feel overwhelming.

-Users also love video content; add a video to make your tweet standout.

-And, with only 280 words, but plenty of ways for users to engage with your tweets, try direct calls-to-action!

Every little bit matters on Twitter, so make sure that you’re keeping your tweets honest, engaging, and direct. Follow these tips when tweeting, and get your customers engaged!

Social media is becoming more and important for marketing, and Twitter is one of the most popular platforms out there. Have any questions or issues with Twitter? If you have a small business and need help navigating Twitter or any other social media platform, reach out to us!