Today we’re going to talk about Twitter – everyone’s favourite micro-blog platform that, from its creation in March 2006, has amassed over 330 million active monthly users.
While it’s true that Twitter did see a decline in usage over the last couple of years, mostly due to the introduction of so many other new social media platforms, it is showing every sign of being, once again, on the rise. It may not be rapid or tremendous growth, but the growth is still there – in active users, time spent on the platform and in engagement.
Twitter is still one of the best social media platforms for marketing, mostly due to its public user interface and today we will look over the 5 best ways to maximise its features to your advantage.
The Algorithm Advantage
Though there is a downside to algorithms, the advantages can’t be overlooked and the engagement benefits speak for themselves. Users seem to prefer filtering out less important updates and only seeing what they prefer to engage with. Twitter’s algorithm (introduced almost 2 years ago) advertises that you, as a user, will “never miss an important Tweet” and while the change has been criticized by users, the performance data speaks for itself.
So, from a marketing perspective, how can you use the changes introduced by the new algorithm to your advantage?
- More Engagement with Responses to Your Tweets and Mentions
You know that the new algorithm shows users more of what they might possibly like, based off tweets they’ve liked and users they follow. By Liking a Tweet, you increase the possibility that it will be shown to a higher number of users, both by putting it higher in the feeds of your followers and by showing it to your follower’s followers as well.
- Like and Re-Tweet Your Own Tweets
Because Likes and Re-Tweets are the biggest indicators of popularity, Liking and Re-Tweeting your own content can do wonders for your exposure. Sure, you may look a little self-obsessed, but the engagement on your posts will certainly increase, so it’s still a win.
More Characters
Despite the backlash Twitter received for their decision to double the length of Tweets back in September 2017, data results show that the increased amount of characters allowed has led to much more engagement than before.
The extra character capacity is an advantage from a marketing perspective as you no longer have to limit important information or sacrifice proper punctuation to make your point. You can also use it to direct more traffic to a blog post or website.
Advanced Search
Of all the ways you could potentially use Twitter to your marketing advantage, the advanced search feature may be the most effective one. Due to the public nature of Twitter, your reach is virtually unlimited and with advanced search tools, you can find a previously untapped demand for your supply and fill it with relative ease. By simply setting up a stream with every conversation using keywords based on your product, you can discover and fill a whole new customer base.
Threads
Just last month, the Threads feature was launched on Twitter, which enables a series of Tweets on the same topic to be strung together. One of the biggest benefits of this feature is that you don’t need to click on a link or open another app or webpage to see a conversation in its entirety and because the full thread is only accessible by clicking on the “See more” prompt, it is easy to add more content, explanation or replies without spamming your followers and other users. It’s a fantastic way to offer additional detail, instructions or context that will engage users without overwhelming them.
Video
It comes as no surprise that, as on virtually every social media platform, videos are the highest-performing type of post. While Twitter may not have quite the same popularity as Facebook and their live-streaming feature not as widely used, you can be sure they will continue rolling out better and easier ways to showcase the feature and prompt users to use it. This will lead to more opportunities for those publishing videos as Twitter’s algorithm will also evolve to recommend related video content, generating more engagement on your video posts. Twitter is also showcasing image-recognition ads which will help you promote your product and improve your marketing strategy.
