No social media marketing strategy would be complete without Twitter. For those still uncomfortable with using social media for businessand who do not have the time or money to invest in a digital marketing course, here’s one essential element you should not neglect.
Twitter is a popular social media platform, made even more well-known courtesy of the current US president. But it also hasimmense business advertising capabilities. Mind you, there is a danger in using social media improperly. It can result not just in ineffective efforts to advertise your product, it can generate product avoidance by unintentionally annoying people.
Remember that “Lost another one to Ditech!” ad? The one with the annoying salesman who represents Ditech’s competition? While the intention is to present Ditech in a relatively positive light by using an annoying competitor, the commercial was so irritating, it made me want to avoid Ditech, no matter what it sold. (Ditech is a mortgage company.)
Twitter is a platform for sending brief and rapid comments. It’s really good for rapid response in real time, but really bad for communication that requires some time and complexity. Nevertheless, Twitter can play an important role in a complex marketing strategy and here is what you need to know.
I won’t bore you with setting up a Twitter account and accessing Twitter Ads or Twitter for Business. Let’s jump right to looking at what types of advertising tools are available.
First, there are Promoted Accounts which lets you follow your own account. Just left of your Twitter stream, underneath statistics, a box will contain users they suggest you follow based onyour preferences. Businesses with related keywords focusing on your geographic locale will show up here. Other Twitter profiles may show up as promoted accounts if the key demographics are the same. They will show up under “Similar to…”
Promoted Accounts may also show up in searches for certain keywords under People. In general, Promoted Accounts just provides more exposure for your business and helps recruit followers interested in the kind of things you do. This can give you a leg up when a major promotion is pending or at a time when your sales are naturally at their peak, (for example, selling toys at Christmas time).
Promoted Tweets make it possible to emphasize an important update or improvement and gain more attention. The effect is to provide more exposure for both your profile and Twitter at large. Use it for disseminating content, creating greater awareness, bolstering brand recognition and presenting special offers.
Promoted Trends are themes and hashtags that rise to the upper levels of Trending Topics. (They can be found on your Twitter homepage under Trends.) Promoted Trends provides your company with the capacity to initiate a trending subject on Twitter. Use Promoting Trends to enhance global awareness for an impending product launch, an upcoming event, and for promoting your brand by association.
After becoming familiar with the Twitter Advertising options, it’s time to create your campaign. Start with your target audience. Is it geographically specific? If so, describe it in as much detail as possible.
You can build a group of followers by promoting your Twitter account. If you want a broader exposure to your profile, you can set up a budget to support your Promoted Account campaign and bid a suggested amount. As with most things, the higher the bid, the better the exposure. But if you are on a shoestring budget, you can just bypass this option. Don’t worry you can always go back and change it.
You can amplify selected tweets to be promoted. Twitter offers the option of letting you select them yourself or Twitter choosing which ones are best for you based on the record of engagement. Here as well, you craft the budget based on how much you want or can afford to spend, including nothing.
Finally, you need to select a payment method.
How do you track your success (or lack of it) on Twitter? Twitter provides two levels of analytics for both paid and free activity. The process involves how many impressions Twitter attracts to your site via Promoted Accounts, Tweets, and Trends. It provides a deeper knowledge of your customer base and metrics for traffic and conversions.
So, to summarize, try Twitter Advertising if you want a larger following, improved business exposure and amplifying tweets to your targeted client pool.