How to use Twitter for maximum impact!

Twitter will always be the place to go to for all the breaking news. We’ll go on Twitter to see what’s trending and see what’s going on, which then enables us to get involved with conversations about things. You can pick up on a trending news piece or a trending topic, get talking about it, and ultimately it will give you free publicity.

Twitter is like anything else in life however; if you don’t commit to it, then you’re not going to do well with it. It’s not necessarily about the number of followers. If you have 50, but they’re all talking to you, then that’s great engagement which acts as a foundation upon which you can build and improve. I left Social Media for a brief period due to a personal circumstance. When I returned to Social Media 2 years later, I started rebuilding my profile and now have around 9,400 followers having built on my initial following for around 4,500 followers 2 years prior. To some this may not sound like a huge amount, but because I am engaging with people that are very active on Twitter and my Tweets can reach anything between 450,000 and 6 million users a week, which is amazing. That’s only really possible because I’m very active on Twitter. If you want to achieve more on Twitter, and as simple as it sounds many do forget this, you need to become more active.

A classic mistake which many Twitter users make

especially those in business, is to use the platform as a form of publishing tool rather than one on which conversations are started. We buy things because they are brands we like and trust. When businesses are trying to promote themselves, especially those who are new, they adopt a policy of publicity that usually involves telling potential customers what they can do and what they can provide, in a manner that is often self-promoting. They are a brand though, and they need to let people know they can be liked and trusted to the point that when people think of a particular thing they automatically think of that business. There’s no point a business telling people they are good; they need to prove this. This approach is not only sculpted by Twitter but needs to also form the backbone of how a user operates on Twitter in general. To show that you are good at it and that you can be trusted on it you share reputable articles, get involved in conversations and be as helpful as possible to others. You start building a community around you.

In order to be regarded as an expert it is important to share good information.

Industry things should sit well beside things that you yourself have written, such as Tweets that are published throughout the day sharing links to blog posts or podcasts. There is software you can use such as Lately that helps you to generate several tweets from the one blog post you have written. You can then go ahead and schedule these tweets for a certain time-frame, several times a day. I demonstrate in this YouTube video, where I place one of my previous LinkedIn articles into this amazing AI platform, which in turn generates 39 tweets from 1 blog post. The video then goes onto explain how I can schedule the tweets.

Make sure that as well as scheduling your own content onto Twitter, that you find articles from within your industry to share. Not sure where to look for blog posts in your industry? I came across FeedAlpha which replaces the setting up of Google Alerts to email you content. For you to read through the content and then scheduling them in the relevant platforms. What FeedAlpha does is to enable users to search, read and schedule all from the one platform. DM me if you'd like a discount code for this software.

It is also important to remember not to get disheartened.

If you are sharing great stuff and no one is ‘liking’ it to begin with, it’s just a case of waiting, maybe working a little bit harder and connecting with someone. It’s worth remembering that when you talk to someone you’re not just talking to them; you’re also talking to all their followers. Some of them might well be looking for the product or service you provide.

When I am speaking to an audience, I often ask: "How many of you lurk on Social Media?" If we are honest with each other, all of our hands should go up. We all have read a post, and scrolled up to look at the next post or tweet. We have all read an article that was really useful but we've never thanked the writer for it. So you see, you may be putting articles on Twitter - you have no likes but people may have read your post. They just didn't tell you. They didn't like, share or comment about your post and yet they read it. This is why you shouldn't be disheartened. We've all lurked - we've all read something we loved but haven't given credit to the writer and if you do it, chances are that people will have done it to your blog posts too. Don't be too disheartened as there is a lot of lurkage going on. ??

We also need to make ourselves memorable on Twitter.

This could be done via humour, expertise, excellent customer service or doing things just a little bit differently. People remember these things and they’re all based around communicating well. All this falls under the umbrella of branding, and it’s something that many forget in the race and clamour to get a sale. My branding is the pun on my name when I say things like #maykingconnections or #maykingithappen and, of course, my teapuns: tealicious, teariffic, teamendous. These puns are deliberate and are designed to hopefully make myself memorable to others on Twitter.

An effective approach is to incorporate many different things, in order that followers won’t get bored, feel bombarded and ultimately switch off. Mentions of news events, personal passions and interests can all make conversations seem more natural and create strong interaction.

Showing the ‘people behind the logo’

is incredibly helpful. It shares an insight into a business and is warmly received. Liking something means people are engaged, which can then mean they may become a customer.  Scheduled ‘call to action’ Tweets should be utilised alongside this approach, telling people where to go to get more information on a service, or how to move things forwards.

Practically, the best thing to do is find those people

who have the best industry knowledge that can be shared and create a Twitter list.  One of the common issues people have with Twitter is that it is ‘too noisy’; that there are too many things flying around too quickly. If you create a list you can listen to just those conversations you specify. If they share a great piece of information then that can be taken and shared with your own community. It’s also valuable to look and be aware of what sort of questions people are asking via hashtags, and have answers to them. If you provide these solutions, people will see, but consistency is key. A sporadic approach won’t reap the best rewards. A private list can also be created alongside public ones, which allows for the potential to keep a look out for rivals and competitors, listening to them and being inspired by things they do.

Twitter: it's where all the journalists hang out.

Finally, Twitter is notable for the fact that many journalists use it, which gives the opportunity to see if they may be looking for experts in particular fields. This can of course mean exposure across all sorts of mediums, and a further cementing of reputation alongside the brand building. Search on the hashtags: #journorequest to see who journalists are looking you. You never know: they could be looking for you.

Since September 2016, I have appeared on TV, Radio, and a National Food Magazine and this has all been down to Twitter. Need help in finding ways to appear on national TV, radio, and national magazines? I recommend you contact people such as Kathryn Dishman-Baird, Carrie Eddins or Yvvone Radley. Finding the right person to work with you to gain more exposure for your business is really important which is why I have recommended several of my friends here who have helped me one way or another in all things PR.

This LinkedIn article was inspired by the chat Alex Curtis had with May King Tsang about Twitter Marketing.

BeauTEAfully arTEAculated by Tom Williams.