Social Media 101: A Quick Guide to Twitter
I always get asked what the difference is in social media platforms, Twitter is one of my favorites to get news in quick hits, but each social media platform has its purpose. I will be writing about each over the coming weeks to assist my network with social media knowledge.
The digital sector is constantly changing, and people want the latest news and offerings right away. This is one of the many reasons people turn to Twitter, a social media platform offering short-form updates and conversations in real time. Twitter offers many benefits to businesses and consumers alike in our rapidly changing industry.
What is it?
Twitter is a social network, but it’s quite unlike others in that it limits how long the content you share can be. Individuals and businesses can use Twitter to share information and discover new things with ease through “tweets”—short-form posts limited to 280 characters. Twitter users can also attach photos, videos and links to their tweets.
Users create Twitter profiles and follow other profiles, which creates a chronological feed of tweets for them to read through. Users can then like, respond to and retweet (repost) tweets, which shares them with their own set of followers. Getting users to follow your brand’s Twitter profile and retweet your content is a great way for you to disseminate information to millions of people instantly.
Businesses use Twitter to build brand awareness, start conversations and share information about what is most relevant to their followers right now. Twitter also makes it easy for you to communicate with your customers in real time, providing them fast answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. The goal of promoting your business on Twitter is to stay topical and reach customers at the right times. Because Twitter operates in real time, you’ll want to tweet when the majority of your followers are most active and engaged.
Features
The features available on Twitter help businesses stay on top of what their customers are talking about and join or start meaningful conversations. Your company should be using these main Twitter features to promote your business:
- Feeds and Profiles: The main Twitter feed is where all users go first. This feed is a compilation of tweets from all of the users they follow, listed chronologically from newest to oldest. Your Twitter profile, designated by your “@name,” allows you to upload a profile and cover photo and write a brief bio describing what your business does. Here, users can see only your tweets and things you’ve retweeted in chronological order. You can also create a “pinned” tweet that always stays at the top of your profile. This pinned tweet could be about a sale, a brand-new service or an upcoming event.
- Mentions: Your “@mentions” is a list of all the tweets users created that tag your business’s profile using the “@” symbol. Customers can use the @mentions feature to spread the word about your business, reach out to you and provide feedback. Responding to these mentions is a good way to provide great customer service.
- Hashtags and Search: Using the search function, users can look up other Twitter users, keywords and hashtags—unique strings of words denoted with a “#” that classify events, topics and ideas. This is one way users can find your business’s Twitter profile. It’s also a great way for your business to look at what people are saying about your brand and jump into conversations about industry happenings.
- Direct Messages: Direct messages are private messages that users can send to one another. Many businesses use direct messages to handle complex customer problems or complaints that require longer responses than a single tweet.
Sending the right message
The voice your business creates on Twitter is up to you—some brands are much more professional and straightforward, while others are friendly, silly or even snarky. What matters most is that you are able to effectively communicate with your followers and that your voice stays consistent.
There is a lot of content you can share on Twitter, from news to photos or videos. Aim to post content that is relevant to your brand, is easily digestible by your followers and that your followers might want to retweet. In general, keep content brief and simple. It’s not always easy to convey a complete thought in 280 characters, so get creative and focus on hooking your followers with just a few lines. You can always add multimedia to your tweets to make them more eye-catching!
It’s also important for you to follow your business competitors and relevant industry sources to stay up to date. Search for and include industry-related hashtags in your tweets to join in on conversations that your business can add value to.
Thanks to its retweet and retweet with comment features, Twitter makes it extremely easy to share information from other users on the platform with your followers. If a big piece of industry news hits, you can retweet it in seconds and share a link or update.
A great way to engage your followers in this way is to share a link to a relevant piece of news or an informative article and add a short comment or question in your tweet. This way, you’re adding to the conversation and engaging your followers in new ways. You might also conduct a poll or ask an open-ended question to get your follower’s thoughts on a trending topic. Respond to your followers’ tweets to create a dialogue and encourage more engagement.
By leveraging a combination of pre-planned content and responses to trending hashtags and news on Twitter, your business will be able to insert itself in meaningful conversations and engage and attract new customers.