F ive excellent ways to use Twitter
Twitter might be one of the biggest social networks out there, but some people still don’t know exactly how to use it. When a Staples survey asked whether small businesses would rather have one million Facebook fans or one million Twitter followers, Facebook won by a landslide. But Twitter can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool, and even a fun way to connect with people.
Here are a few tips on how you can use Twitter:
1) Get “real” followers:
Twitter can be a great way to get “real” followers – those who might be interested in your brand, product, business, or restaurant, and who aren’t purchased followers. A good place to start is by focusing on your community – find users from your area, utilize specific geographic hashtags (eg. #AtwaterVillage), and start connecting over Twitter by following users that come up in your search. This is where Twitter has an edge over Facebook; you can actually seek out your followers and tell them that you’re there, while on Facebook they actually have to know about and find you first.
2) Use and search hashtags:
As mentioned in the last step, hashtags are ideal for honing in on a specific topic or area – either by searching certain hashtags, or using them yourself. If you’re speaking to a broad community and don’t need to get geographically specific – like with #fashion or #realestate – consider using multiple hashtags in your tweets. Just don’t go overboard; three hashtags per tweet is a good limit to observe in order to avoid veering into spam territory.
3) Utilize follows and retweets:
Unless the account belongs to a celebrity or a large company, chances are if you follow, retweet, or tweet at someone, they’ll at least take a look at your profile. In some cases, they’ll choose to follow you – especially if they like what your tweets have to offer. Don’t be shy – get out there and connect with other users! It’s a great (and fun) way to use Twitter.
4) Time your status updates:
Timing is important for just about everything in life, and social media is no exception. Take a look at this infographic which dished on the best times of the day to share on social media. For Twitter, 9:00am and 2:00pm provide the best visibility. If you’ve got an important update to post, and want to make sure it goes out at a specific time, platforms like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck will allow you to schedule your tweets days or even months in advance.
5) Drive traffic:
Not only are social media platforms like Twitter great for your SEO, they’re ideal for driving traffic back to your website. While the amount of traffic you get differs by industry (and your follower count), it’s never a bad idea to post a link back in your update. Include relevant hashtags to boost your reach, and always write your post for the Twitter audience – short and sweet! Just make sure that’s not all you do on Twitter, or you might start losing followers instead of gaining them.
Networking is another great way to increase your Twitter presence, and we’ve got just the place to start: follow Zbra Studios on Twitter!
Gary works from his apartment in Portland as Zbra Studios’ Senior SEO Strategist (mostly in pajamas, with a cat or two nibbling at his leg). Those in web3 may known him as weary (or vvveary, give or take a “v”), where he works in the moonlight hours on the core team of the MetaArchitects HUB.
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