Twitter’s 140 character limit requires much-distilled thinking, and it can be frustrating, especially if you are obsessed with using overly long sentences. However, your love to “gab” shouldn’t hamper the wind beneath your business’ wings. One of our Filipino virtual assistants working as a social media marketer shared foolproof ways to leverage Twitter marketing for your business. Suppose you are serious about learning a few tricks for your tweets to impact your business while creating a loyal flock of followers, “perch” on a comfortable spot, and read on.
Utilize Twitter’s Advanced Search
Twitter had evolved from a fun place to chat or keep up with the new trend to a platform that could help marketers with lead prospecting. It is best facilitated with its search feature. If you’ve been around Twitter for a long time, you have probably done a search for a username or a trending topic or a mention of your company using the site’s toolbar search field. Cool. This is great if you want to perform a quick search for a phrase or a trend. You can also use “search operators” (yes, this term is not exclusive to Google) to perform a more advanced query.
But did you know that there is a more advanced way to narrow your search? Here is where Twitter’s Advanced Search would come into logic: https://twitter.com/search-advanced. This is so advanced you can even filter Tweets that have happy or sad sentiments!
But why would you need to do an advanced search? It’s simply because paying attention to what people are actually saying on Twitterverse matters. Let’s say you own a pasta place, and you want to find out pasta-related tweets. I did a search, and I am amazed by the results.
ADVANCED SEARCH QUERY
SEARCH RESULTS FOR PASTA
See? Brilliant! You can derive a lot of insights from that search result, and you can later use it as a basis for crafting your following tweet or, even better, a new social business tactic.
Tips on doing Advanced Search
- Keep it simple so you don’t miss out on the tweets.
- Use a variety of hashtags, phrases, and search operators.
- Save your searches so you can go back to what you searched anytime.
This article from Zapier is a more detailed resource on how to use Twitter’s Advanced Search to precisely find the Tweets that may help advance your business.
Keep an Eagle Eye on your Competitors
Now that you are acquainted with Twitter’s Advanced Search, why not further utilize it to evolve from a chick to a bird of prey (insert evil grin here, lol)? This nifty feature will help you refine competitors’ hashtags, what they are doing to join the trends that emerge, and the people they follow (they might be their customers!).
The chances are high that you and your competitor share the same followers, following, and even interests, so why not see what they are up to? And if you are up for fun, you can even join the conversation they have started.
Get a Birds-Eye View of your Key Influencers
According to a 2010 research report from Meteor Solutions (yes, it is still relevant even if it is 2014), the type of people who follow or friend you are more important than the numbers. Well, you are too familiar with quality vs. quantity, aye?
So if you want your business to soar to new heights knowing your industry’s trusted thought leaders and trendsetters is a must. There is a high probability that your potential audience might be their followers. But the real challenge is how you could get them to endorse you and eventually become an influencer yourself. So how do you go about doing that?
Identify the Influencers
Go back to the Twitter advanced search or do a Google search for your niche. List down influencers you want to connect with. Building your list can take some time but trust me, it will be worth the effort. Some tools might help you identify influencers across various industries, and this blog might help you.
Curate and Share
Once you are satisfied with your list of influencers, start digging into their Twitter profiles and catch the influencer’s attention by curating their Tweets/, joining the conversation, and even retweeting what they have published. How will this benefit you? This will be a great way to bring value to your target audience, and if your target influencer notices you, you might get retweets from them or might even net you a follow back. Now isn’t what you call hitting two birds with one stone?
Remember that a picture is worth a Thousand Words and Video a Million
Tweet with an image
Tweeting texts only is soo 2008. Since its inception, you will notice that the platform has gotten more visual if you are on Twitter. Before, you had to click on a link to view an image shared on Twitter, but recently, image previews are now available. Why is it good news for business owners like you? If you’re trying to spark a conversation or are looking for feedback from your followers, you can ask a question and upload a photo to go along with it. Adding an image in your next Twitter update can help you stand out, catch followers’ attention. It can also eventually help you gain a higher engagement rate. In fact, according to a study from BufferApp, tweets with images generate 18 percent more clicks. Also, these tweets create 150 percent more retweets than those without. Moreover, 89% of tweets with images receive more favorites.
And a video, too
Oddly, Twitter seems to be on the last of everyone’s list when it comes to video marketing. It’s usually YouTube or Facebook. But try it. Create sales but rather short and sweet video, upload to Youtube, include the link in your status and reference the emotion in the videos when you tweet it. If you try tapping into human emotions with video via Twitter, you’ll find that there can be a viral success in 140 chars or fewer. For example, “Want a good laugh? Check out this video, only 50 seconds!”
Most marketers have yet to embrace Twitter as part of their online marketing strategies. But if you are one of those marketers who feel your existing Twitter marketing efforts could use some reform, the above techniques should help you make your Twitter account take off.
