by Francois Muscat | Jun 22, 2016 | Social Media Marketing, Twitter
Absolutely! With around 1-billion users, Twitter is a social network that can be a valuable asset to your company. It can have significant impact on the reach of your content, as well as influence on your customers. One of the biggest attractions of Twitter is it allows people to share information instantly and connect with people all over the world.
Twitter works extremely well for viral promotions and special offers. Using the 140-characters to promote a new product, service or seasonal discount can place your business in the spotlight. The best way to do this is to add a visual to your tweet. Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets, 18% more clicks and 89% more favourites. By turning your promotional codes, new product or call to action into a visual appealing graphic makes it perfect for repurposing to other social media networks, like Pinterest and Instagram. To get even higher engagement rates, use words that trigger activity from your followers, like ‘free’, ‘how to’, ‘help’ and ‘please’.
Twitter is a great tool for customer support. Feedback about your business or products and services, whether good or bad, is often tweeted. If you’re not on Twitter, you may not know what is being said about your company, which could be damaging to your reputation. You can use Twitter to offer effective and timely support to your users.
It’s also an excellent medium to find and connect with influencers. Following and commenting on tweets from influential people in your industry will give you insights, as well as establishing a certain familiarity with the influencer, so that if you ever do need to ask a favour, they should recognise your handle.
Using Twitter chats (online meetings set for a scheduled time where users discuss certain topics using a dedicated hashtag) can help to expand your customer base and professional network. It also helps you learn a bit on the way and shows you what kind of things people are interested in and want to chat about – giving you ideas for your own content.
If you’re not yet convinced of the power of this great tool, contact us and we’ll introduce you to a world of business opportunity through social media. We can also help with content creation and formulate a strategy to get your digital marketing bringing in returns.
by Francois Muscat | May 16, 2016 | Social Networking, Social Selling, Twitter
If you’re pursuing a social media strategy, then Twitter is probably one of your chosen channels. Not only is it easy to connect with your ideal customer on Twitter, but you can also use a variety of features on this platform to engage with them.
Brands who already have a following on Twitter should consider using direct messages to connect with people. Not all Twitter users are keen on engaging with brands via direct message, so you need to be smart about how you go about sending this type of communication. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Remember that it’s probably your first time talking to the person. Your initial direct message shouldn’t be overly familiar. Your tone and level of intimacy should be on par with how you would act when meeting someone for the first time.
- Keep it simple. You could start the conversation by simply thanking the person for the follow or by asking them what kind of content they would like to see on your Twitter profile.
- Be personal. Twitter users dislike being spammed. As far as possible, try to personalise each message. This can become administratively intensive if you start getting lots of new followers each day, in which case you should consider appointing someone for the role of social media manager or hiring a community management service to help you with this task.
Need help with your social selling or social media marketing strategy? WSI OMS offers social strategy consulting as well as community management services. Contact us for more information today.
by Francois Muscat | Mar 23, 2016 | Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Twitter
Twitter is where hundreds of millions of people go to find out what’s going on in the world. Twitter ads are designed to help you reach and connect with this audience, to get results that add significant value to your business, 140 characters at a time.
Using Twitter ads is an effective way to grow followers. Creating a Twitter campaign will help to build an engaged and connected audience. Most Twitter users (85%) say they feel more connected to small and medium-sized businesses after following them and are more likely to buy from their websites.
To start your campaign, you need to select your advertising tools. A Promoted Account will appear in areas such as “Who to Follow” and Home timelines to help you reach as many people as possible.
Next, create your content, including a clear profile picture, a straightforward Twitter handle and a profile bio that explains a bit about yourself and what you offer. Keep the focus on your business, so don’t use too many hashtags and usernames.
Define your audience by their interests, geography and language, gender, similar followers or tailored audiences.
Set your budget – Promoted ads are priced on a cost-per-follow basis, meaning you’ll only pay when someone clicks on your ad placement. You can set a daily and total budget for your campaign, with the campaign ending once your budget has been met. You’ll never be charged for more than you pay. Engaging with your followers with tweets and content is always free, even if they were initially gained through a Promoted Account.
The Twitter real-time analytics can provide you with data-driven insights that you can use to grow your business. You can get a comprehensive view of all your tweets, paid and unpaid.
The beauty of twitter Ads is its user-friendliness. You can stop or start whenever you want, measure results in real time and control your spend. You will quickly grow a community of high value followers.
For more on social media marketing and digital marketing, contact us. We can create a campaign to suit your business goals, from finding the most relevant industry information for your brand to tweet, to finding the posts you should be commenting on.
by Francois Muscat | Mar 9, 2016 | Facebook, Instagram, Social Media Marketing, Twitter
Thanks to social media, a lot of new words have been added to the dictionary in the past 20 or so years, with the most widely used and accepted being hashtag. So popular the word, in fact, that a baby was named Hashtag Jameson a few years ago, triggering worldwide trending and spawning a host of new hashtags, like #Foolishparents and #StupidestNameEver. Silliness aside though, hashtags are now used on many social networks, including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
A hashtag is a simple keyword phrase, spelled without spaces, with a pound sign (#) in front of it. You can put these hashtags anywhere in your social media posts. What they do is tie public conversations from all different users into a single stream, which you can find by searching for a hashtag and clicking on one. What makes them great, is that hashtags are the ideal way for individuals and brands to make their social posts more visible and increase engagement. They can provide useful context and update a group of like-minded individuals on a certain topic in real time. The key is to use them sparingly and only when they add value. Too many can be annoying, confusing or frustrating.
How to use hashtags on Twitter:
A Twitter hashtag ties the conversations of different users into one stream. If Twitter users who aren’t otherwise connected to one another talk about the same topic using a specific hashtag, their tweets will appear in the same stream. Using a hashtag on Twitter is as simple as publishing a tweet from a public account that includes the hashtag. As long as your account is public, anyone who does a search for that hashtag will find your tweet. One to two hashtags per tweet show the best results for engagement. Tweets with hashtags get twice the engagement of tweets without.
How to use hashtags on Facebook:
Like on Twitter, a Facebook hashtag ties the conversations of different users into one stream. But unlike Twitter and Instagram, where many people have public accounts and their posts can be seen by anyone, most people’s Facebook posts and accounts are private. This means that even if individuals are using hashtags, they aren’t searchable. The result? The hashtags you can search for on Facebook tend to be published by influencers, brands and publishers, rather than by individuals. To use a hashtag on Facebook, all you have to do is publish a Facebook post to your Page or timeline that includes the hashtag.
Be sure your post is public if you want people other than your Facebook friends to be able to find it. To make a Facebook post public, click on the button to the right of “Post” and choose “Public” from the dropdown menu. Once you publish the post to your Page or timeline, the hashtag becomes a clickable link, which takes folks to the hashtag page. One to two hashtags per post show the highest engagement.
How to use hashtags on Instagram:
An Instagram hashtag works just the same as on Twitter and Facebook. If Instagram users who aren’t otherwise connected to one another talk about the same topic using a specific hashtag, their posts will appear in the same stream. The user interface on Instagram’s hashtag stream is much simpler than those on Twitter and Facebook. Using a hashtag on Instagram is as simple as publishing an Instagram post from a public account that includes the hashtag. As long as your account is public, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Instagram post. When you write a new post and start typing in a hashtag using the # symbol, Instagram will actually suggest hashtags to you based on their popularity. Interactions are highest on Instagram posts with 11+ hashtags.
Although hashtags were born and work best online, they can be seen in other places, like on billboards, print ads or menus. They really just encourage people to check them out. Using hashtags in all your social media posts can effectively increase the reach of your messages, which can boost a brand’s engagement and following overnight. For more on social media and digital marketing, get in touch with us. We’ll see what we can do together to increase your following.
by Francois Muscat | Feb 17, 2016 | Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Twitter
Twitter is a powerful tool when it comes to marketing your blog and getting more traffic for your content. There is still confusion about Twitter – why be limited to 140 characters, on a web that allows thousands of words and extensive multi-media? Misunderstood or not, Twitter has become a bite size multi-media stream and ecosystem, recognised as a brand facilitator, traffic driver and viral powerhouse.
With so much already on Twitter, covering every subject known to man, you might find the prospect of using Twitter quite daunting, but it’s not as difficult as it seems. There are a number of tactics and tools to use to bring your tweets up to speed and getting the attention they deserve. Try a few of these and see if it makes a tangible difference to your volumes of followers.
- Use more visual content
Studies show that tweets with image links get two times the engagement rate of those without. Vibrant images help your tweets stand out in text-dominated streams.
- Use your tweets as teasers, not explanations
Don’t give too much away about the content in your tweet, or your readers won’t click on the link to read more. One way to tease an audience is to pose a question, which of course, you answer in the content.
- Repeat your tweets
Often tweets are missed by your followers, so sharing the same content more than once is a good idea. Use different headlines, images or quotes that link to the same article.
- Pimp your bio
Use your Twitter profile bio to link to your latest blog or article, rather than your website or blog home page.
- Use your Twitter community for ideas for new blogs
Poll your followers by asking for issues; show an interest in other people’s challenges. When you get enough answers to identify a trend, you can use that as basis for your next blog.
- Write great headlines
You have to grab the attention of your readers at the first glance. Use a promise (How to…), curiosity, controversy, intrigue. There’s an art to getting that all into 140 characters, but one worth practising.
- Use hashtags
Tweets with hashtags receive twice the amount of engagement than ones without. Use hashtags that relate to the subject of your blog posts, so you’ll show up in searches. Don’t use more than three per tweet.
- Use quotes or stats from industry leaders
People love thought-provoking quotes, so use ones from thought leaders, experts or recognised voices in your niche. Interesting statistics and figures are also eye-catching in the text heavy stream.
- Buy the right audience
If your following is not yet large, you might want to consider paying to increase the visibility of your tweets. Promoting your tweets allows you to target the right demographic.
- Tweet often
Unlike Facebook or email, posting regular tweets is advisable – one study revealed that tweeting every 15 minutes instead of 30 led to increased traffic by 31% and engagement up by 89%!
For more on social media sharing, contact us – we’d love to hear your thoughts on the trends of digital communication.
by Francois Muscat | Dec 16, 2015 | Instagram, Social Media Marketing, Twitter
If you are looking at launching a social media marketing campaign for your brand, you are probably wondering which of the many social media channels is right for your goals. It’s a myth that a brand needs to be present on every social network, but it is true you need to be on every channel which fits your brand. Twitter and Instagram are two huge contenders. They are similar in that they offer bites of content which is viewed very quickly, but one is about text and the other is about images. So which is right for your brand? Let’s find out.
- Bigger numbers don’t really mean much here
Twitter has slightly less monthly users than Instagram (316 million vs 400 million, according to Sprout Social) but this means nothing if your audience isn’t really using the platform. You need to research your target audience and find out where they are spending their time online. If you are aiming at a younger audience, Instagram is your winner, with 53% of users in the 18-29 years old age group.
- Instagram is all about engagement
When people use Instagram, they are pretty much glued to it, with no clickable links in captions and a very simple user interface. Users aren’t distracted while using it. If you want to really engage your audience, Instagram is fantastic.
- Are you a visual company?
If you are a company that is all about visuals, such as a fashion brand or design company, you will thrive with Instragram, since it is all about images.
- Do you have a customer support team?
If so, you need to be on Twitter. Many people take to Twitter to voice their complaints, and even their compliments. It’s important that when people mention your brand on Twitter, you are there to step in and get in on the conversation, turning negative reviews into opportunities.
- Twitter is great for sharing content
If content forms part of your digital marketing strategy, then having a Twitter account is a no-brainer. Twitter has been called a “content distribution tool” because it is a great place to share your constant stream of content. Instagram on the other hand, keeps users within the app on purpose, so it doesn’t serve well for this.
If you need assistance with everything to do with social media marketing, WSI OMS is for you. With expertise in content creation, social media, online marketing and much more, we are here to guide you through the digital marketing landscape. Contact us today.
