Before You Fly Into the Twitterverse,
Check Out These 10 Useful Tips
By Andrew Gregory, director of multimedia for Corning Place Communications
With 328 million monthly active users, Twitter is one of the most popular social networks -
and for good reason. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, Twitter is a predominantly real-time
network. Users (individuals, organizations and brands) often use the platform to engage in
abbreviated conversation. Before you start using Twitter, here are 10 introductory tips for
your consideration.
1. Include Keywords
By using relevant keywords in your tweets, users who are
searching for the keywords will be able to find your content.
Keyword inclusion will also help you be consistent in your
messaging.
2. Use Hashtags
Like keywords, hashtags help ensure that your content is
as discoverable as possible, and enable you to connect with
like-minded users. Be sure to limit your use of hashtags - three or
more is probably overkill.
3. Draft and Schedule Your Tweets
Spending a significant amount of time monitoring and responding
to tweets is not ideal for many organizations and brands. In order
to provide your followers with a regular stream of content, you’ll
want to pre-write and schedule tweets to be published during
peak user times. Twitter’s own Tweetdeck platform - https://
tweetdeck.twitter.com/ - allows you to schedule tweets for later
publication.
4. Encourage Engagement
Engagement is key to building your Twitter following. This can
be as simple as asking your followers to retweet (share) your
tweets. You can also tweet at another user who has posted
content relevant to your interests and provide them with positive
feedback. Consistent engagement with followers and non-
followers will provide with the opportunity to establish yourself as
a credible and knowledgeable voice.
5. Create Lists
As you follow more users, you’ll begin to see that your Twitter
feed (the stream of content) can get clogged quickly. Grouping
users that you’re following into lists will help you keep your feed
organized. These lists can either be public or private. If you create
a publicly available list of credible and engaging users, there’s a
good chance that like-minded users will subscribe to your list.
6. Polish Your Profile
Your profile is your opportunity to make a great first impression.
Your profile picture, header image and bio information should be
as polished as possible. Make sure your images are crisp and your
bio info is free of any typos. You don’t want to give any potential
followers a negative impression right out of the gate.
7. Embed Images and Videos
It’s a well-documented fact that tweets that include images
(photos, infographics, etc.) and video perform better than plain
text tweets. According to a 2013 analysis from popular scheduling
app Buffer, tweets with images received 150 percent more retweets
than plain text tweets. According to Twitter’s own 2015 analysis,
82 percent of all users watch video content on the platform.
8. Focus on Quality, Not Quantity of Followers
Amassing 1 million Twitter followers sounds awesome but if the
vast majority of those followers aren’t engaging with your content,
what’s the point? Take the time to build quality relationships with
your target audiences and you’ll benefit in the long run.
9. Listen Closely
Social listening is an incredibly valuable tactic when your first
start using Twitter. Being able to see what your target audiences
are discussing, whether it to your organization or a specific topic,
allows you to see which users are active and interested in what
you’ll be sharing.
10. Check Your Metrics
Twitter’s built-in metric tool - https://analytics.twitter.com - can
provide you with incredibly valuable data about your tweets and
followers. Take the time each month to closely examine this data
and modify your tweets accordingly. For example, if you know
that tweets with infographic images are outperforming tweets
with standard photographics, then load up on those infographics.
If you’re users are more active during PM hours, then you should
schedule your high-value content during that time.
Hopefully, these introductory tips will help you as you spread your
wings and take to Twiter. This comprehensive glossary of Twitter
terms is a very useful resource for beginners: https://support.
twitter.com/articles/166337. Be sure to bookmark Twitter’s own
starter guide for more valuable pointers: https://support.twitter.
com/categories/281. And if you’re looking for your first Twitter
account to follow, the CPC team would be happy to have you at @
cpcalbany.
Corning Place Communications is an award-winning strategic
communications firm based in Albany, NY. To learn more
about CPC’s unique approach and team of professionals, visit
www.corningplace.com.
leadingageny.org
18