Twitter

What is a Twitter marketing strategy?

A Twitter marketing strategy is a plan centered around creating, publishing, and distributing content for your buyer personas, audience, and followers through the social media platform. The goal of this type of strategy is to attract new followers and leads, boost conversions, improve brand recognition, and increase sales.

Creating a Twitter marketing strategy will require you to follow the same steps you would if you were creating any other social media marketing strategy.

1. Research your buyer personas and audience
2. Create unique and engaging content
3. Organize a schedule for your posts
4. Analyze your impact and results

What makes Twitter unique?

Twitter is a great marketing tool for a number of reasons. The platform:

• is free to use.

• allows you to share and promote branded content in seconds.
• expands your reach.
• allows you to provide quick customer service and support.
• works as a search engine tool for you to search for your competitors and their marketing content to see which tactics they’re using.
• can be used as a search engine tool for prospects to find and learn about your company.
• allows you to converse with your followers, share the latest updates about your company, and address your audience.

How to Use Twitter For Business                                      

1. Customize and brand your profile

When someone looks at your company’s Twitter profile, you want them to automatically know it’s yours. Meaning you should customize and brand your Twitter profile with your logo, colors, and any other recognizable and memorable details you want to incorporate. There are a few locations in which you can customize your profile.

Handle: Your Twitter handle is your username— this should include your company’s name so your followers, customers, and fans can easily search and find you on the platform. You create your Twitter handle when you sign up for an account.

Header: The header on your Twitter profile is your background image. You might choose to create a unique image for your header, use your logo, or another branded image.

Profile picture: Your Twitter profile picture represents your company’s every move, interaction, post, and tweet on the platform. It’s the image that sits above your bio and might include a picture of your logo, company’s initials, or CEO.

Bio: A Twitter bio provides everyone who visits your profile with a brief synopsis of what they’re about to see in 160 characters or less. It might include your mission statement, a blurb about what your company does, or something humorous and engaging.

Website URL: Beneath your profile picture and bio, there’s a location where you can include your URL to direct traffic straight to your website.

Birthday: In the same location as your URL, you can insert your company’s birthday — or the day when the company was founded — so your audience gets to know your business on a more personal level.

2. Create Twitter Lists  

A Twitter List — which any user has the ability to create and view — is an organized group of Twitter accounts you’ve selected and put together in specific categories. For example, at HubSpot, lists include Leadership Experts, Top Marketing Experts, Top Business Podcasters, and more. When you open a Twitter List, you only see tweets posted by the accounts on the list.

Twitter Lists are great if you want to follow only specific accounts. You might segment your lists into groups such as business inspiration, competitors, and target audience so you’re able to easily review their posts, interactions, and content.

3. Host a Twitter Chat

To host a Twitter Chat (or TweetChat), you’ll need to choose a topic, set a time and date for the chat to occur, and create a hashtag for the chat. You can share this information with your followers in a tweet, on your website, in your Twitter bio, and wherever else you choose.

Everyone who wants to participate in the Twitter Chat should then be able to view all responses, questions, and comments regarding your topic of choice by searching your unique hashtag, as well as sharing their own comments and thoughts by adding the hashtag to their tweets.

Twitter Chats promote interaction and engagement on your profile and get people talking about your brand. It also creates a more personal experience between your audience members and your business.

4. Advertise on Twitter

Advertising through Twitter is a great way to reach your audience. This will make your tweets easily discoverable by thousands of people, helping you increase your influence and following. You can do this through promoted tweets or Twitter Ads.

• Promoted Tweets

Promoted tweets make your tweets appear in the Twitter streams or Twitter search results of specific users. This is a great option for anyone looking to get more people on a specific webpage. Your business will pay a monthly fee as long as you’re promoting a tweet.

Twitter will put your promoted tweets in a daily campaign targeting the type of audience you want to reach as previously indicated in your settings. All Twitter users have the ability to interact and engage with Twitter Ads the same way they would with your organic content.

• Twitter Ads

Twitter Ads is a great option if you’re using different types of tweets to achieve one goal for your business. It’s ideal if you’re looking to grow your base of followers and brand awareness significantly through the platform.

Your business can decide between different objectives when it comes to your Twitter ads including app installs, video views, and website conversions, as well as audience targeting for your campaigns. This decision will impact the price you’ll need to pay to run your ad.

5. Drive traffic to your website    

Twitter can help you direct traffic to your website — there are a number of ways to include your website’s URL on your profile as well as add links to your web pages and blogs in your tweets. Here are some ways you can use the platform to direct traffic to your website to help you increase your conversions and sales.

• Add your website URL beneath your bio on your Twitter profile.
• Incorporate links to your website in your tweets.
• Retweet any content that includes direct links to your website and/ or blogs other people have shared.  
• Embed tweets on your website with a Twitter Timeline.
• Set up Twitter Ads to drive users to a specific landing page on your site.

6. Use Twitter Moments       

Twitter Moments are collections of tweets about a specific topic or event. They’re like a “best of” collection of tweets regarding your topic of choice. For example, Twitter’s Moments section includes “Today”, “News”, “Entertainment”, and “Fun.” You can also create your own section of Moments for your followers to view on your profile.  You might organize your Twitter Moments into groups of tweets to help you market your business’ events and campaigns or related industry news. They also help with your marketing tactics by providing your business with an engaging way to promote the discussion of specific topics and/ or events that matter to your company to help you share your brand image with audience members. 

7. Get verified on Twitter

You might choose to apply to get your Twitter profile verified depending on the size of your company and your industry. Twitter states they typically only accept requests for account verification if you’re in “music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas.” If Twitter accepts your application and verifies your profile, a badge with a blue checkmark inside of it will appear next to your handle. This symbolizes an authentic account.

8. Focus on building your follower count

There are a number of ways you can increase your follower count on Twitter — here are some to get you started:

• Ensure your content is shareable.
• Use unique hashtags.
• Create engaging content (giveaways, contests, questions, surveys).
• Enlist the help of Twitter (social media) influencers.
• Include links to your Twitter profile on your website.
• Interact with your current followers and retweet their content so they’re more likely to do the same for you.

Twitter Marketing Tips

1. Use keyword targeting in your Twitter Ads

Keyword targeting on Twitter is a component of Twitter Ads. Keyword targeting allows you to engage Twitter users through the different words and phrases you’ve included in your content and they’ve searched for on the platform. This means you’re able to reach your target audience at the exact time your business, content, and services are most relevant to them.

On Twitter, there are two types of keyword targeting you can use including search and timeline.

• Search Keyword Targeting

Search keyword targeting allows you to make your tweets show up for users who are searching for the topics that you determined relate to your business. For example, if you sell gluten free cookies, you can target users searching for tweets about baking, cookies, gluten intolerance, or Celiac Disease.

• Timeline Keyword Targeting

Timeline keyword targeting allows you to act on users’ specific feelings, thoughts, actions, and emotions they’ve tweeted about. For example, if you’re a running gear company, you might target keywords and phrases users tweet about such as, “running a race”, “race day tips”, or “training for a marathon”.

2. Implement hashtags

Adding hashtags to your tweets is a great way to expand your influence on Twitter. However, there are some guidelines you’ll want to stick to when using hashtags to ensure that you reach the largest number of people possible.

• Create a hashtag that’s unique to your business so your followers and target audience can easily find you and your content.
• Create relevant and memorable hashtags for other groups of tweets such as ones related to a specific campaign you’re running.
• Use Twitter Analytics to review your most successful hashtags so you can ensure their use in future tweets.
• Don’t overuse hashtags — this may feel and look spammy to your audience (not to mention it isn’t aesthetically pleasing). Also, tweets with more than two hashtags see a 17% decrease in engagement than those with one or two hashtags.

3. Organize a content sharing schedule

Here are some details about the best times (on average) for businesses to share their Twitter content:

• Between 8–10 AM and 6–9 PM (in correlation with commuter schedules) on weekdays
• Around noon or between 5–6 PM on any day of the week
• For B2C companies, the best days to tweet are weekends
• For B2B companies, the best days to tweet are weekdays

In terms of how often you should post your content on Twitter, there’s no real rule — it’s more about ensuring the content you’re sharing has a purpose and meaning. You can also review Twitter Analytics to take a deep dive into what your engagement looks like on the days you post more or less content to determine what’s working well for your specific audience.

4. Create a Twitter campaign

To create a Twitter marketing campaign, you’ll want to follow the same steps you would with any type of social media marketing campaign.

• Research your competition
• Determine how you’ll appeal to your target audience
• Choose the type of content you’ll create
• Share and promote your content
• Analyze your results

5. Write a strong profile bio

Writing a strong and memorable bio for your Twitter profile is crucial. This is because your Twitter bio is the first thing a profile visitor will read about your company — it’s your written introduction and should briefly explain what visitors can expect from your page and content. You only have 160 characters to do this, so choose your words wisely to ensure your bio successfully represents your brand and reflects who you are as a company.

6. Use images and videos

Photos and images provide an eye-catching and engaging element in your content as Twitter users scroll through their feeds. Videos are proven to actually outperform tweets with images as well. In fact, tweets with videos are likely to get an average of six times the amount of engagement than tweets without them.

7. Interact with your followers

This will help you create experiences for your followers and audience members that feel personal and keep them coming back to your profile all while fostering a sense of brand loyalty. For example, if someone retweets your post or comments on your tweet, you can “Like” that person’s interaction or even tweet back to them with a response.

8. Share media mentions

If your business is mentioned in the media, share the article, video, URL, or image on Twitter. It’ll make your business feel more legitimate to anyone checking out your profile as well as show prospective followers how many other people already know about your company and are enjoying your products and services.

9. Keep an eye on your competitors’ Twitter accounts

Twitter is a great way to keep an eye on your competitors’ marketing efforts. You can follow them or simply search them to see what they’re posting. You can also view basic details about their engagement such as their number of retweets, comments, and responses. This is a simple way to see some of the Twitter marketing strategies your competitors are implementing and whether or not they’re working.

10. Focus on followers’ interests and needs when creating content

If you want to reach your audience members and ensure your content resonates with them, you’ll need to focus on their interests and needs— whether that’s in relation to the way you share content, what you share, or how you present it. When you meet the needs of your target audience and buyer personas, they’ll be more likely to continue to follow and interact with your company.

11. Promote your events

Similar to the way you might for a Twitter campaign, you can create a unique hashtag for various events (such as launch parties, giveaways, and contests) or schedule a variety of tweets (using one of your social media management tools) to promote any special occasion your company is hosting. This way, audience members — whether or not they’re your followers — will have the opportunity to learn about your event and get all of the details they need to sign up, be in attendance, or participate.

12. Check your direct messages regularly

Like other social media platforms, Twitter provides users with a Direct Message inbox where they can contact you in a private message regarding any questions, concerns, or comments they have. So, be sure to check your inbox regularly as this can contribute to the type of customer service and support your business is known for, as well as the type of care you provide your followers and customers.

13. Keep track of your analytics

Due to every business being unique and having different goals, you might not be interested in tracking all of the following Twitter metrics (or you might be looking to track additional metrics). However, we’ve compiled the following list of possible metrics for you to consider to get you started.

• Engagement: Look at the number of retweets, follows, replies, favorites, and click-throughs your tweets get (including all hashtags and links they include).
• Impressions: Review the number of times your tweets appeared on one of your audience members’ timelines (whether or not they’re actually following you).
• Hashtags: Look at which of your hashtags are being used most frequently by your audience and followers.
• Top tweets: Review your tweets with the most engagement.
• Contributors: Keep up with the level of success each of your contributors — the people you give admin access to on your account — are having with their tweets so you can implement some of their tactics more regularly or remove them completely. 

Ways social media managers can deliver a great Twitter experience

Audit your Twitter account

Take stock of what’s working and what isn’t working on your Twitter profile by doing an in-depth review of your Twitter analytics. Twitter analytics tools help by allowing you to:

• Analyze hashtag performance
• Analyze individual Tweet performance
• Analyze your individual Twitter audience
• Finding out which Tweets are performing the best will give you an idea of the type of content that your audience is most interested in seeing. You can use this information to create a strategy that maximizes the reach and engagement you get on your Tweets and give your audience what they’re looking for in your content.

Find your Twitter voice

Audiences on Twitter are looking for brands that Tweet authentically stay true to their voice. It can be easy to jump on the latest trends to appeal to the masses on Twitter but don’t do this at the expense of losing your brand voice. While your Twitter presence can be more playful and casual than LinkedIn or Facebook, it should still be authentic and consistent with your brand voice as a whole.

Connect with audiences emotionally

Whether you’re Tweeting content or responding to a customer service request, forge an emotional connection. The Harvard Business Review agrees: “Our research across hundreds of brands in dozens of categories shows that the most effective way to maximize customer value is to move beyond mere customer satisfaction and connect with customers at an emotional level.” How can your content tap into customers’ deeper concerns, motivations, and needs with your Tweets?

Focus on building conversations

Don’t just broadcast company updates or share fun content. Use Twitter to build conversations and create deeper engagement around the topics that matter the most to your audience.

Here are a few ways you can build conversations:

• Ask questions
• Respond to follower content
• Use Twitter Polls
• Host Tweet chats
• Know your brand’s story, customers, and goals

It’s important that social media managers really understand the brand and target audience. Take time to dive into the customers’ journey at your business. Ask how you can create content, engagement, and support strategies that align to different stages, from brand discovery to driving purchases.

Recognize that timeliness matters

One study showed that people who complain on Twitter want responses within an hour. Timeliness matters. Social media managers need to stay connected to what’s happening on Twitter. Use dashboards that allow you to track brand mentions, including common misspellings, and relevant keywords so you can respond to positive and negative feedback in a timely way. 

Have a clear customer experience strategy

Define your customer experience strategy for Twitter. Is your goal to create a customer service support channel, or develop stronger relationships with existing customers? Social media managers bring together analytics, content, and engagement to support their company’s biggest goals. Develop a clear strategy to get there. 

Always ask for feedback

Ask for feedback on how you’re doing and what customers need and want from you. Invite followers to Tweet you, send a DM with more details on their concerns and suggestions, or take a quick, targeted survey. Direct lines of communication to customers are valuable. Find out how you can more effectively serve your customers on Twitter and beyond.

Social media managers are on the front lines of delivering their customers a great experience on Twitter. Work to understand your audience and your company’s objectives — and then focus on content, engagement strategies, and analytics feedback to help make that vision a reality.

Check out the competition

Isn’t doing a great job its own reward? Well, sure. But admit it— you also want to leave your rivals in the dust.

So don’t forget to review the Twitter accounts for your industry competitors. Analyzing their social media can help you refine your own, by revealing weaknesses or gaps in their strategy, and ways that you can distinguish yourself.

Assign roles

You need to ensure your accounts are monitored and active, and that someone is replying to direct messages and mentions. Twitter conversations move fast, so it’s noticeable to your followers if you’re not checking in regularly, and a failure to be responsive and timely will damage your brand.