T W I T T E R – A H O W - T O G U I D E

TIPS , TR IC KS A N D B E S T PR AC TIC E G U IDE LIN E S F O R A N E F F E C TIVE S TR ATE G Y

The following list of tips and tricks is designed to help you optimise your Twitter strategy.

Whether you want to increase your business’ reach and engagement or just improve your personal account, this top 10 list will help you get there faster.

Lets Get Started!

TWITTER -A HOW-TO GUIDE

1. FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTERAs tempting as it is to rush in and start tweeting, itis important to get the basics right first. Start withan appropriate photo or logo of your business.

Next, introduce yourself! Take the time to right ashort bio describing you or your business. Using anauthoritative title such as “official” or “expert” hasbeen shown to have a positive impact on followers

Finally, include a homepage link to your website orblog. This can help to establish validity and add anextra layer of trust These things may not seemimportant but research shows that they can greatlyimprove your following.

Photo✓Bio✓

Title ✓Homepage Link ✓

(Zarrella, 2013)

2. TALK MORE!

Research has shown that the optimal number of tweets per day is 22.

So, high activity is key. The more you tweet the more followers you are likely to have.

However, this is not as easy as it sounds. Make sure what your are tweeting is of value to your audience.

(Zarrella, 2013)

3. WHEN SHOULD I TWEET?Timing is important to ensure your messages arereaching your audience.

Studies show that the optimal time to tweet isbetween 12 and 3pm. While peak activity is between5 and 6pm.

Use Moz Followerwork to identify times when yourfollowers are most active.

Schedule your tweets to coincide with peak times ofactivity and share your content during this time. Thiswill ensure maximum reach and effectiveness.

(Kolowich, 2016)

4. WHAT SHOULD I TWEET?Constantly tweeting promotional messages gets oldfast!

Be sure that what you share is of value to youraudience. Useful links and media will have a muchhigher engagement rate.

Take time to understand your audience. Satisfying theirinterests will help you to grow your audiencesignificantly through retweets and interactions.

Also, studies show that people that share more links,typically have more followers. Including links in 60–80%of tweets has been shown to be the optimal strategyand can greatly increase retweets.

Images

(Zarrella, 2013)

5. WATCH OUT FOR TRENDSHashtags are a great way of exposingyourself to a much larger audience,However, it is also a good idea tokeep an eye on trends.

Trending topics often have a largenationwide audience.

Participating in this trendingconversation can significantly increaseyour reach and help you build youraudience faster.

Follow @TrendsIreland for breakingtwitter trends in Ireland.

6. LEARN THE TOOLS

1. Use HootSuite to schedule tweets to maintain activelylevels and engagement when your busy.

2. If your business already has a large database of emails,Rapportive can help you uncover social profiles of people youalready know and who may be interested in following you.

3. Use Followerwonk to analyse your own followers touncover trends in behaviours, interests or demographics. Thiscan also be used to analyse competitors to see how your rivalsmatch up.

4. Get the most out of your tweet. Use Bitly to shorten links,giving you more space for your message.

Twitter takes time and consistent attention to achieve a strong presence. But don’t worry, there are plenty of tools out there to save you time and money.

7. ENGAGE KEY INFLUENCERSDon’t be afraid to reach out and engage social influencers by interacting with the content they are sharing and participating in the conversations they are leading.

Over time, as you begin to build a mutually beneficial relationship, this individual may retweet your content and link back to your website or blog.

This relationship will provide your company with an opportunity to rise in the search rankings, gain more followers, and, in turn, become a social media influencer.

*One thing to watch out for, If you start a tweet with @username it’s a reply, and will only be seen by the person you are sending it to and anyone who follows both of you.

Put the @username anywhere else in the tweet to make it visible to everyone who follows you.

8. THE POWER OF POSITIVITYDon’t be a downer, nobody wants to her about howbad your day was. In fact, this negativity could bedamaging your social following.

On the other hand, as obvious as this may sound,the key to positive engagement is positivity.

Uplifting or emotional content is contagious and ismore likely to go viral. Joy has also been proven tobe the emotion that stands out the most across allcategories.

(Kitroeff, 2014)

9. MONITOR, ANALYSE, OPTIMISEUse Twitter Analytics to monitor and anslyse yourtwitter campaigns

If you don’t monitor and analyse your performance thenyou will not be able to see the progress you are making.

Set goals for each time period then monitorperformance on a consistent basis to see how youmatch up. This will help you to justify your marketingefforts to peers and senior members of staff.

Keeping track of progress will also help you to identifywhat is and what isn’t working. This approach will helpyou to optimise your campaigns and get a greater returnon your efforts.

10. BE PATIENTSuccess will not happen over night. It takes timeto master everything, but follow these steps andover time you will see a noticeableimprovement.

Don’t go for the quick fix! Buying followers mayget you a large audience fast but it will damageyour engagement levels in the long term.

Start from the start and build up your audiencenaturally. This will ensure you have truefollowers who are actually interested in whatyou are offering and what you have to say.

• Moz Followerwonk –Analyse followers, demographics, interest and social authority.

• Twitter Analytics – Monitor and analyse campaign performance.

• Rapportive – Uncover new followers from your email database.

• HootSuite – Social media management tool. Manage and scheduling tweets

• Bitly – Shorten links to get more out of your tweet.

USEFUL TOOLS

REFERENCES• Zarrella, D., 2013.The science of marketing: when to tweet, what to post, how to

blog, and other proven strategies. Wiley Publishing.

• Cisnero, K., 2014. How To Engage And Create A Lasting Relationship With Social Media Influencers. HootSuite

• Kolowich, L., 2016. The Best Times to Post on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Other Social Media Sites. HubSpot

• Kitroeff, N., 2014. Why that video went viral. The New York Times.

Thanks For Reading!