People are savvy when it comes to marketing today. They can smell a pitch from a mile away, and the last thing they want is a constant stream of marketing when they are on Twitter. The social media network is extremely popular, and that popularity doesn’t show signs of waning. This means that you have to learn how to Tweet responsibly to your followers. You want to market, but you do not want your Tweets to be so oversaturated with marketing messages that you lose followers. The following tips should help you get started with this aspect of online marketing.
Building a Relationship with Followers
On Twitter, you have followers. These people follow your Tweets. This means that your messages will pop up in real time in their feed. If the only thing you post are spam messages trying to get them to go to your site or buy something, they will not remain your follower for long. You have to know your audience, just as when you write information for your company’s blog or website. You have to know the types of things that the audience is going to enjoy, the things they want to know more about, and the things that entertain them. You can then post some information on these subjects.
This is going to help build a relationship with the followers. You want them to trust that you aren’t just there because you see them as a wallet. When you post about other things that they might find interesting, they are going to be far more forgiving when you post a marketing message occasionally. Best of all, when you gain more followers because of your posts, you will be spreading your brand awareness to those who might not have known of your company before.
Quality is Better than Quantity
One of the issues that many online marketers have is the fact that they want to have a high quantity of followers. They want to be able to say that they have 100,000 followers on Twitter, and some are even willing to pay others to find followers for them! They want that large, impressive number, but they forget that those 100,000 followers are probably not going to become customers. However, having only 10,000 loyal followers that actually care about your posts and that will actually buy your products is far better. You need to have quality followers that are going to re-tweet what you post.
The Frequency of Posts
Something else that you will have to consider is the frequency of posts as well as how often you are going to put a marketing or branding message in those posts. Remember, every time you post and someone sees your Twitter handle, it can be akin to reinforcing your branding, so you don’t have to have heavy handed marketing messages all of the time.
One of the nice things about Twitter is the 140-character limit. Because it is far shorter than a blog post, it is possible to post several messages on Twitter each day. This is common practice for most people as well as companies. However, you do not want to post too often. A couple of Tweets a day should be sufficient. When you are sharing links, make sure that they are high quality. Check them out before you simply add a link to your Tweet.
Connect with Other Sites
You should have more than just Twitter and a website going when it comes to your company’s online presence. Have profiles on other social networking sites, a YouTube account for videos you create, a blog, and more. Have the branding message be the same throughout, and make sure that anyone who happens upon one of those marketing tendrils will be able to find all of the other areas where you are present on the web.
Using Twitter to Its Fullest
Make sure that you make use of everything that Twitter has to offer. This means that you should use the # hashtags when you are posting. They can help you find new followers who are looking for what you have to offer. If you are posting about a new design for a t-shirt that you created, you might want to use a tag such as this with the post: #funnytshirt.
Use your Site to Your Advantage
Something else that you should consider when you are getting into marketing on Twitter and other social media sites is how you are going to connect your own site to those social media sites. Many of the wordpress themes out there today have features that will make it easy to add social media buttons to your site. You should make sure that you have these, either through the theme or with a plugin that you download separately. Some will also let visitors share the information they find with their social networks.
