The social media site with the highly recognizable blue and white bird is reaching worldwide users with staggering proportions. At around 140 million users in America, 50 percent of these users use the mobile phone app. What this means to any marketer is that tweeting about your products, what you are doing, or your ideas will absolutely reach people on the go who are giving their news feed a quick scan. 40 percent of marketers have generated leads on Twitter, which later convert to buyers. Another statistic of dire importance to the brander or marketer is that 56 percent of direct tweets to companies are being ignored. As the platform becomes rabidly more popular, this will change, but for some brands it is relatively uncharted territory, with a lot of mysteries. 69% of new follows are suggested by friends, so once you have followers they will absolutely do some of the work for you. But just like Facebook, the crucial stage of the game is building a fan base, or organic followers. Here are some tips to get that little white bird singing out to the masses with confidence!
Having targeted material
The 80/20 rule of advertising is one that tells us to focus on ourselves and our products 20 percent of the time, and the other 80 percent of the time is reeling viewers in with other popular topics. This can really work in your favor, especially as a freelancer or someone who has samples of their own work like a life coach. Constantly tweeting about yourself or your brand can turn people off in the long run, so there is another strategy to make it more legitimate. Let’s say that you are a site that provides recipes, or sports enthusiast information. You can keep your material strictly to the subject matter, tweeting only about recipes and sports events, especially if some of them are from other users, even competitors. That way, when new people come to your page, every single tweet they see is relevant to the subject matter; even if it is not your own home brewed content.
Having real interaction
This is one of the toughest things to master. Even on very successful companies’ Twitter pages, you see them just broadcasting out links about themselves or other relevant matter, and not much back and forth. Actual conversation, or tweeting “@” other users, is what really drives interest and gets people checking out your brand. A common mistake is thinking that followers on Twitter just want to devour new information, and not be a part of the process of thinking and creating. You can definitely get by with just the bits of information, but other great strategies exist. Retweeting someone who you may want as a new client, or someone whose products are similar to yours is a great start. Most large companies use metrics that alert them whenever they are retweeted, and with one click, it will draw them right to your page. Other very successful users gently joke with their followers, and show the world positive reviews of their work. If you love another brand or want to do business with them, show them your love by tweeting right on top of their page with the “@” function, letting them know you are taking notice.
Critique your own Profile
When you look at your profile, get introspective and ask yourself if you are someone that you would enjoy following. It really seems that posting what you had for dinner and very personal details about your relationship has gone the way of the axe… for good. In the writing community, engagement is at an all time high. There are so many authors cross promoting each other, asking you to come to their signings, and tweeting out excerpts of each others’ material. It could be considered a bit more close knit, and not as cutthroat. One of the best ways to get your profile looking like a good follow is valuable information, like how to articles.
Now that we are in peak travel season, vacation guides and series of photos are always a big hit. When you are critiquing your profile, do you ever sound negative and bored? This can boost views a little, but in the long run people enjoy following someone happy. As far as adding organic followers, by Twitter’s suggestion or by searching through other’s, a general rule of thumb is that 60 followers a day is what Twitter deems non aggressive. Using Twitter’s own recommendations of “Who to follow” is also a great start, to the left of your dashboard. It may seem like a long wait for tons of traffic, but trust us (and the little white bird), it’s worth it!