Twitter.com: A Way to Reach the Masses

Twitter.com, created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in 2006 has gained worldwide use and continues to be one of the most significant and influential social media platforms around. Twitter is a fast-paced source for all that is trending all around the world. From news, pop culture, and everyday lives, Twitter captures it all. The use of Twitter is essential to businesses and entrepreneurs everywhere.

Marketing on Twitter is a quick and convenient way to reach the masses. Twitter engages with audiences in quick and easy messages. It can be used to provide immediate and impeccable customer service. It can establish your brand as a global phenomenon if you plan and tweet the right way.

It is critical to understand the platform and how it can be used for your social media marketing. An invaluable resource is Hootsuite.com's Twitter Marketing: The Complete Guide for Business. This guide is a great resource for those hoping to hop on the Twitter train to success. They state that the very first step is to create a marketing strategy. Twitter moves at lightening speed. Especially with the use of hashtags, one day you are in, the next you are out. If you do not have a clear plan, you’ll end up wasting time and money. Planning ensures that you are working towards your goals and eventual success. This planning doesn’t only take your account into consideration, it includes researching your competition and making your twitter unique.

Once a plan is set, you must create and post great content. This content must be directly applicable to your audience as well as part of the current trends. By using hashtags, your content can be reached by as many followers as possible. Hootsuite.com shared the Do’s and Don’ts of Hashtag Use. The most important do’s include being specific with your hashtag selection and catering to your audience. The most important don’ts include not using irrelevant hashtags and over-hashtagging. Ultimately, the content you are sharing should take precedence over the hashtags being used. Great content shared via Twitter should include multimedia and focus on engaging with your audience. Engaging with your audience could include the use of polls and responding quickly to tweets. Staying on top of trends and engaging with your audience is critical for Twitter success. Check out these five good and bad examples of brands using Twitter  for more inspiration of what you should and should not tweet.

While having a marketing plan and posting great content are the first steps to success, it is critical to post at the right time. Besides tweeting regularly to make sure that you stay present in your audience’s mind, social media marketers must schedule their tweets to match when their intended audiences are online. Check out this Hootsuite article that breaks down individual social media platforms and the best times to post. (https://blog.hootsuite.com/best-time-to-post-on-facebook-twitter-instagram/#twitter) They found that the best time to tweet is at 3 p.m. Monday-Friday for business-to-business (B2B) and before 9 a.m., at noon, and after 5 p.m. during the week for business-to-customer (B2C). Designing when and what you tweet is all apart of your initial marketing plan.

For more tips and tricks on establishing a strong Twitter profile and expanding your followers check out this article by hootsuite.com (https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-get-twitter-followers/) Without a large and invested following, your Twitter and social media marketing will fall flat. I hope that this aggregation of Twitter information helps you build your brand and take over the social media machine.

-Aimee Jeanne