Although not quite the social media powerhouse as Facebook, Twitter has an avid following for those who wish to express their thoughts in 140 characters or less. You can follow your friends, favorite celebrities, and cherished brands to see everything that’s on their mind and then some. This platform can be an excellent way to spread news fast and interact quickly with potential customers. A quick tweet to someone talking about your brand can be the difference between a return customer and one who goes elsewhere with his or her business.
Users
Twitter users, whether individuals or companies, all have the same user capabilities. This differs from Facebook, which has users and pages categorized separately with alternate profile layouts and permissions. There are about 271 active monthly users, of which about 56% actively tweet, while the rest are “lurkers” who just browse through others’ profiles. Both types of users can be beneficial as followers of your brand because either way they can view the content you are producing. Ironically, Facebook is the most followed brand on Twitter.
Twitter Ads
Promoted tweets, brands, and trends are all possible using Twitter ads. These posts can be interacted with in the same way as organic content, by favoriting and retweeting. While this platform is also easy to use, it is generally up to 6 times as expensive as Facebook advertising, but has a much higher click through rate. Compare the size of your brand reach on multiple platforms when deciding where to advertise. Although Twitter has a higher initial cost, in some cases it may also have a higher payoff depending on your targeted demographic.
#Hashtags
One large standout characteristic on Twitter is the use of hashtags to mark keywords or topics in tweets. In addition to searching for specific people, you can also search for tweets using hashtags, and see which topics are trending on the sidebar of your Twitter feed. This feature has recently been picked up by Facebook, but it not as predominant on that platform’s posts. These can be incredibly useful for gathering new followers by incorporating trending hashtags in your tweets, or by creating your own company Twitter campaign with a unique hashtag. They can come in handy to encourage user engagement with your tweets as well as run online competitions.
Insights
The analytical capabilities of Twitter have increased over the years, but are still not quite up to par with those of Facebook. You can easily track your monthly tweeting activities as well as followers using the basic analytics dashboard. There is also a wide array of tools available from third parties to track other data such as where your followers are tweeting from as well as help scheduling tweets.
WebRealSimple understands the importance of reaching your audience. We can help you with your social media campaigns, branding, and more. Contact us today!