By TE Cunningham & Shea Eckert
Social media can seem overwhelming to the small business owner; even worse, it can be time-consuming. If you don’t have a marketing employee to take the reigns for you, here are some brief guidelines to get you started.
Create your Twitter page and fill out every possible field on your profile. Follow additional accounts that relate to your business to have the most robust page possible. With Twitter, there is sometimes a quid pro quo effect, and people and accounts will often follow you back.
Be consistent in your branding and make sure all graphics follow it, especially your Twitter cover. We recommend a logo bug for the profile pic; make sure your entire logo shows in the box if you choose to do that instead.
Make your Twitter direct messages open to the public as they are a tool that allows customers to reach out with questions.
Audience at a Glance:
Twitter: 139 Million Users
The largest demographic of Twitter users range between the ages of 25 and 34. Only 34% of Twitter users are female, while 66% are male. Twitter’s most significant number of users come from the United States. Research shows that 59% of marketers are actively using Twitter to benefit their business (Source: socialmediadata.com).
Now you are ready to start posting; here are some quick tips:
Number of Tweets Per Day: 1-2 Tweets per Day at Minimum
It is generally recommended up to 5 times per day if your workload allows for it; some SMBs find this challenging, even with the help of social schedulers. Some companies that have amazing Twitter presences can accelerate the number to significantly more than five times. Big branding stars of Twitter include QSR heavyweights, Taco Bell & Wendy’s, Charmin and Old Spice, to name a few.
Best Posting Times:
- Take advantage of early mornings as they are the best time to get interactions
- On average, the best time to get engagement with tweets is during evenings and late at night
- Twitter is most active, with the highest volume of tweets occurring between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM and peaking between noon and 1:00 PM.
Best Posting Days:
If you are looking for the best days to post on Twitter, you should choose to post on either Wednesdays or Thursdays. Thursday and Friday are the days that typically get the most engagement.
Types of Content:
Twitter is a different animal: Images perform better than videos do on Twitter. Users on Twitter tweet images 361% more than they tweet videos.
As such, it’s really about what you are saying with this network and what visual you attach. Here are some quick things to remember:
- Limit to 1-2 hashtags per Tweet
- Humor works well here
- Be conversational
- Keep copy brief
- Use images, GIFs & videos when possible – these get better engagement than text-only typically
- Testing your business tweets times and types of content and tracking it is key to optimizing this network
- Monitor and take advantage of events and trending conversations by participating
- Retweeting relevant content and replying to Tweets are great ways to maintain a robust Twitter presence. Retweet positive customer feedback, helpful articles and ideas that align with your brand voice. Be responsive to mentions and switch to Direct Messages to resolve complex issues.
Special Features:
Use the Create a Moment feature to get across messages that need more than 280 characters. You can create a moment of your tweets and add in other people to tell a story from different perspectives. Brands can use moments to highlight customer feedback, round up topics that matter to them or post essential tweets. Note that this feature must be done from your desktop.
Moderate who participates in your Conversations: You can control who tweets in conversations you start. This is a great tool when you get inaccurate and offensive responses to company tweets.
Hopefully, this will get you on the road to your business’s social media success. If you feel overwhelmed, we can help! Contact us at tlcmarketingconsultants.com today!