Social Media Marketing - Twitter

Twitter is another social networking platform that allows registered users to read and write 140-character messages called 'tweets'. It is available across all devices such as cell phones, desktops, laptops, and tablets.

History of Twitter

Jack Dorsey, an undergraduate student at New York University, introduced the idea of an individual using a message service to communicate with a small group. Twitter was launched as an SMS-based communication platform. Initially it was known as "twttr".

On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey sent the first ever tweet − "just setting up my twttr".

What is Twitter Marketing?

Twitter marketing is a powerful tool for companies of every size and structure to reach out to new customers, promote their brand, and connect with the rest of the companies. Users can find out if customers are talking about them, and the business can accordingly respond. Tweets create another instance for the business that shows up in the search engine results. Twitter serves as a solid foundation for your business to branch out into other social sites.

Twitter is a great platform for projecting what your company is doing and accessing a large audience, where your Tweets can promote products and events.

Create a Twitter Account for Your Business

Before creating a profile, make sure every element of your profile reflects your business identity and personality. Follow the steps given below to create an account for your business −

● Sign up for Twitter or go to twitter.com − Supply all the required information in the lower box on the right side of your screen including your username, email address, and password.

● Confirm your account − Twitter will send you an email to the email address you provided that will include a link that verifies your account. All you need to do is to click on the link to activate the account.

● Make your first connections − When you are done with creating your account, the network will suggest people to follow. Twitter will recommend some popular accounts of celebrities to follow. Skip this step if you don’t want to follow an account.

● Add profile details − Click "edit profile" on the right side of your screen. Upload two different appropriate and suitable photos to your profile and update the basic information that appears in your bio. Try to convey what your business or brand is all about.

● Send your first tweet − Everything is ready, now you are set to start tweeting! Hit the "Tweet" button and you are off and running with Twitter.

How to Increase Followers on Twitter?

● Grow your community by adding a follow button in your website and promote your username.

● Get noticed with hash tags like #smallbiz etc.

● Engage with your followers by collecting feedback to build a better business.

● Sync your email contacts with Twitter.

● Keep your bio updated with the events or the business campaign you are running.

● Embed your best tweets and tweet to people every day.

● You can promote your twitter account on any printed material, e.g., business cards.

● Follow people who follow you.

● Make sure you are engaging with your customers on twitter and not to your product.

What is Hash Tag?

The symbol hash tag (#) is used to mark keywords in a tweet. It was originally created by Twitter users. This symbol helps them to categorize the tweets and show them easily when people search for them. Hash tags can occur anywhere in a tweet − middle, end, or at the beginning. If you tweet with a hash tag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hash tag will find you. A hash tag is a way for people to search for tweets having a common topic.

Hash tags allow you to create communities of people interested in the same topic by making it easier to share and find information related to the common topic.

Sponsored Tweets and Hash Tags

Sponsored Tweets

Sponsored tweets are advertising platforms that connect companies with tweeters. Sponsored tweets allow brands to tap into a Twitter user's followers to reach out to new customers. By giving companies access to your twitter stream, tweeters are compensated for each advertisement they accept.

The only thing tweeters need to do is to write a tweet based on some simple guidelines provided by the advertiser. Sponsored tweets take care of the rest, and will even tweet it out for you. Companies choose twitter followers they like based on a variety of factors, including how many followers you have and how much influence you have over those followers.

Sponsored Hash Tags

Sponsored hash tags place the tag of a customer's choice among the list of trending topics that users see when they access the social network through the web.

Twitter Account Promotion

Promoted accounts are ad units that enable you to quickly gain followers. Promoted accounts help you build trust and a fan following over time that gets people to see more of your tweets regularly. Once your promoted account is created, you can reach the audience who would most likely be interested in your business and want to follow your account.

Promoted accounts are shown in the twitter section of "who to follow", located on the left side of twitter feed. Promoted accounts help introduce a wider variety of accounts that people can enjoy.

Tools to Integrate Twitter on Your Blog or Website

● Add the twitter widget to your site’s sidebar as it’s a great way to show your latest tweets on your website.

● Choose from 40 different well-designed twitter buttons to quickly create a badge to promote your account.

● TwitThis is a little button that can be placed in your HTML file or in your blog to allow your readers to quickly and easily share what they are reading with their twitter followers.

● Chirrup is another solution for pulling Twitter comments across any platform. It allows you to display all the references from Twitter on a given webpage.

● Aweber has an excellent feature for any newsletter marketer. Newsletter delivery service has actually created a way to convert RSS to email to tweet.

● Twitterfeed is a pioneer of website and Twitter integration which allows you to automatically insert tweets into your Twitter from any RSS feed.

Twitter API

Twitter API stands for twitter programming interface that programmers use to make applications, websites, and widgets that interact with Twitter. You can use 'Web Intent', 'Tweet Button', etc. to your site for providing basic functionality. You can similarly embed more complex integrations.

How to Integrate a Twitter Account to Your Website?

To integrate Twitter with your website, you need to have 'admin rights' of your website.

● Open two tabs simultaneously in your browser. Open your website in one tab and Twitter in another.

● Click 'Widgets' under 'Twitter'. Create a widget. Copy the HTML code.

● Finish and grab code.

● Choose the area where you want to show your twitter box. Paste the code in the HTML code section.

● Update and Save.

Twitter Automation Tools

Following are some of the twitter automation tools that make your profile look like an announcement board.

● Twitterfeed is a service that allows you to set up RSS from your blog or website.

● Social Oomph is a tool to create an automated direct message for new followers.

● Tweet Old Post is a great plugin which allows you to connect a Twitter account with your blog and regularly tweet posts to your followers.

● Hootsuite is a free tool that you can use if you have fewer than five social profiles to manage. It offers an option to schedule updates to specific social media accounts.

● Visibili is a free service that lets you create a custom sharing bar that goes with any links to share through their service.

● Twitter Showdown is a tool that provides valuable insights on follower-to-following ratio, level of Tweet engagement, tweet timing, and how two accounts compare.