The majority of companies are now using social media to promote their brand and their product(s) in order to increase their global recognition. If you’re not doing this, or even if you’re not using it to your best ability, you’ve already been left behind.
The beauty of social media is that you could be sitting in your office in Abercarn, Wales, click one button and a thought or an idea that you have is now being read by somebody sitting in their office in Paris, New York or Tokyo. Social media levels the playing field. It’s a great advantage for companies (particularly smaller companies), as it no longer limits you to a regional audience – or even a national one.
The question is, which social media outlet works best for businesses? What is the secret to getting the most of out of each? Over the next few weeks we will compare and contrast the three social media giants (Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus) pointing out some of their pros, cons – and maybe letting you in on some of their lesser-known features!
Twitter – fka Twttr (circa March – September, 2006)
By the end of 2014, Twitter had 284 million active users and was available in 33 languages…So, what is it about the multilingual social media enterprise that can help (or hinder) your company?
Pros: – stats from www.adweek.com
- With over 1 Billion users, Twitter is a perfect platform for companies to promote themselves on a large scale.
- By adding keywords and phrases to your Twitter bio and using them in your tweets you can help increase your companies SEO (search engine optimisation). Without that, Google may not know how relevant your tweets and re-tweets are.
- To put it simply, links that are Tweeted and RT (re-tweeted) are likely to have a higher Google ranking (in simple English, this means it’s more likely to show up higher up on search engine results).
- Contented that has been tweeted or RT by an influential member of Twitter, by this I mean a user that has a lot of followers that can see their Tweets and RT’s, is more likely to have a higher Google ranking, due to the fact that they have more followers.
Cons: – stats from www.internetlivestats.com
- With only 140 characters to use, it can be easy to fill the capacity – the key thing to remember when tweeting, is that you want people to respond and RT you – if you don’t leave that space, you won’t get any response.
- If you wanted to add a photo to your tweet, it takes up an additional 23 characters. Unfortunately, this means that companies have to be even more efficient with their posts or do they… (We’ll look at this later).
- It’s easy to see why your Tweet could be lost in a customer’s Twitter feed. If “Person A” follows 200 twitter accounts (including yours) and half of those companies tweet say, three times a day – that’s 300 tweets on that persons feed (sort of a landing page). This makes it virtually impossible for your tweet to be seen by your target audience.
How many tweets are sent (on average). Info-graphic by: Dischro Creative.
- Promoting Tweets (in Layman’s terms), means spending money to make sure your tweet is seen more frequently and by more users than those which aren’t promoted. On Facebook, this is called “boosting”.
Screenshot of Facebooks ‘Boosting’ feature. (Above)
Images courtesy of blog.kissmetrics.com (Below)
Twitter however, has decided to make promoting a tweet a huge time-drainer, especially in contrast to the pop –up window that appears when boosting on Facebook (see above). As you can see from the picture, “boosting” a post on Facebook seems relatively simple, whereas “promoting” on Twitter really isn’t. An added benefit to Facebook boosting is that you’re able to target groups of people based on age, gender, geographical location etc, and then save that targeted group so that you’re able to quickly access it next time. You can also do this on Twitter using what they call “Tailored Audiences”. A “Tailored Audience” can be compiled and saved on Twitter for you to use in any of your promoted Tweets.
From the picture above, you can see there’s a lot more to “promoting” a tweet than “boosting” a post and it can be very time consuming. Facebook decided to keep all of the necessary options on one easy to use pop-out window, Twitter however as you can see do the opposite and lead you through a series of numbered options in order for you to promote your Tweet.
Now for some inside tips and lesser-known features…
1) “Photo Tagging”
Have you ever been frustrated when trying to post a Tweet with a picture and end up exceeding the 140-character limit when you add text? Well, now there’s a way around it. When adding a new photo to a tweet, you can tag up to 10 people/companies etc. who are in the photo. These tags won’t count against your 140 characters.
2) The ‘Mute’ feature
Today, un-following someone on Twitter or un-liking their page on Facebook, is the digital version of cutting someone out of your life …Remember in that episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S when Phoebe and Monica tried cutting Amanda out? …Awkward!. …But I digress.
Image courtesy of IMDB. ©Warner Brothers. 2003. All rights go to Warner Brothers Inc.
Rather than “un-following” someone, which means you don’t see their content on your feed anymore, you can mute the account for as long as you’d like.
3) “Fast Follow”
The fast follow feature is really handy for accounts that want to send out information about products to the public via Twitter to reach more people. If you have a customer that isn’t on Twitter but would like to know about your company updates then all they have to do is send “Follow [username]” to 40404 and they will start receiving tweets from you on their device. This could be helpful to companies that deal with customers who aren’t very technology savvy, as they could offer the customer the opportunity to follow their latest updates on Twitter without actually signing up for Twitter.
4) The Favourite Star Button.
When you click the ‘favourite’ star on Twitter it not only comes up with a notification for the account that posted what you “favourite” but it also stores that favourite to your account in a reverse chronological order. This is handy as it allows not only you but also (crucially) others to see content that you’ve “favourite”. .
Overall, Twitter is a great outlet for companies wanting to boost their customer list and improve their chances of gaining more sales. Although it has faults (especially when it comes to using Twitter for paid promotion), it can also be really helpful in increasing your SEO.
With roughly 330 million Twitter users active at any given moment – there is amazing scope and potential out there just waiting for you to discover.
So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and join the Twittersphere! …And while you’re at it, check out @DischroCreative!
