Innovating with Twitter as a Powerful Marketing Tool

Alter, a local Brooklyn-based clothes showroom has made use of its Twitter handle to gain a massive fan-base of stylists and potential customers. With tactical promoted posts, it has been able to achieve a sizeable 250 percent increase in its follower base, which has eventually triggered higher in-store visits and better sales. ‘Clean Air in London‘ – a London-based not-for-profit organization has leveraged  Twitter to achieve a 100 percent rise in its followers, and three-fold increase as far as its click rates are concerned. Having come a massive way ahead of its modest beginning as a small-group SMS-service in 2006, Twitter is being consistently used as a powerful marketing tool by digital marketers today. What is significant is that recent efforts on part of this social media giant, are focussed at specifically catering to the needs of small and medium sized businesses (or SMBs).

Based on a 2014 survey conducted by Twitter’s Research Partnering-Firm DB5, out of 10 SMB owners have agreed that Twitter is easy to use, while 2 out of 3 have also affirmed to the fact that its usage has become increasingly convenient for online marketing, over the years. When asked about how they thought Twitter can be the most effective for reaching business goals, the following were the major opinions that they shared ( View source) :

• Above 70 percent of SMB owners felt that Twitter is a very helpful tool for instant resolution of customer queries and issues.
• Over 80 percent felt that it is ideal for channelizing sizeable amounts of information to large groups.
• 73 percent of the SMB owners agreed to the fact that the best way to connect with industry experts and influencers is via Twitter.
• About 63 percent expresses that regular tweets eliminate the need to constantly update one’s website.

Networking with key influencers and industry-relevant niche communities are commonplace strategies today. So is keeping a tab on hashtags, growing trends and ensuring regular tweets and posts. Your success as a social media marketing team today relies on how cleverly you monitor and study the latest features and updates offered by Twitter, and use them to your advantage. Here’s some food for thought for all digital marketers who wish to innovate with Twitter as a powerful marketing tool, and harness its potential to the fullest:-

Enhance The Visual Appeal

The latest major redesign rolled out by Twitter in April 2014 has made the platform more image-focused than ever before. This includes redesigned web views, inline image previews and better visibility of profile and header images. These new settings can be used to liven up your company profile with customized colours, logos and images. Enhanced visual appeal is amongst the key influencers for a larger and relevant fan-base.

Explore Visual Content In Direct Messages

Considering the increasing number of Smartphone users that rely on the Twitter mobile app, the  app has enabled image-sending in direct messages, thereby invoking better response rates from recipients. Another add-on in the Twitter mobile app, is that it now enables users to view promoted accounts with an option of ‘follow’. For all marketers and advertisers who want to target Smartphone users, this is a great opportunity to widen your reach.

Track and Optimize Conversions

With regard to promoted Tweets, it is now possible to view the exact conversions and engagement metrics, owing to the Online Conversion Tracking Feature introduced for advertisers. So you can map what worked and what did not, and optimize your future engagements.

Innovate With The Lead Generation Card

The Lead Generation Card Feature introduced by Twitter in August 2013, is yet to be tapped by many digital marketers. This card enables you to reach out to potential customers (who have expressed an interest in you) off-twitter. It also lets you track Twitter users who searched for particular products or services on your website and thereon forward relevant promoted tweets on their timeline, pertaining to their search query.

Do you have a success story o Twitter to share, then mail me on karishma.jani@bcwebwise.com