What Is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing, or SMM, refers to your marketing efforts, both paid and unpaid, that are done in the effort of increasing engagement on your social sites. You might have more goals for your social media as well, if you want to use it to increase sales or traffic to your website.
Either way, social media marketing is one of the few avenues you have to be fully in control of your content and your message. Many brands are already aware of the benefits of being on Facebook and Instagram, but what few realise is the power of the written word, and, as an extension, the benefits of using Twitter.
What are the Benefits of Twitter?
Twitter is one of the few remaining social media platforms that still allow for chronological feeds, though many users will likely have their default feed order, which follows this format:
- Ranked Tweets, or those with high engagement.
- “In Case You Missed It” section of older tweets, populated with accounts the user engages with.
- All remaining tweets in reverse-chronological order.
Though the actual algorithms behind the twitter timeline change on a daily to weekly basis, for now there is still a chance for your content to be found. Once users begin to really engage with your brand, however, your tweets will be the ones that are listed higher up the feed, meaning more engagement and more follow-throughs. This will improve your business’s online visibility.
Generally speaking, of course, the benefits of Twitter can be broken down as follows:
- You can connect with a large
- You can diversify your digital marketing
- You can provide key, instant customer service and
- You can create viral campaigns.
Twitter is valuable because it is of the now. It is the preferred platform for news agencies and for those who want to know what is happening in the world.
How to Manage Your Twitter Account
Many third-party tools mean you can take greater control over your online presence than other sites like Instagram allow. Namely, you can use apps like Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule your posts.
When to Post
Generally speaking, you want to post when your users are online. What this means specifically is that the time and day you should post will vary depending on where you live and in which time zone, though posting during commuting hours in the morning and evening, and on the weekends, is usually a good ballpark to use.
To make things easier for you, those very same third-party apps or websites you use to manage your account can schedule your posts for you, based on the best times to post. This takes all the hard work of when to schedule out from your hands and can help you focus instead on creating valuable content.
The Anatomy of the Perfect Tweet
Twitter has recently increased its maximum character count to 280, up from the previous 180. This means that you could say more with the space you are given, but you should be careful. The power of Twitter is precisely how concise it is, and ballooning what you have to say to simply fill your limit is a mistake.
The anatomy of the perfect tweet:
- Is approximately 100 characters.
- Contains 1- 2 hashtags (not more).
- Has an Emoji, GIF, or picture.
Multi-media posts are the most popular and easiest way to engage with online, but you should always remember to vary what you post. Use some tweets to encourage users to follow your link (Twitter will automatically convert many linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. into article previews, which is great for engagement).
How to Schedule Tweets
Now that you know what and when to tweet, it’s finally time to learn how to schedule your tweets. The exact methods, of course, depend on which third-party tool you use. For the most part, however, you will be able to craft your tweets using your third-party tool, and once you have completed your tweet, you will be prompted to either:
- Publish now.
- Set a time to be published.
- Automatically schedule.
Opting for your tweets to be automatically scheduled will mean that the third-party tool will publish your tweet when users have been found to be most online or active. You will be able to further customise this option by selecting how many tweets you want to publish per day. For more specific tweets, like holiday celebrations or tweets leading up to a specific event, you will want to use your own research and schedule the tweets manually.
The Danger of scheduling
When you do schedule your tweets, however, you have to remember always to be connected to the news. If something terrible were to happen or other ground-breaking news story hitsWeb page hits were all the rage in the early days of the internet, but have since been replaced by far more granular, valuable data. and your tweet is insensitive or downright insulting within that context, users could attack your account for your actions. Always be on hand to delay or delete tweets that may be misconstrued if an emergency were to occur, and to tweet with the news in mind.
Every social media platform has merits. Pinterest is great for interior design and visual-based industries, as you can create a curated edit of inspiration that attracts followers to your account, who then, in turn, share your photos and help you achieve massive exposure. Even LinkedIn is a great tool to use to share industry news and to your followers and potential employees. The key to successfully using these social media platforms, however, is knowing how to best use each one. Don’t cross-post, create unique content and use unique strategies for each one, and you will achieve the goals you set out for yourself.
