Growing Your Twitter Audience In 280 Characters Or Less

One of the most effective ways to reach potential customers these days is through social media, but becoming proficient with a new platform isn’t always easy. For some, it can feel like learning a new language. This is particularly true when it comes to Twitter. With its quick content turnover rate and strict character limitations, Twitter can be an overwhelming platform for those who haven’t used it before. But like most topics that look complicated from the outside, the rewards of learning the ins and outs of this fast-moving social media platform are invaluable for growing an audience. In this article, we cover how to decide if Twitter is right for your organization and how your business can make the most of the opportunities this platform presents.

Is Twitter The Right Social Media Platform For My Organization?

When it comes to selecting the best social media platform(s) for your business, it’s helpful to think of these websites as tools. While Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok are versatile tools, they each have types of content that work better on their platforms. For example, Instagram is built for images and videos and might not be a good place to post your pithy current events commentary, while Twitter is the perfect social media channel for politics and news-related content. In other words, you could use a flat-head screwdriver in place of a Phillips-head screwdriver, but you would be making more work for yourself in the long run and the job might not be as successful.

When you’re deciding which social media platform is the right one for your business, it’s a good idea to consider who you are trying to reach with your social media content and what kinds of communication you want to have with your audience.

Here are six features of Twitter to help you decided if it is the best platform for your business:

1. Twitter Is For Writing – While images, gifs and videos can be a helpful way to direct attention to your tweets, Twitter is primarily a text-based platform. Does the content your business creates rely on media in order to be effective?
2. Brief, Digestible Content – At first, the limitations to your character count might feel stifling, but this constraint forces you to create focused social media content that your audience can engage with quickly.
3. Organic Audience Creation – Unlike other platforms where it is only possible to see content from users or content creators you are following, Twitter allows users to organically stumble upon content related to their interests. If you are starting from scratch with your business, Twitter can be a strong social media platform to identify your audience and become part of the larger conversation around topics related to your enterprise.
4. Demographics – Identifying your audience is a key step in developing a social media marketing strategy. If your target demographic includes people ages 25-49, Twitter is the right place to go, according to this article from Statista. You should also note that Twitter is the only platform that has more male than female users.
5. Large Potential Audience – As a well-established social media platform, Twitter has a large number of users. One report from DataReportal estimated there were 465.1 million active users on the platform. That same article cited that these latest figures indicate that around 5.9 percent of people on Earth use Twitter.
6. Easy 1:1 Engagement – Because of its content brevity, Twitter is a simple platform to use. That makes it that much easier for users to interact with your brand. As we discuss in-depth later, growing a personal relationship with your audience members goes a long way toward growing your business’s social media presence.

If the majority  of these attributes sound like they might be beneficial to your business, then we encourage you to give Twitter a try. But to ensure your success on the social media platform, there are a few things you will need to know first.

Evaluate Your Organization’s Goals For Twitter

Before you get started with your content creation, it is essential to plot out what you want from your social media platform. With a road map to guide you, it will be easier to determine what types of content to create, who to direct your content toward and what you want people to do after they engage with your content. Part of mapping out your social media plan means choosing your destination. In other words, where do you want your social media posts to lead?

Some target goals you might set for your Twitter platform are:

1. Increasing Brand Awareness – Whether you are just setting out or looking to establish yourself as a memorable company, creating brand awareness is a great target for most businesses. When people are looking for services or products that your business provides, you want your enterprise to be one of the first ones your potential customer remembers. Creating a strong social media presence is a great way to do that.
2. Driving Traffic To Your Website – Having regular, consistent traffic to your website is a boon for your business. Whether you write blog posts, create videos or provide another service, using social media to direct users to your website is a great way to promote your organization.
3. Increasing Brand Loyalty – Catching the attention of audience members is one thing, but getting them to keep coming back is just as important. Even in the digital age, the most effective form of advertising is word of mouth. People who are loyal to your brand are most likely to proselytize your business to other potential customers.
4. Establishing Yourself As A Professional – One of the strengths of Twitter as a platform is that it helps you be part of the conversation. By connecting with other professionals and creating content about the contemporary topics related to your brand, your audience will begin to see you as a professional. So, when they require services or insight related to that topic, they are most likely to turn to your business.

Whatever targets you choose for your Twitter platform, you will need a set of goals to get you there. But not all goals are created equally. You have probably heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals before, but if you have not, this acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. If you want to explore the topic of setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, check out this short article.

One example of a S.M.A.R.T. goal if your target was boosting your business’s brand awareness would be increasing your following from 100 to 1,000 followers by the end of Q3. With a goal like this, you know exactly what you are working toward, when you have to complete it and you know that this amount is attainable and measurable.

Before creating your first batch of social media content, take some time to ask yourself what you are hoping to accomplish with Twitter. This will set you on the right track for your content moving forward.

Creating A Social Media Strategy For Twitter

Now that you’ve established your goal for your Twitter platform, we can get down to the nitty-gritty details.

At Three Girls Media, one of the first things we suggest when it comes to creating social media content is to implement a consistent posting schedule. Not only does this help our clients keep track of their social media posts, but it also shows your audience when they can expect to receive social media content from you.

One of the pitfalls we’ve seen is blasting your social media platform in the beginning and slowly falling off the wagon as time goes on. What this tells an audience is that your business has “lost steam.” While there are a lot of reasons a business would choose to post less frequently, your audience will only see the lack of content.

For that reason, it is important to create a content creation schedule that is consistent and sustainable. Twitter is one platform where quantity does matter. The lifespan of a tween is only 30 minutes; that’s how long it will live in someone’s newsfeed before it’s so far down it’s unlikely to be seen. Therefore, tweeting five to 10 times per day isn’t too much. We recommend tweeting three times a day as an absolute minimum. That being said, if you cannot maintain three tweets a day, it will look better to be consistent.

Potential audience members are not the only ones who will take note of how consistent your social media content is. Social platform algorithms factor the consistency of your posts into their decisions about whether to serve your content to other users.

When you’re deciding how often to tweet, the next question people often ask is when to tweet. Determining this for your business will require some research into when your target demographic uses Twitter. Generally speaking, the best times to post on the platform are between 12 and 9 p.m., according to Hubspot. When you choose to post your social media content depends on when your demographic is most active. If you’re looking to reach stay-at-home parents, you might consider posting between 12 and 3 p.m. in order to catch them while their children are napping or at school. Or if your audience includes business professionals, you might be better off posting in the late afternoon.

Not everyone engages with social media platforms in the same way. One of the best things to do early on in the process is to be flexible. If you notice that certain times of day net more interaction with your tweets or that your competitors tend to post at different times, feel free to experiment with what works for your audience and your business.

Syntax, Brand And Tone On Twitter

While Twitter users come to the platform with a wide variety of interests and experiences, they are unified by a common trait: they use the social media platform during their downtime. By and large, social media is a place to unwind, have fun and maybe learn something new. That does not mean that social media is an education platform. One helpful way to think of Twitter is like a virtual bar room.

The comments and posts on Twitter that are popular are often pithy, playful, quick and entertaining. It can be helpful to think of posts in your Twitter feed like the snippets of conversations you pass on your way to the bar. If you were in that situation, would you be more likely to gravitate toward someone who is entertaining or someone offering pedantic lectures on their field of interest? Exactly. Your social media audience will feel the same way.

One of the best ways to create opportunities for conversations and engagement on your social media platform is to be approachable. This doesn’t mean you can’t be cerebral or talk about interesting topics. Just remember that your goal with social media is to include others in the conversation, not prove that you know more than the person next to you.

Some types of posts you can use to encourage interaction on your Twitter platform are:

• Questions Of The Day
• Fun Facts
• Myth Busting
• Trending Topics

We’ve included some other tips for posting stellar updates in this article. Like most social media platforms, with LinkedIn being a notable exception, the tone tends to be more casual. Take a step back and relax into an easy, inviting conversational style. This is the tone equivalent of a businessperson loosening their tie.

To summarize, people don’t come to social media platforms to be in a work mindset. They come to Twitter to unwind. Don’t scare off your potential customers with rigid, unapproachable tweets.

Put The Social Back Into Social Media Marketing

If it wasn’t clear enough from the name, social media platforms are a place for users to connect with other like-minded individuals. Twitter is no different. Whether your target is to establish yourself as a professional or to increase your brand awareness, connecting with your audience will be key for the success of your Twitter platform. Take a hint from the Hufflepuff playbook and show your audience some loyalty.

Connecting With Your Audience On Twitter

While creating engaging posts for your audience is a large portion of your social media strategy, it is not the end of the road. As Three Girls Media CEO-President, Erika Taylor Montgomery, put it in her article, “Unlike traditional print or broadcast media, which only offer one-way communication, social media is a two-way street.”

In order to grow your social media audience, you will also want to respond within an hour. This is not only a good social media practice, it is also a part of quality customer service.

To go back to the bar room comparison, would you want to engage with someone who didn’t acknowledge the things that you are saying? Of course not. Show your customers that you care about what they have to say by responding in a timely manner to their replies to your tweets and the messages they send.

Connecting With Other Professionals On Social Media

Even if growing your professional network is not one of your goals for your social media platform, building a network with other leaders in the field will help you connect with your audience. The best way to stay in touch with the interests and updates in your business’s field is to follow other professionals.

This has the added benefits of providing ideas for social media content you can post on your Twitter platform and helping you keep a finger on the pulse of trending topics and new developments in your field. The last thing a business needs is to look like it is out of touch with the times. Connecting with other professionals on Twitter makes sure that doesn’t happen.

Need Help Crafting Your Twitter Platform?

While 280 characters is not a lot, there are many factors to consider when it comes to creating effective tweets. But as a general rule for social media, feel free to take things at your own pace. Take time to experiment with what forms of content and topics work for your business.

If you need some extra help managing your Twitter account, consider reaching out to Three Girls Media. We offer a 30-minute no-obligation consultation with our CEO, Erika Taylor Montgomery. Contact us for a complimentary consultation today.

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