Communication is Key!
Communication is the foundation of all good relationships – whether business or personal – and businesses are increasingly looking to social media as a way to communicate with their customers.
What is a Hashtag?
Each of the major social media sites has their own characteristics and the key feature of Twitter is the ability to use hashtags (#). A hashtag is a way of identifying a keyword or major topic in a Tweet (Twitter message).
Clicking on the hashtag shows you all other tweets containing the same hashtag information. It is considered good twitter etiquette to exercise restraint in the use of hashtags and to keep to a maximum of two per tweet. When a keyword or topic becomes very popular, it is identified as a trending topic, which brings it further publicity.
It is important to note that the hashtag only applies until the next space. For example #Bat out of Hell would actually show up tweets with #Bat, if you wanted to reference the Meatloaf song, you would need to write #BatoutofHell.
Another thing to watch out for is putting punctuation before a space because it will be incorporated into the hashtag. Also, hashtags ignore cases, so #batoutofhell will have the same effect as #BatoutofHell.
Getting Started
First of all, use Twitter search to find out what people are saying about you, your competitors and anything else which is relevant to your line of business. Then create an attractive Twitter profile including a photo.
Your Photo Matters
Twitter is a place to build up an image of a company run by and for humans. People like to be able to put faces to names so your profile photo is important.
Ideally, your avatar should show your dedicated Twitter representative. This means having a photograph of a dedicated social media manager, or having an appealing brand logo that people will recognize.
Twitter is about Meaningful Conversations
It can be useful to have a Twitter account just to keep an eye on what people are saying about you, but that’s a bit like having a boat and keeping it in a harbor; it may be safe, but that is not what boats are for.
When you start tweeting, remember that the cardinal sin of Twitter is becoming the online equivalent of the party loudmouth. It’s fine to talk about yourself, provided that you have something meaningful to say, but keep it in moderation and remember to listen.
Be Valuable, be Human and You will be Followed
Add value with useful content relevant to your niche. For example, if you run a cleaning company, you can post regular tips on ways to deal with household cleaning issues.
Keep them relevant to the seasons, e.g. getting rid of grass stains in summer, or dealing with red wine stains in winter. Ask your followers to send in their questions and post their own tips.
Let your followers know what individual employees are doing. This can take the form of sharing any funny stories they may have from their day and also sharing anything special they’re doing outside of work.
Commenting and retweeting (forwarding other people’s messages) shows humanity and humility. You may wish to draw the line at promoting content posted by a direct competitor (although doing so can show confidence). Commenting on other tweets and retweeting them shows that you are willing to participate in the Twitter community as a whole, rather than just using it to publicize your own business.
As a final tip, one of the joys of Twitter is that it’s short and sweet. It’s absolutely fine to use twitter to make people aware of useful content which has been posted elsewhere, such as on your website. Ideally, you should include a link back to Twitter on your website so that people who found it valuable can retweet it.
If you’re unsure where to get started with Twitter then contact our professional social media team today.
But something has been weighing heavy on our shoulders and, well, it’s confession time. Yes, we’ve been keeping a secret. Although we were careful with undercover meetings and worked feverishly in the quiet shadows, it was inevitable that the truth would soon reveal itself… and that the world would know what Marketing Puget Sound has really been up to.
Nobody wants to perform for an empty concert hall. Even worse, you don’t want your audience to leave early. You have something important to say, but how you say it is just as important as what you say. How do you keep your customers engaged and keep them from leaving early?
As the world becomes more and more technologically advanced and marketing shifts from a traditional method to the new-age approach, there are some questions that need to be answered.