Social Media Marketing is the primordial form of marketing policy that businesses indulge these days, as because the global network is available only on the internet. Before we decide on which social media platform will give us best returns on marketing, we have to be aware of the various forms of social media available around, and what the pros and cons of each, are.

The motion which was initiated by g-mail and yahoo mail to enable friends and family connect with each other, from a distance, was turned into a trendsetter by Orkut, in 2004. Today, though Orkut is obsolete, the desire for communication and socializing has continued the tradition of social media networking with Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter etc.

Besides these, there are many more social media platforms around, and a new one coming out each day. Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube video, hi5, Flickr, WhatsApp etc. are some of them.

However, it is wonderful to find, how these communication apps and websites are gradually changing into marketing platforms. Yes, social media platforms are probably the best places for business marketers. The critical part of any business is to find prospective buyers and appeal to them with the products, and where better can we find people, but on social media.

Twitter is getting to be one of the best places for marketing management for growing businesses.

If you are a businessperson and want to market your product, Twitter might help you get the golden opportunity. Let’s see why Twitter is unique and different from the other platforms-

1. A unified crowd is available here irrespective of social status, or media popularity. From the Pope to the President of U.S.A are on Twitter.
2. You can reach out to celebrities easily on Twitter, as because celebrities love to tweet, and they also reply to tweets at times; hence your product reaches a large group in terms of magnitude, as well as standards.
3. It is used for networking and interacting with consumers along with branding.

However, every other social media platform is different from the other and hence the approach of marketing should also be different. You cannot post on Twitter, the way you do on Pinterest, YouTube or Facebook

1. Twitter gives off conversation- Your posts on Twitter need to be engaging. Twitter marketing is different. You cannot just post a content about the product as broadcast as we do in case of Youtube videos. You have to strategize in order to attract more people to speak on what you are posting as a twitter content. An idea spreads faster with word-of-mouth.
2. Your content should be in the form of questions or something which will instigate public opinion. For e.g. “Should Fish consumption be prohibited in Bengal because of our saffron movers?” Nation, please come forth and speak for yourself”, kind of posts will be quick trending as more people will retweet on it.
3. Use Twitter polls to survey the specific responses. This will make the post vivid as well as evidential.
4. Keep your content short and to the point. Speak on a particular idea in one tweet. Do not elaborate much. If you need to be descriptive about an idea in your post, you can use the link to another post which elaborates on it. This makes marketing trans-referential too and shows the consumers that you have full knowledge of what you want to sell.
5. The content should be relevant. Look up the Google, do some research on what are the latest things trending. You can build your Twitter content on that. Or else, if you have a specific product to sell, try associating trending or current topics with it and prepare your content accordingly.
6. Images, videos, and digital banners get faster popularity on Twitter, hence use fewer words and more graphics.

However, your content needs to be circulated, in order to reach more people. If you want others to engage in your post, you have to engage with others too.

 

7. You have to participate in retweeting and replying to several posts and content which are related to your business, industry or interest area so that people can find you. Since twitter marketing is based on driving conversations, you have to indulge in it too.

You can leave a link to your own post in a ‘reply’ tweet which is related, or of similar topic. Just be careful that you do not appear to be a spammer.

8. Following the right people is important. Twitter is about whom you follow and who follows you. You need to find prominent people in your industry and follow them. Reply to their tweets and posts to get noticed.
9. Twitter makes every news a breaking news before anybody else. Majority of renowned journalists are to be found on twitter. You have to look up, find them and follow them.
10. It is not just enough to follow people; people have to follow you too. Use Twitter chats, in order to do professional marketing. If you cannot find chats related to your industry, create one yourself.
11. Never forget to do the @mentions, so that the concerned person gets a notification about your tweets. This way you can improve your network and get into the influential channels.
12. Use prominent hashtags to improve your tweet’s visibility across the web.
13. Planning beforehand is important when you are using Twitter as a marketing medium. Prepare your content in advance for specific occasions. For example, in October, there should be Halloween and Diwali tweets from your account. Nearing November, you need to prepare ideas on #ThanksGiving and before December 15^th, you should be ready with Christmas tweets, and also mention any special offer by your business for these occasions. You may also want to schedule Twitter, what and when to post, to ensure that you never miss out on anything.
14. Make a list of contacts every day (at least 10 each day), with their mail ids if available, or their twitter account ids, who are important to your business. Search the twitter with keywords related to your industry to find more people. This is like building a business contacts diary.
15. Set your goals properly. Just doing the tweeting is not enough. You have to monitor which action is producing what impact and increase or decrease the tasks accordingly. For e.g. this week you have replied to 10 tweets, by next week your target should be to increase the response by 90%, decreasing the time for a retweet by 2 minutes each, improving @mentions use by 15% and bringing at least 10 leads from Twitter, to say the least. Based on your time availability, you set realistic goals for marketing.

Social media is a huge space and twitter activity is really engaging for those who enjoy being on the social media. However, it takes a lot of your time. In order to ensure you use it effectively, you need to plan your content and strategy well. Also, get into the habit of tweeting, in order to draw pleasure from it, then your marketing skills will strengthen, and you will like your job.

 

Sources:

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/twitter-marketing/

https://business.twitter.com/en/basics/what-to-tweet.html

http://www.adweek.com/digital/seven-unique-twitter/

http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2010/04/09/top-52-social-media-platforms-2/

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/53705565.cms