What is Twitter used for?

Twitter seems to be one of those social media platforms that people have abandoned, you might think nobody is using it, but in reality, they are. 

So, let’s talk about how to get the most out of it. Twitter tends to attract more political, highly educated conversations, usually around things like industry practices or changes in legislation and the like.

Twitter is a good broadcasting network that is very fast-paced and can give you the latest news and updates on businesses and all things surrounding it at a quick glance. It’s also a good place for people who want to be seen as experts in their field to tweet and share the things they know are happening in the industries they serve. So, let’s think about it that way… if we want to target high-level professionals, Twitter can be the place to do that.

Traditionally, you’ll notice a more masculine communication, and the age range of twitter is usually 30 +. 

Why is Twitter good for your business?

Every tweet is indexed by google, so sometimes, if you search for something specific, you’ll notice the results shown in the google listings will include tweets found through keywords. We’ve noticed that if a business’s organic traffic on their website is at a certain level, they might stop using Twitter with the thought that it’s not naturally driving traffic itself, and they quickly see a big drop in their organic impressions. Once they go back to using their Twitter account again, we again notice a rise in organic impressions. This observation was made from the google analytics of our own clients over the last 5+ years! 

Making your Twitter distinctive

Where will you appear in search results? Everyone wants to be top of google, and these things will affect it… 

1. Let’s look at search engine optimisation (SEO). So, your traditional SEO – This is the smallest margin of your SEO and only covers 20% of your algorithm. This is basically just the juicy keywords on your website, which, whilst they’re needed, won’t place you higher on anybody’s feed. The thing that will boost your SEO the most is your ‘buzz’ online, covering about 27% of your SEO. This is exactly where Twitter fits in – creating that buzz online and getting people talking about you and your business outside of your website. Making sure people have something to talk about will help push your overall SEO!

2. To be seen as an expert in your field. Make sure you are sharing stories to show you know what’s happening in your industry/sector. For example, what are the latest figures from ONS? Latest articles from ‘thought leaders’ in your particular world? Be really clear that this is YOUR area of expertise, and you really do know what you’re talking about.

3. If you’re looking at Twitter to drive traffic or gain leads, it’s not likely that will happen. So just be clear on what you want to get out of it, then you can make sure the effort you put in is in ratio to that. No more than two hashtags per tweet, and incorporate your hashtags into your text rather than piling them all at the end of your tweet. Word it carefully, but don’t make it too busy or crowded, so people struggle to read through it. Remember – Twitter is fast and convenient. People want to be able to easily process information as quickly as possible. 

4. We are now able to share longer content on Twitter in an easier way through using ‘threads’. So, as well as being able to keep our tweets from being so loaded with hashtags, making it difficult to read, we can add more content to one tweet and make it more to engage with for our target audience.

5. Followers and Following! Always look at your suggestions for ideas of people you may want to target, allies, and competitors, etc. Proving alliance with other Twitter users in your sector will show expertise and knowledge. Also, make sure to follow those who may keep you up to date in your sector or show new information and helpful news. Make sure your followers vs following ratio are in range with each other. You should eventually have more followers than following, which is great but make sure it isn’t too weighted the other way, otherwise, it can make it seem like maybe you’re a spam account (Or that you’re not very interesting!)

6. On the subject of being up to date… hashtags!!! Keep a lookout for quick and easy content on your ‘trending’ page. For example, “National days”, ‘#MondayMotivation’ and things like that.

7. Make sure your header and avatar stand out – even if someone has their settings on dark mode. This can draw a lot of attention to your page! Add on a bio – remember, it’s indexed by google! Inject a short and sweet few sentences about you and your work. Add a bit of personality in there! 

8. Make sure to post regular content with lots of variety. Try and inject lots of personality through your posts, as well as professionalism and knowledge. Check on your feed, as other users will as a point of due diligence. So, look at your feed and ask yourself, without scrolling too far, does your Twitter cover your branding, show what you’re about, and who is behind your company? ‘Continuity’ is key!

9. One of the biggest things I feel like we can make use of is the ‘lists’ feature. Say you follow 500 + people on Twitter, if I was only to scroll through my newsfeed, I’m probably only going to miss out on a lot of the things I might find important, and basically wasting what could be valuable time on Twitter!

For specific interests, making lists is a good idea to keep things organised. By doing this, you can scan through your feed very specifically in order of importance to you and your business personally. This is a good way to keep groups of people, similar businesses, competitors and specific targets together, meaning you can compare content and pick out trends. Who’s tweeting most? Who is getting the most engagement, and what are they posting in order to do so? What content should you be putting out there, and who should you target to engage more with to attract attention? 

Your lists are public by default, meaning people will get notifications to tell them you’ve added them to a list. Make sure you make your list ‘private’ if you don’t want them to be notified and see this!

A ‘hit list’ is a great idea, too! Who do you want to be grabbing the attention of? Your hit list should have 10 to a maximum of 20, to make sure you’re connecting with the right people you want to notice you. You can use public lists to your advantage – let’s say you create a list and call it “Masterminds.” And fill the description to say something along the lines of “These people are fantastic, well-driven people who I believe can take my business to the next level.” You’re already making your name memorable when they see this and stroking their ego a little, which is a good way to get in their good books and help create or boost that relationship you want to build.

Tip: You don’t need to follow people to add them to your lists.

So this will keep your following number down but keep you up to date with who you want to keep an eye on.

10. Always ask yourself, “What can I like?” “What can I retweet?” “What can I engage with?” so that you aren’t just mindlessly scrolling and you’re using Twitter as efficiently as possible – even if it’s just a quick, 5-minute lunchtime scroll! Adding onto this, make sure your content isn’t faceless. Think about it from a personal and business brand perspective. 

So, Twitter is a powerful social media platform if used correctly and efficiently. It is valuable from an organic SEO perspective, and not enough people are using it to achieve their full potential or making use of it as part of their strategy to get in front of the people that can give them the opportunities to build those partnerships to get that extra, valuable attention for them and their brand.  For further help or information, check out our YouTube channel, our other blog posts or join our coaching club to delve into more depth about SEO and other key strategies!