How Can You Make Your Twitter Strategy Work Better?
Twitter – our friend and our foe. It’s a fun platform to be on, but also a frustrating one if you are trying to increase sales and measure that increase properly. So the question becomes:
How do I make my Twitter Strategy Work Better?
That’s the key after all isn’t it?
So, to answer my own question I took a look at the latest Twitter metrics and determined that there are a few actions you can take to increase quality followers and engagements, which will then increase your conversions.
While you all know this, I do think it’s very important to state it right at the beginning.
What is the purpose of Twitter?
- It’s a megaphone. It’s a promotional platform.
- To ENGAGE with your audience, not talk at them.
With those to very specific points on our minds lets keep going.
How then can I use Twitter so that I see some return on my investment?
- Your writing style
- Your timing
Just like all things in life it’s all about the delivery. You need to say things in the right way for you audience, and you need to say it at the right time.
So let’s talk about how you can actually do that with your Twitter Strategy.
The Writing Guidelines for Twitter
These can be broken down into:
- Things you need to include in your tweets
- How you write your tweets
- How to Recycle your tweets
What to Include in Your Tweets:
There is a science behind writing tweets. The things you need include in your tweets to drive engagement (RTs, favorites, mentions) are: 
- A shortened link.
- An interesting image.
Why you say? The metrics don’t lie.
Tweets that contain shortened links get more engagement.
Not to mention, the whole point of a tweet is to drive action. If you don’t have somewhere to send people what action are you creating?
That would be equivalent of getting in a Taxi and saying “Drive.” It worked for Humphrey Bogart, but I doubt if you tried it, it would work well for you.
Tweets with images get:
- 150% more RTs
- 89% more favorites
- 18% more clickthroughs on the links included in them
OK, got it. Add links and add more image. Now what?
How to Write Your Tweets:
- Use action words like “Download”
- Ask for RTs
- Use popular #’s that are relevant to the content of the tweet
- Use “[]” to help you grab people’s attention (Ex: [STAT] or [INFOGRAPHIC]
Writing tweets is all about inciting action. Action to tweet back, RT, or click on the link you included. So make sure the way you write incites action.
Example 1: A new report on Apple #iPhone usage came out for 2015. bit.ly/xyzghj
Example 2: Did you know 80% of iPhone users have 15 apps? Go read more cools stats: bit.ly/xyzghj
They both go to the same link. They both talk about the content contained there. Which one would get you to click?
Recycling Your Tweets
This is the toughest one for most folks, so you’re not alone if you are skeptical. Just give me a minute to explain.
There is NO reason to re-invent the wheel. We all have at least 50 other things we can, should, or want to be doing when we are crafting tweets.
Recycling tweets comes in two forms:
- Literally copying and pasting the exact same tweet into your scheduler for a different date and time of day
- Re-working the copy but keeping the same link.
- Ex: Pose a question in one tweet pointing to a link. Include a [STAT] from the same piece of content and include the same link.
- Every piece of content you share, should allow you to easily reference 3-4 different points, stats, etc, creating 3-4 different tweets for the same link.
The purpose of executing both of these tactics is to not only save you time, but also to:
- Have enough content to be able to tweet 4-6 times a day
- Determine what time of day and days of the week you get the highest engagement
- Determine what types of content your audience is most interested in
- Determine what #’s give you the highest engagement
- Determine what writing styles give you the highest engagement
OK that makes sense you say, but I’m still not convinced this is good for my audience. I don’t want to badger them.
Fair point. Let me show you a real life example of why this is a good idea and why you will not alienate your followers.
This is a screenshot of the analytics from a tweet I sent out that was successful. (So, I’m not Seth Godin, but this is a successful tweet for me.)
You will see that I got:
- 13 favorites
- 1 RT
- 2 Link Clicks
- 2 Profile Clicks
You will also note that I got 507 impressions. OK, I hate “impressions” as a metric because it’s not a concrete metric. However, in this case, it’s a good gauge of how many people had the possibility of seeing my tweet.
67% of the people that follow me didn’t see this successful tweet.
That is more than 1/2 of the people that follow me on Twitter. Why wouldn’t I recycle this exact tweet on a different date and at a different time? The likelihood that any of the 33% of people that saw it the first time is very small.
Also, by recycling your tweet at a different day of the week and time of day you won’t run into the issue of people visiting your feed and seeing repeats of the same tweet in a row.
So, hopefully the data has convinced you of this tactic and you can implement it in your own Twitter Strategy.
The Timing Guidelines for Twitter
First things first, there is no standard across the board answer as to when you should and shouldn’t tweet. Anyone that tells you differently is blowing smoke up your derrière.
There may be some common overlaps (Ex: Lunch time) but overall every handle has it’s own times of the day when they engage with their audience the best.
Every Twitter handle has it’s own unique audience. Let me say that again.
Every Twitter handle it’s own unique audience.
What this translates to fortunately, and unfortunately is that you need to test your way into finding out when your audience is listening to you. That is the major key to creating a successful Twitter strategy.
Yes, I agree that sounds like a big bite to chew, but it actually isn’t – I promise.
Most likely you are using Hootsuite or some similar program to schedule your tweets. If not go get signed up for the free version, now! I’ll wait. Seriously, I will. Go ahead.
OK, now that we’re all back, let’s continue.
The quick and dirty way of testing is to try out slightly varying times of the day. Example:
- Mon – Fri: Morning, Afternoon, Mid-Afternoon, Evening
- Sat – Sun: Morning, Afternoon, Evening
That equates to 26 tweets for the full week. Don’t worry! If you are sharing 7 pieces of unique content a week, you will already have 28 tweets minimum.
7 pieces of content x (3 unique tweets per piece + 7 copied & pasted tweets) = 28 tweets
Done! Now all you have to is schedule them on different days at a different times.
You will need a full month to have enough data to start to see patterns, but at the end of each week you will be able to start to slightly adjust times to test. Ex: 8:30am vs. 9:05am.
The more sophisticated and ideal solution for testing this starts with asking the question: Who is my target audience?
Once you have that, then you can create a more informed grid of days of the week and times of day to test based upon their Twitter and online habits.
Example:
Target Audience = Millennials in an urban area on the East Coast.
I would create a grid based upon their habits.
- Monday – Friday
- Commute times, since they will be mainly using public transportation
- Lunch times, since they will check Twitter while standing in line
- Late afternoon (3pm-ish) they will be taking a break from work
- 8-11:30pm – They will be watching TV or out on the town, using their phone regardless.
- Saturday – Sunday
- Late morning/Early afternoon – They will be getting up around this time
- 7pm – 1am -They will be watching TV or out on the town, using their phone regardless.
These are generalities about a certain target demo, it certainly doesn’t apply to all. However, this is for illustrative purposes. You can now see how you can hone your testing times a bit more so that you get results faster.
Testing is your best friend online. Don’t forget about him/her.
In Conclusion
Twitter can be a very powerful tool, to raise awareness for yourself or your Brand. With a couple of key tweaks and some testing you can build a quality audience.
As always, if you have any questions or comments about any of the tactics I covered to help you make your Twitter Strategy work better, please use the commenting feature below to chat. Communication is a two-way street, so I’d love to hear from you.
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