Define Your Twitter Strategy

Or are you still trying to figure out what Twitter is? Here are five tips to get your Twitter strategy up and running.

June 25, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - A good article on Mashable.com explains how businesses can build a social media strategy on Twitter. Penned by HuffingtonPost.com blogger and Klout Marketing Manager Megan Berry, the article offers five tips to reaching your customers and getting your business successfully tweeting in Twittersphere:

1. Choose Your Audience. "Be specific and limit your scope to the demographic you really need; trying to reach everyone isn??t a great strategy...Try to pay attention to who has influence in your audience. For example: who are people talking to, about or retweeting? Who do they seem to ask for advice? Once you have a decent group, move on to step two," suggests Berry.

2. Understand How They Speak. "You need to understand how your audience talks, what they like, and what they share," noted Berry, adding the following steps for doing so:

  • "Look up what people are saying about your company" ?" is the chatter good or bad? In the convenience channel, for example, are people tweeting about a store experience, and are they giving feedback that should be addressed?
  • Following the competition: "Note if your competitors are jumping in or influencing any of these conversations."
  • How is your audience talking? Formal or informal? "This will be very different depending on the companies you are tracking and the people you attract," notes Berry, adding, "It??s always good to match the tone of your audience."
  • What is your audience sharing and retweeting? This can help you learn more about their likes and dislikes, what "links and articles" they like and the types of "terms and ideas" that annoy or excite them.
  • "Note any hashtags or other ways your audience connects. Look up those hashtags to see if they have any real traction," Berry says.

3. How Much is a Twitter Lead Worth? "So what is it that you??re after? It might be as concrete as sign-ups and sales or as ephemeral as buzz and brand awareness," says Berry, adding, "Depending on your goal, try to figure out how much each person is 'worth.?? This almost certainly won??t be an exact number, but you should get a general idea."

4. Set a Goal and Track It. Tracking the number of "followers" is not a good metric because it doesn??t measure how many of those folks are actually paying attention to your Twitter account, notes Berry. "You should consider metrics that capture overall influence such as retweets, blog posts and clicks," she suggests, adding, "You overall goal will likely be to generate new leads. You should consider metrics like sales, email sign-ups, @messages, direct messages and clicks."

5. Define Your Approach. "The language you use to tweet and what you choose to share should be targeted towards your audience. This means you should be thoughtful and accurate, not false and calculating," says Berry.

Learn more about effective social media strategies at the "Electronic Marketing In A Digital Age" workshop at this year??s NACS Show. Register today for the NACS Show and take advantage of early bird registration rates before they expire.

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