Regardless of what you’ve heard, Twitter is not only a great place to promote your content; it is also one of the most effective when you approach the task from the correct angle. There is a lot of advice out there about how to do it without spending money, and there are those who will say that there is no way to make it work unless you spend money. I’m here to tell you that the answer lies somewhere in between. You’ll better understand what I mean as we go.
No matter what you want to promote – your blog, specific posts, content updates, or even just your Twitter account – anyone with any marketing experience knows that when it comes to maximizing exposure for your content, Twitter is a truly invaluable resource.
That’s why you shouldn’t ignore it and why you should learn how to use it correctly.
Establishing a collective presence across all popular social media channels is the best strategy for getting your content seen, and as much as I would love to tell you that you can get the job done without spending a dime, that just isn’t an option anymore. Even with the world’s best SEO methods, capturing a social media audience means immediate exposure, and that means paying for ads, or in Twitter’s case, Promoted Tweets.
The good news is that paid ads are only part of the equation, and you can get plenty of free traffic once your name and brand are out there and you have a good following. Here are the six key ingredients to successfully promoting your content on Twitter.
1. Track Engagement on Your Account
It may seem elementary and maybe even a bit dated, but if you really want to maximize reach without spending a lot of money (and if you want the money you do spend to go as far as possible), you need to work on organic reach. That means tracking when people are most likely to see your content and scheduling tweets to hit at those times. Look for spikes in activity, and strike while the iron is hot.
2. Connect with Industry Influencers
This is a great way to amplify the reach of your content through Twitter. It allows you to leverage their networks and draw attention to yours. Free tools, like Twitter’s own Tweetdeck, along with BuzzSumo, Feedly, and Topsy, can help you identify who the influencers are within your industry.
Once you know who they are, you can often get your content seen on their networks by simply reaching out to them. It helps if you have retweeted or quoted their content in the past. Be ready to discuss cross-promotion and come up with some ideas of how to do that so you can offer an appealing exchange. Once you get good at this, the promotional opportunities available to you will be virtually endless.
3. Utilize Paid Ads
We had to get around to this eventually.
Compared to Facebook, Twitter’s advertising tools are very simplistic, but as this advertising platform gains momentum, it is becoming easier to target ads to the right users.
Incorporating paid ads into your content discovery strategy helps you promote both your content and your Twitter account. This is where you can parlay paid traffic into free traffic. Gain a huge following in a specific niche, and you can market to them directly without the middleman. You can also build multiple custom audiences through promoted account campaigns so that you are always able to target content to the right demographics.
Currently, Twitter offers two main targeting strategies: handle/competitor targeting and keyword targeting. Like I said, it’s less defined than Facebook, but it can also be simpler to narrow down your audience on Twitter.
Another type of ad unit that Twitter offers is the Website Card. These cards contain a call to action button that allows for direct downloading. It is important to note, however, that this method currently sees substantially less engagement than the previous two. Of course, different audiences respond favorably to different ad tactics, so it’s definitely worth a try.
4. Develop a Schedule for Your Tweets
Create a content calendar that includes prescheduled tweets, and manage your tweets in tandem with your posting schedule. That said, there should be enough flexibility in this strategy for reacting to and posting about real-time events. Remember that Twitter’s original intent was to be the place for status updates (“what are you doing right now?”). That model still holds up. You will get much better engagement when your audience knows that you are a real person making real-time observations on things that matter.
You can use the tools I mentioned earlier to help you identify specific relevant industry trends and post comments that build your reputation as an authority.
5. Watch the Formatting of Your Tweets
Always limit tweets to 100 characters to allow for @mentions, #hashtags, and retweets. Incorporating relevant images into your tweets is also an effective strategy.
When you set up your tweets correctly, you dramatically increase your opportunity to engage and amplify your exposure.
6. Make Effective Use of Hashtags
The worst thing that you can do is use a hashtag that points your content in a direction you don’t want it to go or one that earns you backlash. Thoroughly research any hashtag before using it and see how much engagement it gets, the types of audience it attracts, and how well the linked conversations fit with your content strategy. The easiest ways to investigate a hashtag is to simply click on it or use the search bar in Twitter to check it out.
So now you have the recipe. The rest is up to you. If you’re having trouble wrangling in your tweets or can’t seem to get the engagement you’re looking for, you might want to think about calling in the pros for help. A reputable custom writing service should be able to help you at least get a handle on what an effective tweet looks like and help you jumpstart your promotional efforts.