Social media has never been more important for brands and marketers. Indeed 71% of internet users are more likely to purchase from a brand they are following on social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.
Although 93% of marketers use social media for business, many still fail to execute social media strategies successfully.
With over 550 million users, Twitter is a very significant brand building tool; this makes planning how to optimise brand awareness on this channel an essential component of any modern marketing strategy.
Tweet to Triumph
Using Twitter to build your brand may sound simple at first: You sign up, you tweet, you follow, and you are followed. There is a bit more to it than that, however.
To successfully attract followers and build interest in your brand on Twitter, you need to be a bit savvy, and take note of the following considerations:
Find Followers
You want people to notice your brand, but who should you follow, and who will follow you? At this point it is good to do a little research.
Look at other brands on twitter – perhaps competitors – who are they following?
With similar brands in mind, follow people who will be interested in what you have to offer. You can use the tool Tweepi to follow other user’s followers, so once you’ve discovered who follows similar brands, you can alert them to your brand by following them!
Beware: Don’t follow thousands of people at once if you only have a small handful of followers – you may put people off! Try to keep a balance between the followers and the followed.
Tactful Tweets
It is easy enough to post mountains of tweets, but choose your content carefully! 13% of consumers follow a brand on social networks primarily because of their content.
Whilst it is important to tweet about your brand, don’t make it all about you. You need to engage in other conversations, without straying too far from your interests.
For example if you’re a homeware company, post about topics such as interior design and decorating ideas, and engage with users around this and related subjects.
Interacting with other users is essential – that’s why you’re on Twitter after all, right? Don’t be a cold brand! As 56% of customer tweets to companies are ignored there is a real opportunity to stand out amongst other brands simply by being responsive and being interested in your customers! It might be impossible to reply to every tweet if you’ve thousands of followers, but making an effort to be warm and engaging towards your customers will reap rewards.
Competitions bring Crowds
Are you at a loss as to how to increase your followers and get people excited about your products or services?
A great way to boost brand awareness is to run a Twitter competition. Offer a prize, (a product from your brand or related) and ask people to retweet and follow for a chance to win. This will undoubtedly increase your followers – often very significantly – and get your brand name out into the community.
Your competition tweets should be regular and consistent: if your rule is that people must re-tweet and follow for a chance to win, reiterate this in every tweet, and if you employ hashtags, make sure these are consistent throughout the competition.
You can also increase newsletter signups through hosting twitter competitions, and ultimately they should help boost sales.
No Time for Tweets?
Thanks to the tool TweetDeck run by Twitter, you can plan tweets in advance, instead of worrying about them every day. Your scheduled tweets will show up on the date and time of your choice, so a tool like this will help you keep your twitter account up to date and consistent!
Twitter & Tweet!
In the digital age, remember that Twitter can help build brand awareness (and brand personality). 50% of twitter users are more likely to purchase from brands they follow, and let’s not forget, Twitter is free! As long as businesses remain self-aware and adopt a strategic approach to Twitter use, it can only benefit them to use this platform to help build brand awareness.
Happy tweeting!
