Twitter Growth Strategies

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TIPS FOR: @Room_214 /Room214 /Room214 Twitter Growth Strategies Monday, June 20, 2011

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Social Media Agency Room 214 collected a presentation of tools, tips, and tricks to grow your Twitter presence.

Transcript of Twitter Growth Strategies

Page 1: Twitter Growth Strategies

TIPS FOR:

@Room_214/Room214 /Room214

Twitter Growth Strategies

Monday, June 20, 2011

Page 2: Twitter Growth Strategies

/Room214 @Room_214 /Room214PHONE: 303.444.9214 TOLL FREE: 866.624.1851 WEB: room214.com EMAIL: [email protected]

Twitter 101: Create a community, build trust

Step 1: ListenA community requires two-way communication. Aim to make your Twitter account a community based on your brand’s ideals.

• What do people in your

community talk about? What do they spend their time on?

• Who is talking about your brand?

• Who are the influential users in your community?

• Pay attention to the conversations happening.

Important: Before you create a Twitter account, you must dedicate appropriate time and resources to ensure the proper management of your social media presence.

Every successful Twitter account is a living and breathing community. If you want to be a major part of any community you must build trust with the community members.

Step 2: Actively RespondChime in on relevant conversations whenever it is appropriate. This does not mean you should spam, but it’s okay to reach out to people.

• Be helpful: reply to questions, issues, and problems.

• Be thankful: Reach out to those who mention your brand.

• Start conversations with influential users.

• Prove to your community that you are listening.

Step 3: Be InterestingThink about this from a user perspective: why should I follow your Twitter account?

• Post great, relevant content.• Talk about the great ideas that

already exist in this community.

• Running out of ideas? Refer back to step one.

HOW TO BUILD TRUST ON Twitter:

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Twitter 101: Dos and Don’ts

Important: Twitter closely monitors your follow-to-follower ratio. If they find that you are following users at mass, then quickly un-following users who don’t follow back... your account will be suspended. Read up on Twitter’s Following Rules and Twitter’s Automation Rules and Best Practices.

Part of building trust means you agree to follow the rules. There are several written and unwritten rules to which active Twitter users strictly adhere.

DO DON’TBe Genuine Use auto-tweeting programs

Follow and connect with influencers Mass follow at random

Join the conversation Post only about yourself

Grow organically Over-follow/Unfollow

Respond to individual posts Auto-tweet based on general keywords

Twitter has great resources for guidelines and best practices. Check out their site to make sure you do this the correct way.

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TWITTER GROWTHTACTICS

Now, let’s learn about some tools and resources that will help accelerate your Twitter growth.

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Twitter SEO: Make Your Account Easy To Find

Twitter is all about finding interesting people to follow. If you want to grow your account, the first step is to make sure your account is easily searchable.

Optimize your Twitter Handle: Create a short, easy to remember Twitter handle. Avoid all unnecessary characters, and keep it as close to your company’s name as possible

Write keyword-rich tweets: Review the top keywords for your website and consider keywords to include in your updates, particularly in the beginning of tweets

Tweet your web page content: Tweet links back to valuable content from your web site

Optimized Twitter Bio: It should be informative, eye-catching, compelling and contain some keywords that represent your industry

Web Link: Use a full URL to your site in your bio, not a shortened URL

Encourage Re-Tweets: Leave extra character space available for re-tweets

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Following: Never Click Follow at Random

Following is the first step to build your Twitter presence. First, target communities who may have an affinity for your brand, and then connect with the most influential users in those communities.

Find the right users:•Who are your customers? What are their interests?• If they are tech-geeks, follow the most influential tech

geeks on Twitter• Research your audience, then follow a targeted

group of individuals

Stay away from these users:• Not active in the last month• Spam accounts only posting about themselves, or

auto-posting their content• Uneven follow-to-follower ratio (high follows, low

followers)• Post inappropriate material

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Following: Target Your Audience

In this example we used InfiniGraph to look at influencers and affinities for Pampers on Twitter.

InfiniGraph will:• Provide a list of the top influencers by brand• Show the other Twitter accounts those users

were most likely to follow

Affinity tools give you clues about your audience:• TV viewing habits• Shopping preferences• Activities/interests• Age and marital status

For a brand similar to Pampers we would recommend you follow:• Family focused mothers and fathers• Shoppers with a preference for brand name• Users with an interest in food and cooking

If you don’t have a clear idea of your customer’s attitudes, interests, or affinities, it is time to research your ideal audience on Twitter. Affinity maps are a great place to start.

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Following: Lists and User Directories

Once you have a strong understanding of your audience, there are several resources for searching out and following users who fit your target.

Twitter Lists - created and managed by individual Twitter users. A great resource for finding Twitter users around a specific topic or interest

Twitter Directories - large databases of Twitter users categorized by self tagged interests. A fast and easy way to target Twitter users

Our favorites...

Listorious:• Users are individually tagged by categories• Search/browse Twitter lists and follow users• Offers other similar categories and lists

WeFollow:• Users self tag themselves with interests• Automatically ranked by influence/followers• Good for location based user searches

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Following: Find Active Users

Take advantage of tools which help you understand which users are more active and influential.

Klout gives Facebook and Twitter users an overall influence score based on their interaction rate. Klout is a quick and dirty way to get an idea of the activity and influence of any given user.

A high Klout score means your tweets:• Encourage replies and interaction• Are often re-tweeted• Reach more users• Hold more weight than users with a low score

A few easy ways to use Klout:• Download the browser plugin - it automatically

shows Klout scores right next to users on Twitter.com

• Hootsuite Integration - Klout is integrated with Hootsuite to show you the influence scores of your followers and the users in your lists

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Following: Management

There are several tools to help you manage the redundant Twitter tasks. These tools should be used sparingly, and never be used to mass-follow and un-follow. Read Twitter’s automation rules.

Automated following:• Based on Keyword searches• Never follow the same person twice• Stops when Twitter follow limits are reached• Time delays and intervals

Expanded search options:• Exclude profiles with default avatar• Search users by profile data• Import and follow lists

Twitter’s stance on automated following/unfollowing: It is ILLEGAL

Twitter closely monitors following behavior and will suspend accounts for shady activity.

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Monitoring: Twitter Search, Hashtags, and Trending Topics

Get familiar with the search tools which can help you monitor conversations about you brand and other relevant conversation on Twitter. These tools can help you find users and gain visibility to non-followers.

At-large conversation search:• Set up Twitter keyword searches for your brand

and your competitors• Respond to complaints, questions, and positive

posts about your brand

Hashtags:• Hashtags are used to group tweets that discuss

the same topic•When including a hashtag in a post, your tweet

will appear in a timeline of all tweets with that hashtag

• Trendistic tracks and archives popular Twitter hashtags

Trending Topics:• The most used keywords on Twitter at any given

time• Join these conversations to gain visibility, but be

careful to stay relevant to to discussion at hand

Twitter Monitoring Tools:• Hootsuite and Tweetdeck allow you to save

several keyword searches, and will notify you when new tweets appear in those searches

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Response: ReTweets, Mentions, DMs

In many cases, Twitter growth is closely related to your level of activity on Twitter. If you want to grow your account you should constantly respond to questions, conversations, and comments.

Direct Response:• Time sensitive - requires a quick response time from

your team• Reply to @mentions and DMs directly

Public Response:• Publicly thank those who re-tweet your updates• Re-tweet creative or interesting comments from your

brand’s advocates

Active Response:• Respond to at-large questions and comments about

your brand and your competitors.•Many users will post complaints without directly

mentioning your Twitter account• Requires close monitoring of keyword searches, but

can directly lead to new fans

At-Large Conversations

Active Response

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Direct Message Offers

Automatic Direct Messages to new followers are generally looked down upon by Twitter and Twitter users. If you dare to use this medium be sure to offer something fun and unique for your Twitter community.

Example: Travel Channel’s Travel Guides• Travel Channel encouraged new followers to use

their automated Travel Guide service.• Users could send Travel Channel a reply with the

name of a major city• Travel Channel would automatically reply with a

link to view a travel guide for the requested city

Results:• Higher engagement with new followers• Increased Traffic to TravelChannel.com• Increased Twitter growth

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Twitter Gaming

Twitter gaming platforms can create a more entertaining and engaging experience for your friends and followers.

Local Bunny will automatically reply to your followers based on keywords.

Fans @mention your account with a word to initiate the game. Then, Local bunny sends an automatic reply to that user with instructions to play the game.

Game types:• Spin to win• Trivia•Word scramble

Benefits:• Build engagement with followers• Visibility to the friends of your followers• High levels of participation•Works with minimal incentive

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Twitter Contests and Giveaways

Contests and giveaways are a great way to add value for your Twitter followers. There are several simple contests which can easily be run from any Twitter account.

Retweet contest:• Instruct fans to re-post a message in order to

gain entry into your contest• Track the number of entries with a hashtag or

an URL• Select a few random winners

Hashtag contest:• Instruct fans to post a Tweet and include a

specific hashtag to gain entry• Use Twitter search to track all tweets using that

hashtag• Select random winners

Simple trivia contest:• Instruct fans to re-post a message in order to

gain entry into your contest• Track the number of entries with a hashtag or

an URL• Select a few random winners

BrandX: Repost this to win tickets to tonight’s

game: "RT: I love @brandX check out their products here http://bit.ly/game"

BrandX: Tell us about your favorite movie and use

this hashtag #moviecontest if you want a chance to win free movies for a year.

BrandX: Friday Trivia! In what year was Brand X

founded? 10th, 20th, and 30th correct answers win a free trip to Canada.

ReTweet Contest

Hashtag Contest

Trivia Contest

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Promote Your Twitter: Online

Convert current customers and fans into social media fans through all available brand touch points. Use current online assets as a platform to drive Twitter account growth.

Social media promotion can be done at all brand touch points.

The key is to make it easy to find your account and become a follower.

Facebook Landing PageRoom 214 Email Signatures Room 214 Blog Team Twitter Feed

Digital:•Web• Email signatures• Blogs• Email newsletters• Facebook/Linkedin

In-person:• Packaging• Events• Point-of-purchase• Advertising

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Promote Your Twitter: In-Person

Take the social media experience out of the digital world and promote your Twitter account wherever you will find interested fans. Use added incentive (coupons, deals, etc) to encourage customers to become fans.

Pepsi Raw Packaging In-store Window Cling QR Based Event Flyers

In-Person Social Media Promotion

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Re-Purpose Twitter Content

Twitter content from you and your followers can be re-purposed to create new and interesting content.

Paper.li• Re-posts content from selected Twitter users in

a easily readable newspaper style format• Creates an automated news hub

Social Print Studio• Uses avatars from Facebook or Twitter to create

large high quality posters• Decorated Mashable’s office with the avatars of

over 500,000 Mashable Twitter fans

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Paid Advertising: Twitter Promoted Products

Twitter has several options for paid promotion of your account and your content. These programs are currently in beta and Twitter has restricted use to large brands with large budgets. Find out more from Twitter.

Promoted Tweets: Regular Tweets that are amplified to a broader audience. When you promote a Tweet, only users that follow similar accounts to yours see it.• Cost-Per-Engagement - only pay when a user

replies, retwees, clicks or favorites your tweet• Tweet appears in stream for relevant users

Promoted Trends: Feature a trend related to your business at the top of the Top Trends list. •Massive exposure - seen all across Twitter• High Cost (reports of $80k - $100k for 24 hrs)

Promoted Accounts: Part of Twitter’s account recommendation engine.• Twitter looks at your account and followers to ID

similar accounts and followers•More personal and accurate

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Paid Advertising: 3rd Party Advertising Products

Several 3rd parties have creates advertising networks that exist outside of Twitter on desktop applications and mobile apps. These platforms can deliver results at a cheaper cost than official Twitter advertising options.

One Riot:• Displays ads on mobile Twitter applications• Target users by age, gender, interest, location• 2 Billion ad impressions monthly• iPhone, Android, Blackberry

140 Proof:• Displays ads on web, desktop, and mobile

Twitter applications• Target users by interests and persona• Has worked with GM, Burger King, Microsoft,

Levi’s, Sears and more

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Questions? Feel free to reach out!

Room214.com

Twitter: @Room_214

Brandon Whalen

[email protected]

Twitter: @Brandonsings

Thank You!

Twitter Growth Strategies

Monday, June 20, 2011