Twitter 101Martin-Wilbourn Partners
• Twitter has more than 500 million users• 60% Female, 40% Male• 120,000 tweets are posted every
second• 340 Million tweets are posted per day• Every day, 1 million new accounts are
created• 43% of Americans are exposed to
tweets from traditional media
• 64% of Twitter users are more likely to buy products of brands they follow
• 53% of users have recommend companies and products on Twitter
• 50% of shoppers have made a purchase based on a recommendation posted on social media
• Engagement levels among Twitter users rose from 69% in 2011 to 76% in 2012
Twitter: Super Bowl
• 26 Super Bowl commercials included Twitter references.– Four referenced Facebook–One referenced Instagram–One referenced YouTube– Zero referenced Google+
• Twitter increased its hashtag mentions by 300% over the course of 2011
Twitter: Super Bowl
Twitter Glossary• Blocking – Action used to keep someone on Twitter from
following you or adding you to their lists, resulting in no mentions of them being delivered to your Mentions tab.
• Deactivation – A way to remove a profile from Twitter. Information from deactivated profiles remains in Twitter’s system for 30 days.
• Direct Message (DM) – Private, 140-character message between two people. You may only DM a user who follows you.
• Favorite – To mark a tweet by clicking the yellow star next to a message. Marked posts are housed in your personal “Favorites” section.
Twitter Glossary
• Follow – Subscribing to someone’s tweets or updates.
• Follow Count – Quantity of people or accounts you follow, and how many people or accounts follow you.
• Follower – Twitter user who has followed you.
• Following – Reflects the quantity of other Twitter users you have chosen to follow.
Twitter Glossary
• Handle – Username selected by a user and its accompanying URL (i.e. @BrentSGambill and Twitter.com/BrentSGambill).
• Hashtag (#) – The # symbol is used to denote a topic of conversation, allowing users to participate in a larger linked discussion (i.e. #Braves, #MadMen). A hashtag is a discovery tool that allows others to find your tweets, based on topics. You can also click on a hashtag to see all the tweets that mention it in real time – even from people you do not follow.
Twitter Glossary• Listed – To be included in another Twitter user’s list. Listed
numbers and details appear in the statistics section of your profile.
• Lists – Curated groups of other users. Used to tie specific individuals into a group on your Twitter account.
• Mention (@) – Referencing another user by including the @ sign followed directly by their username (i.e. @LRChamber) in a tweet. Users are notified when mentioned. It is also a way to conduct discussions with other users in a public realm.
• Modified Tweet (MT) – Placed before the retweeted text when users manually retweet a message with modifications, for example shortening a tweet.
Twitter Glossary• Name – A listing separate from your handle. It can be different
from your username and is used to locate you on Twitter. Must be 20 characters or fewer.
• Profile Picture – Personal image uploaded to your Twitter profile via the Settings tab of your account.
• Promoted Tweets – Tweets that businesses have paid to promote. They appear at the top of search results on Twitter.
• Protected/Private Accounts – Twitter accounts are public by default. Choosing to protect your account means your tweets will only be seen by approved followers and will not appear in search results.
Twitter Glossary
• Reply – Tweet posted in reply to another user’s post, usually posted by clicking the “reply” button next to their tweet in your timeline. Always begins with @username.
• Retweet (RT) - Re-posting or giving credit to someone else’s tweet. The retweet button allows instant sharing of another’s full embedded post.
• Retweet with Comment - Re-posting or giving credit to someone else’s tweet by manually cutting and pasting content into a post.
Twitter Glossary
• Timeline – Real-time stream of tweets you see on your homepage. It’s comprised of updates from users you follow.
• Trends – Subject algorithmically determined to be one of the most popular topics at the moment on Twitter.
• Tweet – 140-character message.
• Unfollow – To cease following another Twitter user. Their tweets no longer show up in your timeline.
Twitter Glossary• URL – Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a web address that
points to a unique page on the Internet.
• URL Shortener – Turns a long URL into a shorter URL. Shortening services can be found online (i.e. Bitly, TinyURL).
• Username – Also known as a Twitter handle. Must be unique and contain fewer than 15 characters. Is used to identify you on Twitter for replies and mentions.
• Verification – Process whereby a user’s Twitter account is stamped to show that a legitimate source is authoring the account’s tweets. Sometimes used for accounts who experience identity confusion on Twitter.
Twitter Tips: Branding
• Consistency– Handles– Bios
• Official Page
• Imaging– Profile Photo– Header– Background
Twitter Tips: Organization
• Social Media Directory– Page Managers
• Monitoring
• Training
• Page managers should use separate mobile twitter apps for personal and company
Twitter Tips: Organization
Twitter Tips: Organization
Twitter Tips: Organization
Twitter Tips: Organization
Twitter Tips: Content
• Consistent posting
• Include links– Tweets with links are three times
more likely to be RT’d
• Be timely
Twitter Tips: Content
• Specific words can lead to a higher rate of retweets
• The most commonly retweeted words:– You– Twitter– Please– Retweet– Post– Check out
Twitter Tips: Content
• Posts with more than 118 characters on Twitter have less engagement.– Users do not want to read longer tweets, and
retweets with comments are more difficult to retweet.
• Grammar matters. Use proper punctuation.– Colons and periods are the most commonly
used punctuation.– Question marks and semicolons are not
commonly used.
Twitter Tips: Content
• How many tweets per day?– Research indicates ten to twenty tweets is a
good daily average for brands.– Infrequent posts can lead to unengaged
followers.– Over-tweeting leads to engaged unfollows.
• Engagement is higher on posts with photos.– Instagram no longer embeds photos on
Twitter.– Twitter has photo filters?
Twitter Tips: Content
• A common mistake is starting a tweet with @someone for a post meant for the public.–When a tweet begins with
@someone, only the two accounts (one posting and one mentioned) will see the post, along with anyone who follows both.
Twitter Tips: Hashtags• The hashtag was first used in August 2007.
• A hashtag is a ”tag” used to categorize tweets according to topics.
• To add a hashtag, you preface the relevant term with pound sign (#).
• It allows people who follow a topic to find your tweet and hopefully follow you.
• You can create your own business hashtag.
• Be careful of using trending hashtags– Example: #LRChamber #WPS #MWPartners
Twitter Tips: Hashtags
• Use sparingly & respectfully
• Search a hashtag before using it
• Hashtags provide useful context & cues for topics
• Excessive use causes annoyance, confusion or frustration
• Use hashtags when it adds value, not on every word in a post
• Create an official hashtag for your business
Twitter Tips: Hashtags
Twitter Tips: Hashtags
Twitter Tips: Hashtags
Twitter Tips: Engage
• Communicate with users who engage with and mention your brand.
• Negative tweets will happen.– Customer service is #1.– Respond. Be personable. Be polite.– Next step is to move to phone or email contact.
• Follow other users.
• Respond to new followers.
Twitter Tips: Engage
Twitter Tips: Engage
Twitter Tips: Engage
Twitter Tips: Engage
Twitter Tips: Engage
Twitter Tips: Engage
Twitter Tips: Customer Service
Twitter Tips: Customer Service
Twitter Tips: Customer Service
Twitter Tips: Customer Service
Twitter Tips: Policy
• Create a Social Media Standards & Practices Guide– Provides rules for employees– Page managers need expectations
for their work on social media– Involve public relations strategies
Martin-Wilbourn Partners
• Follow me at @BrentSGambill• Follow us at @MWPartners• Website: MWPartners.com• Blog: MWPartners.com/Podium