Why should Twitter be at the forefront of your social media marketing strategy?

Twitter has gone through multiple evolutions in recent times. In response to claims that the 140-character limit would kill the social platform, for example, last year the limit was doubled. When critics said that it would become obsolete as video, not text, becomes the communication tool of choice, Twitter evolved again to enable users to film video direct in the app, upload it or even go live. Twitter has shown incredible resilience in the face of some tough challenges and today has more than 335 million monthly active users, more than LinkedIn, Google+ or Pinterest. Given its prominence and size, Twitter is still very relevant and there are some good reasons why it should be at the forefront of your social media marketing strategy today.

Concise posting

Although the character limit has been increased for Twitter, it’s not unlimited and that tends to make Twitter posts much more digestible. Photos are not included in the character limit, which provides essential flexibility when it comes to how much content you can create. Many brands find that the 280-character limit on the volume of text available forces them to be more creative and design content that is direct, informative, engaging and concise. With other platforms where the character limits are higher it’s easy for the basic message of the update to get lost in too many words.

Real time updates

The algorithms that control what your followers see via a social media platform seem to be constantly changing and sites like Facebook and Instagram have come under a lot of fire for not displaying posts in chronological order. Twitter has now shifted its algorithms so that, at the top of the feed, tweets are displayed by relevance, based on factors such as the content of the tweet, the author of the tweet and how users engaged in the past. However, after that the tweets will appear in reverse-chronological order just like the old Twitter timeline. This makes it much easier to ensure that your followers see your posts in real time and can respond when they are recently live. It also means that, unlike on some other platforms, the updates that you post won’t feel like shouting into a black hole because no one can see them.

Strategically building up a follower base

Twitter is a fairly simple tool when it comes to building up a large base of followers who are genuinely engaged with your brand and its content. Buying followers is a very outdated option and will mean your Twitter account gets zero engagement. Instead, it’s far better to use Twitter to find users who will engage to help to increase leads and conversions. From following and following back, to hash tag use, Twitter threads and creating a forum for real discussion, there are lots of ways to do this.

Improving brand awareness

Twitter provides many more options today for building brand awareness than it did even just a year or so ago. From images and videos, through to live videos and linking to blogs and websites, it’s an incredibly effective tool to support marketing strategy and to direct prospects, contacts and influencers to more information about your brand.

These are just some of the reasons why Twitter remains a key component in social media marketing – if you’d like to do more with your Twitter account, get in touch with Iconic Digital today on 020 7100 0726.