Twitter is one of the largest social media platforms out there, with over 300 million active monthly users. Arguably, it’s one of the best platforms for engaging in real time, and if used correctly, offers you access to a substantial new audience, and a great lead generation service for no cost.
Twitter users post over 350,000 tweets a minute, so you become a very small needle in a very large haystack quite easily. You need to be able to cut through the noise, with relevant, engaging and informative content. Whilst LinkedIn is the main professional networking platform, and YouTube is the best video marketing platform, Twitter is probably the best real time audience engagement platform. Utilising a combination of social media platforms gives you the best well rounded social media strategy, but looking solely at Twitter marketing, here’s a few things you need to know!
Hashtags
As aforementioned there are so many tweets posted every single second, so hashtags are one way in which you can cut through the noise. Including a hashtag essentially bookmarks your tweet for the ages. Make your hashtags relevant to your case, content, or firm. If you’re a personal injury firm in Liverpool for example, you might use #PersonalInjury #Liverpool or #LiverpoolPersonalInjury. Your legal hashtags will be much more specific to your firm and expertise when compared to generalised ones, making you findable in any future searches.
Events and conferences often have their own customised hashtags, so you can locate all the information you’re looking for in one search. Whilst your own hashtags are important, you can also keep track of any trending hashtags. Make yourself aware of any current news, trending affairs, or business challenges that you can feature in your content.
Twitter Management
Twitter is the easiest platform to flag whenever someone is talking to, or about your law firm. Utilising management software like Tweetdeck, or Hootsuite, will make it easier to flag certain keywords, tags, and mentions. Trying to be as responsive to every mention of your law firm is vital for your overall engagement on your profile! You could use the search feature if you didn’t want to use a third party management platform, but you’re not guaranteed to catch everything.
While Twitter is a great platform to share your own content, there is a huge amount you can listen out for too! Recent trends in the legal industry, for example, or any interesting technological developments for professional services. You are able to track a great depth of keyword information with management software, and comment on anything that is relevant for your law firm.
Respond and Engage
Accounts that are responsive and engage with their audience are far more likely to appear on the news feed. Twitter’s algorithm is such that only the most relevant and active will appear on your feed. Basically, If you don’t consistently use it, you will lose it!
On top of responding to any comments or mentions, and posting any of your own content, be sure to like, follow, and share relevant tweets or pieces of news that you feel may be useful for your audience. You can start discussions, host polls, or comment on any trending content.
Please use good judgement though, and don’t spam your users’ feeds. Generally a minimum of 2 posts a day is a good starting point. Everything needs to be more or less on brand, and relevant to a point. Finally, don’t be afraid to be personal, and use some light hearted humour. Try and stay within your brand personality, but showcasing some individuality on Twitter especially, should not be frowned upon.
Images, Video, and Infographics
More so than most other social media platforms, Twitter users have a pretty poor attention span. You can almost guarantee that someone’s news feed will have some funny memes somewhere, so your content needs to be not only informative and relevant, but visually appealing. You need to stop someone from endlessly scrolling.
Utilising video, pictures or infographics is a great way to capture someone’s attention. Whilst having plain worded tweets from time to time is great, you only have 280 characters per tweet, so you need to choose your words wisely. Some people might argue that 280 characters is more than enough to make a point, and some would argue the opposite. Be clear and concise, but if you can’t, embed some form of media to do the job for you.
Use Twitter Moments and Twitter Live
Twitter live is probably fairly self explanatory. Perhaps you’re at a conference, want to host an FAQ or webinar, or are having a general discussion. Maybe you’re hosting a thought leadership interview or podcast and want to get some audience input or questions. Live presents the opportunity to meet your audience in a slightly different setting compared to a scripted text response, whilst also putting a personal face to your brand.
Twitter moments differ slightly, they are basically permanent highlights. Essentially content is saved for an extended period of time either at the top of someone’s news feed, or on your profile. Moments provide slightly more longevity to your most important tweets, saving and pinning them to your profile. If you have some resources, data, or content that you want visitors to be able to access easier, save it to your twitter moments. Visitors don’t have to scroll or search to find them, making them permanently accessible.
Observe Your Competition
Twitter is an easy way of keeping up to date with what your competitors are doing in their social media strategy. Is there anyone doing anything particularly unique or engaging that you hadn’t thought about? Are there any ideas that you can integrate or adjust to put into your content calendar? A quick scan of some of your competitors following, followers, and content might help you find some direction.
Final Thoughts
Twitter marketing makes up a fantastic part of your social media strategy, offering you something different to LinkedIn, Instagram and Youtube. Twitter offers real time engagement with your audience, and the ability to track any and all mentions or trends, as well as your competition. You should also be using images, videos, and infographics to assist engaging your audience, and be as responsive as possible, sharing interesting ideas, and offering unique perspectives, alongside your content.
Finally, look into management platforms, twitter moments, and twitter live, to give you an extra dynamic for your digital presence. All in all, twitter is a fantastic platform, which can provide a fantastic through-point to your website and beyond to your sales funnel! If you would like any more information about your social media strategy, please contact us here for a free consultation!
