- Home
-
Top 10 tips for marketing with Twitter
Social media marketing
Top tips for using Twitter
Twitter is a micro-blogging network where users can post 140 character messages or ‘tweets’.
These are then fed out to other users on the Twitter network who have chosen to follow a
specific individual, company or brand.
Our findings
Our bench mark research found that 26% of retailers had a Twitter account – slightly more than the number that had Facebook accounts (24%). Of those with a Twitter account, only 23% provided a link to the account on their website (all those who did were larger retailers).
Across all the Twitter accounts surveyed, the average number of followers was 348. On average, retailers’ Twitter accounts followed 90 other users and had tweeted 129 times during the length of time they had been using the service.
The most common information communicated via these accounts was product updates (73%), followed by marketing (62%) and company news (58%).
Our Star Example
eSpares is a specialist retailer selling spare parts for kitchen and home accessories.
The eSpares Twitter account is a great example of how a retailer can build up a following and really connect with its customers and prospects in a natural and engaging way.
The page has a personalised background and detailed content in its biography. It even declares that it will “willingly talk food, music, pop culture and all things eSpares too”.
The tweets themselves are a mixture of offers, competitions, product information, customer service, and general advice and chit chat - plus some off-the-wall comments on totally unrelated subjects.
This approach helps to create a human face for the brand and keep followers engaged. The result is a follower base of over 761 to date – not bad for a retailer selling spare parts!
Top 10 tips for retailers using Twitter:
- Make sure you register your brand name ASAP! – with the popularity of Twitter increasing at a phenomenal rate, it’s vital to claim your ID before someone else gets it first.
- Write a biography – think carefully about what you want to write in the biography section; this is your opportunity to sell yourself.
- Add your logo and design a background – creating a customer Twitter background and featuring your branding and logo will help to strengthen your online identity and encourage recognition in the busy Twitter ‘market place’.
- Use hash tags in your tweets – users can track tagged keywords (eg #iPad), so if you use a relevant tag that is trending you will increase the likelihood of people coming across your content.
- Encourage ‘retweeting’– getting your followers to retweet your posts is a great way to spread your influence. Keep your tweets short and engaging to maximise retweet potential and don’t be afraid to ask followers to retweet a post.
- Engage – rather than using Twitter solely as a broadcast tool, don’t be afraid to engage with followers.
Use @replies to respond publicly (this will notify the original poster of your response and thread it so other users can follow the conversation), or direct messaging to respond to something privately, for example if you receive a complaint
or query about a specific order. - Get ready for customer service enquiries – it’s highly likely you will be contacted via Twitter with customer service questions. These shouldn’t be ignored. Be prepared for your reader to tell you how best to deal with them.
- Special offers work – Dell generated $6.5m of revenue on Twitter alone by using offers! We all love a discount and what better way to spread the news of your offer than on a social network.
- Be generous – retweet or comment on tweets by other people and show them you’re not just interested in what your brand has to say.
- Monitor – make sure you monitor what tweeters are saying about your brand or your industry so you can pick up the positives and negatives and handle them effectively. Twitter search or Tweetbeep are great applications for this.
And a word of caution...
Be aware of Twitter ‘follow bots’ – some companies use bots to automatically follow users (sometimes randomly, sometimes targeted to demographic data or use of key words) in the hope that users will follow them back. This may have some small value in increasing your base of followers, but is seen as annoying and intrusive by most users and may earn you a poor reputation.
Download the full bench mark report
Our benchmark study into the use of social media by 100 online retailers includes over 60 best practice guidelines and tips, from marketing with Twitter to Facebook, to blogs.
Click here to download your copy of the full 25 page report.