Although many online marketers see Facebook as the be-all and end-all of social media marketing, it is important to remember that Twitter is considered a more dynamic and flexible platform for brand promotion. Businesses and brands haven’t even scraped the surface of Twitter’s true potential.
There’s a lack of information about Twitter advertising, so I wanted to a few methods that produce solid results.
Did you know 80% of users on Twitter are accessing it via a mobile device? There is a real opportunity for businesses to reach potential customers no matter where they are or what they’re doing. You also have the ability to segment your Twitter Ads based on device, location, interest, keywords, tailored audiences, and followers.
In terms of third-party development, Twitter offers more options for leveraging reach and user experience for brands and businesses than Facebook does.
Twitter is attractive for branding and marketing because it is very active and dynamic. This is a network where users are constantly engaged, and this is also where calls to action and active responses tend to yield greater results. Twitter is, after all, the network that has been used to coordinate civil uprisings that toppled authoritarian regimes.
The key to achieving branding and marketing success on Twitter is to use the right tools for leverage. Two powerful tools in this regard are ManageFlitter and SpiderQube.
Building Twitter Audiences With ManageFlitter
When brands get started on Twitter, they initially find it difficult to build a solid amount of followers. There are several ways to improve upon this initial stumbling block; however, some ways are smarter and more efficient than others. With ManageFlitter, brands and businesses can take an analytical look at prospective followers who are already engaged by a competitor or by a brand that provides similar products or services.
ManageFlitter provides a suite of tools that can greatly enhance the Twitter experience with the ultimate goal of targeting the right Twitter users who are likely to respond positively to certain products, services, advertisements, promotions, and offers.
The most basic feature of ManageFlitter is its comprehensive search engine, which allows clients to find new Twitter users to follow as long as they meet certain criteria in terms of demographics, location, and interest. Current and potential followers can be tracked by means of an organized set of criteria and filters through Power Mode. Even those followers who decide to no longer follow certain accounts can be tracked.
The advanced analytics feature of ManageFlitter lets clients know when their followers are more likely to be signed on to Twitter for the purpose of taking greater advantage of posts, which can be scheduled in advance. ManageFlitter also offers a service called Remote Account Management, which gives users the ability to set up actions related to their account. Manage Fitters uses account managers on their end that will do the action on your behalf. For example, you can set up a rule in Power Mode that says follow everyone that follows you, and their account managers will perform this action.
For an example of how ManageFlitter can be used, think of a boutique law firm entering Twitter for the first time in 2015. This law firm can build a Twitter audience by looking up the follower list of major law firms that specialize in certain fields of practice. They can begin by following these accounts and learning about their usage patterns; the next logical step would be to schedule a post that is relevant to their interests.
ManageFlitters cost $12.00 for their Pro Account. If you would like to purchase actions for their Remote Account Management system, you can purchase 4,000 actions for $20, or you could purchase larger packages.
Listening to Audiences With SpiderQube
One of the greatest obstacles in achieving marketing success on Twitter is that brands and businesses forget about the first rule of social media engagement – which is to listen. Twitter users who follow many accounts are unable to filter out the seemingly endless amount of digital noise that emanates from their feed. This is rather unfortunate since paying attention to what is being discussed on Twitter can be a great method of gaining market intelligence.
With SpiderQube, brands and businesses can filter out digital noise by picking and choosing the exact type of conversations relevant to their business. This can be accomplished by searching for certain keywords, hashtags, links, accounts, etc. SpiderQube can seek these conversations in real-time, and marketers can gain intelligence from Twitter influencers, competitors, and businesses that operate within certain niches.
By listening to trends and social interactions on Twitter, online marketers can extract market intelligence they can analyze for their benefit. In this regard, custom content comes to mind. For example, I wanted to see the users sharing Pandora.com links on Twitter. I created a search that spiders all these links. Here are some of my results:
With these great stats, you can do several things:
- Segment them into your own custom list, and export these results into a csv file.
- Engage with the users by following, tweeting, RT, favoriting, or replying to one of their tweets on Spider.
- Export these results into a CSV file.
SpiderQube has several different packages depending on how much data you would like to store in their database. I highly recommend starting off with their basic plan, which cost $49.99, and provides you with two active spiders, 10 search spider terms, and 500,000 storage space. You’re able to export reports via csv and email them.
The Bottom Line of Leveraging Twitter For Marketing
Brands and businesses can get the most out of Twitter with specialized tools such as SpiderQube and ManageFlitter, but these tools are more effective when they are placed in the hands of experts. Most importantly, remember Twitter is not a one-way marketing solution. The Twitter community thrives on engagement and targeted interaction, which are the main factors of leveraging.
(Editor’s Note: The writer has stated they have no affiliation with the tools listed in this article.)
Image Credits
Featured Image: yulia_lavrova via Shutterstock
Image #1: Twin Design via Shutterstock
All screenshots taken January 2015
