Twitter is one of the most effective and rewarding digital marketing tools when used correctly.
Once you set twitter aims and objectives, you can see past the constant mass of information being churned out by it’s millions of users. To direct traffic to a clients website, grow brand awareness and create conversation about a brand are three of my underlying targets when it comes to twitter. One way of achieving all three of these is through PR. Twitter is a great place to attract the attention of journalists strike up a conversation and keep in touch.
In my experience writers, bloggers and journalists love Twitter. It’s a hub for them to share their ideas to an infinite amount of people and discover new ones. To an extent it’s a live portfolio of their works and a public extension of the blogs/ publications they write for. This is where my first tip comes in; Twitter is not just about you. Through showing an interest in the journalists’ tweets, sharing their interesting articles and joining in their conversations you can spark a relationship and a sort of ‘mutual loyalty’. You might find you learn something useful too! If everyone only used twitter to give information, and not to receive it the platform would have no benefit.
Don’t just focus on the publication, go straight to the journalists. Their content will be relevant, interesting and inspiring for you. You’ll often find the same is true the other way around. Look at their followers and who they are following. A good chunk of these will be interested and interesting.
Follow, follow, follow. Don’t be scared to follow lots of people on Twitter. Often when I follow the right person they tweet me asking to review a product of brand. I’ve had some great pieces of press through this with just the click on one button. If it doesn’t happen straight away, interact with the user when they post about a topic you find intriguing.
Often writers may request a product in return for a review, how else can they know the quality of your product unless they’ve tried it? It is important, however, to take a good look at the blog/ publication. Do they fit in with your brand? Is the writing style relevant? Are they aiming to attract your target market? If so, always ask for the site/ readership statistics, for example, what is their readership per month? You can see how much a blog or writer is being spoken about HERE - it may be that they have a small but very loyal following who are likely to buy and spread the word about your product.
When a piece is written about you don’t forget to thank them. Utilise the article by scheduling regular tweets about it. Don’t forget to tag the publication and the writer. Tweet Deck is an excellent way of scheduling tweets and keeping an eye on multiple Twitter Accounts.