Leveraging Twitter for Your Brand

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We all know how great Twitter is for brands, both personal and bigger businesses. We’ve spoken in previous chats about how brands can use Twitter to strengthen their marketing game. This week on #TwitterSmarter, we wanted to chat about how brands can establish themselves as a credible voice in this incredibly fast-moving space. Naturally, we invited Gaby Cardoza, a regular and a prominent face in our community. We spoke about features you can incorporate and best practices we should all remember when it comes to building a brand on Twitter. Here’s a summary of our chat.

Guest: Gabriela Cardoza
Topic: Leveraging Twitter for your brand
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.

Q1: What are the essential elements a brand should have on Twitter?

Some of the essential elements for a brand on Twitter, according to our guest, are voice, story, personality, values, purpose, and proposition. In other words, make sure that you convey who you are, what you do, why you do it, and how.

Brian from the American Marketing Association told us what these elements look like. For example, a logo is a great way to communicate who you are and, sometimes, what you do. Think Amazon and the arrow that goes from A to Z, indicating they’ll deliver anything, anywhere.

Other elements include a page where people can learn more about you and/or register for your services and a pinned tweet that says more about you and your brand.

Q2: What benefits do brands gain from having an active Twitter profile?

So many! Having an active Twitter presence helps build awareness, grow your reach, improve your credibility and brand image, generate interest for your business, identify opportunities, and listen to what your community needs from you.

At the same time, when you’re highly engaged on Twitter, you assure your audience that you’re there for them. As Rachel put it, it shows that you care about your community, will communicate with them transparently, and respond to their needs as soon as possible.

Q3: How can you communicate your brand voice and values on Twitter?

The best way to communicate your values and voice is to be yourself. We’ve spoken about this a lot in previous chats, but it’s always worth a refresher—authenticity is key to building a brand that people will want to engage with.

As Madalyn added, you can use your Twitter presence to talk about things and causes you care about as a person and brand. That way, you’ll attract people who resonate with that message, even if they’re from a different industry altogether. What matters is that you build relationships with people who share your values and want to connect with you.

Q4: Why should your branding remain consistent?

Consistency is crucial because it helps you build trust and connections, which will, over time, translate into business.

How many times have you heard successful people talk about how they got their big breakthrough a friend who mentioned them to another friend who happened to be in the same Twitter chat? So much of business comes through word of mouth and well-wisher recommendations, and when you show up consistently, you stick to people’s minds.

Another way to be consistent is to maintain your brand image across your online channels. As our friends from WebEnertia mentioned, brand consistency helps your audience from various media easily recognize you. It also shows that you care enough to go the extra mile and develop a solid branding strategy. People know that a brand that puts effort into its branding is serious and reliable.

Q5: Share some tips for growing your brand on Twitter.

As we mentioned in previous answers, being consistent and authentic are great ways to grow your brand. But there’s so much more you can do, like being actively social and engaging on other people’s posts, initiating conversations, and contributing meaningfully to discussions. It’s also important to make your message concise and clear so your audience can easily understand what you’re conveying. Clarity is difficult, but when you communicate clearly, you indicate that you have nothing to hide and that’ll automatically increase your credibility.

Another good way to grow your brand is to participate in Twitter chats and Spaces. As our friends from ASICentral mentioned, participating in these conversations puts you in front of people, helping you reach a broader audience.

Q6: How does thought leadership fit into a brand’s Twitter strategy?

Simply put, thought leadership is a way for you and your brand to establish yourself as an authority in a specific field. This means you become the go-to person for anyone who wants to learn more about the field or get started in it themselves. As a thought leader, you become something of a mentor to others. Twitter is a great platform that gives you various tools like videos, hashtags, Spaces, threaded tweets, Moments, and newsletters to help establish your authority.

As Christine succinctly put it, thought leadership fits into Twitter snugly because of the nature of the platform. Thought leadership is about sharing expertise and adding value to your audience. As an open platform, where anyone can consume information, Twitter enables the sharing of helpful knowledge.

Q7: How can you establish your brand as a subject matter expert on Twitter?

A subtle and effective way to build yourself up as a subject matter expert is first to be a part of a community. As Jennifer and Gabriela mentioned, when you immerse yourself in an active community discussion, you can share your expertise generously. It’s a modest way to share without coming across as an insufferable know-it-all.

Chris added to that, noting how important it is to understand the crux of the conversation before jumping in, and not just for the sake of jumping in. Being Twitter smarter (;)) and reading the room are essential skills for building your authority.

Q8: What are your tips for promoting your brand without coming across as arrogant and unlikeable?

Approach every situation from a place of helpfulness. As Alyx suggested, if you’re sincerely trying to help people and improve their life or experience in any way, you won’t come across as arrogant. Use a humble tone, too, rather than an aloof one.

Find what resonates with your audience and focus on building relationships from that. We generally like those we share interests with.

A good way to connect with your audience is to make them feel heard and appreciated. As our friends from Pixlee pointed out, be present in conversations and engage genuinely.

Jim’s wise advice was not to be egotistic. Instead of projecting yourself as the greatest person out there to solve your customers’ problems, address your audience with humility. Be a modest human and not a high-functioning sales machine.

Well, that’s all from me, folks. Thanks a lot for reading through, and for more great insights from our chat with Gabriel, check out this Twitter Moment that Joana put together. If you found value in this summary, let us know! We’d love to hear what you think. Even better—join us live for the next #TwitterSmarter chat. We hang out every Thursday at 1pm ET. See you then!


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About me, Narmadhaa:

I write all the things—technical and marketing copy to fill the pocket; haiku and short stories to fill the soul. A social media enthusiast, I’m a member of the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and always happy to take on writing gigs.

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