Using Twitter Intentionally

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Twitter is notorious for people posting mindless stuff. For many, Twitter is a place for idle chit-chat, while for many others, it’s a platform to vehemently argue about inflammatory topics. However, to get the most out of your time and effort on Twitter, it’s important to be intentional in your usage. We asked social media consultant, Dhariana Lozano about what it means for personal and professional brands to tweet intentionally. Here’s a summary of our chat.

Guest: Dhariana Lozano
Topic: Using Twitter intentionally
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.

Q1: What does it mean to tweet intentionally?

It means to be purposeful in each tweet. Many of us do things just for the sake of doing them. That’s not advisable in the case of using Twitter as a brand. As our guest pointed out, Twitter can be a powerful platform, and to get the most out of it, you have to know what you want and then do that strategically.

As Pavel said, not only do you have to have a plan for your tweets and media, but you should also know the consequences of tweeting or not tweeting about specific topics.

Q2: How do you go about building a strategy for Twitter?

Our guest shared a five-step process for building a Twitter strategy. Firstly, identify your goals: Do you want to expand your network or build relationships with specific people? Are you keen to build awareness for your brand or to encourage more conversions for your business? Once you know what your goals are, consider what related topics you want to discuss on your profile, and the type of people you want to reach.

Thirdly, be realistic to yourself about what you can do and for how long. Consistency is crucial on Twitter. Think about how consistent you can be on Twitter and what that means for your workload and brand.

Then start engaging.

Finally, review your analytics periodically to understand what’s working and what’s not. If necessary, modify your strategy based on your analytics, and continue to engage with your audience.

Remember, though, as our friends from VirtuDesk said, it’s important to understand your audience on Twitter. This includes knowing who they are, what they want from you, and how they want that content delivered.

Q3: How do you figure out what type of content works for you on Twitter?

Trial and error is the best way to identify what works best for you. Try everything. Our guest said she’d try new things for about a month before assessing their efficacy. Take a look at your analytics and decide based on past performance.

As our friends from Advance Digital Marketing suggested, continue to experiment, not only with various types of content but also with various times of the day and days of the week.

Q4: What can you do to stand out from your competitors on Twitter?

It’s a simple thing that we’ve talked about many times before. To stand out on Twitter, be yourself. Be true to your values and interests, and make your profile represent who you are as a person. If you’re managing a brand profile, showcase the brand’s personality. Sometimes, a brand’s personality is its founder’s personality, but other times, the brand will have its own. Either way, make sure the profile is authentic.

George pointed out the value of sharing useful information. A lot of people share insights and options about certain topics. However, many of those opinions and ideas are pointless without practical guidance and support.

Q5: How do you measure the effectiveness of your tweets?

Start by knowing your goals and the outcomes you want for each goal. As our guest explained, likes, replies, and retweets are all engagements, but if your goal is to improve click-throughs and registrations, the volume of those engagements may not be as impressive.

As Madalyn explained, once you know what your goals are and the metrics you need to measure to achieve those goals, you can use Twitter’s built-in analytics functionality to measure your tweets’ performance.

Q6: Is it ok to not tweet sometimes?

It’s certainly ok not to tweet at times, and especially when there’s a global incident, it’s better not to tweet. However, as our guest pointed out, it’s not ideal to take big breaks frequently. It’s essential to be around and be present for your audience. So when you do need a break, use social media scheduling tools to organize your social calendar.

Pavel said the same thing—sometimes, it helps not to tweet. Many people don’t tweet on the weekends, for example. This is perfectly normal. However, if you do need to tweet during the weekend, scheduling is your friend.

Q7: What if you don’t know what to tweet about?

There are always a lot of things going on that you can tweet about. If you don’t have any original content to share, have a look at the conversations happening around you, and create response posts. It’s a great way to create relevant content and engage with your industry audience.

If you’re a brand, tweet about your products or services, best practices your customers should follow, and interesting and unconventional use cases. You can share industry news and your opinions of those incidents. Or you can share answers to questions your customers and audiences frequently ask you.

If you’re a personal brand, on the other hand, you can talk about what’s going on in your personal or professional life, updates from your industry, articles you’ve written or are featured in, opinions about articles you’ve read, and open-ended questions to your audiences. Another good way to create content as a personal brand is to participate in Twitter chats and Spaces—you will share ideas and show people who you are and what you do.

Despite all this, if you still find yourself in a block, go back to your goals, as Lance suggested. Consider what types of content you need to create and engage with to achieve those goals.

Q8: What kind of goals should you set to ensure you’re tweeting intentionally?

Firstly, create a goal for how many tweets you can publish in a week. Be realistic with this goal.

Then, set up an engagement-based goal. This could be whatever is most important to your brand: likes, retweets, replies, link clicks, video completions, and the like. This way, you can start experimenting with various content formats to see which ones help you achieve your goals.

Finally, create goals for your website traffic. We all love retweets and likes, but without click-throughs and conversions, engagement isn’t as helpful. Think about how you’ll translate each engagement into a website visit, a course registration, or a newsletter sign-up.

Well folks, that’s all from me this week. Thanks for reading through and for more great insights from our chat with Dhariana, have a look at this Twitter thread. If you like this summary, you’ll love the real-time chat. Join us next Thursday at 1 pm ET for #TwitterSmarter. We also have an after-chat on Twitter Spaces at 5 pm ET. See you there!


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About me, Narmadhaa:

I write all the things—marketing stuff to pay the bills; haiku and short stories so I feel wholesome. A social media enthusiast, I hang out with the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and am always happy to take on writing gigs.

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