Madalyn Sklar

Building a Brand on Twitter in 2023

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Big changes have now become a reliable constant in the world of Twitter. You may even wake up one day to see the iconic bird replaced by the logo of a certain cryptocurrency. And it wouldn’t surprise you. How then, can you build a brand on a platform that’s constantly changing the rules? We asked personal brand strategist and #TwitterSmarter regular, Christine Gritmon. Here’s a summary of our chat.

Guest: Christine Gritmon
Topic: Building a brand on Twitter in 2023
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.

Q1: What are some ways to showcase your brand on Twitter?

Start with the basics: Use your profile elements like your handle, name, banner image, website link, and pinned tweet to showcase your brand and the value you offer.

Once you’ve sorted your profile, continue showcasing your brand in every tweet you post. This could mean a variety of things. For example, our guest likes to use the red heart emoji in many of her tweets. She also uses her personalized GIF, which features bright red prominently. That red has become a branding element for our guest. Another way to showcase your brand in your tweets is to make the tone and personality of your tweets reflect that of your brand.

Yet another way to improve brand visibility is to engage with the right people at the right time. This is where Lists can help. Create custom lists of accounts you want to keep an eye on, and when there’s any activity relevant to your brand, you can jump on and share your insights.

It’s also incredibly important to maintain your brand and its distinctiveness across other platforms. If you look at Christine on LinkedIn, you’ll see that she uses the same profile picture, similar color schemes, and of course, the red heart. Connect with your Twitter friends elsewhere and keep the conversations going.

Q2: Is it worth creating a brand on Twitter without paying for Twitter Blue?

Absolutely, according to our guest. Even though organic reach isn’t at its best on Twitter right now, there will always be people on the platform who either seek you out for your services/products or would enjoy hearing your insights. Twitter is all about conversations and relationships—keep at it even if you don’t pay for Twitter Blue.

As Pavel, a #TwitterSmarter regular and owner of VirtuDesk, said, not paying for Twitter Blue doesn’t affect your ability to build your brand on the platform.

Q3: How can you protect your Twitter brand from algorithmic changes?

Engage with those you want to engage with you. Categorize people you want to hear from into Lists and set up notifications for when they tweet or talk about a specific topic. Continue to share and participate in meaningful conversations. The Twitter feed is becoming less and less reliable, and the only way to stay on top of people’s minds is to communicate regularly.

As Seannon pointed out, engage consistently and make sure you don’t deviate from your core brand message.

Q4: How can Twitter Spaces help build and sustain your brand?

It’s a great way to learn what kind of content your audience likes, and to create that content—simultaneously! What’s even better is that you can record it and share it later as a podcast and/or as audio clips.

As Yasin pointed out, you can use Twitter Spaces to host panel discussions, Q&A sessions, make business announcements, and even share behind-the-scenes content. Spaces is a good way to put actual voices and personalities to a brand, and it helps establish brand credibility.

Q5: Can 4000-character tweets help build a brand?

Definitely. They’re like any other tweet—they have value in the feed. If someone clicks to read more of your longer tweets, then it counts as an engagement. That said, though, be careful not to overuse the feature. It can also quickly become something of an eyesore.

George, an ardent advocate for the longer tweets, recommended using them to share stories about your brand. Long tweets are a good way to build a continuous narrative about your brand without chopping them up into disparate tweets.

Q6: How can you repurpose Twitter content elsewhere?

You can re-post your tweets directly onto other platforms, but as our guest suggested, consider altering the messaging and the length of your copy to suit the platform you’re posting to.

Madalyn shared another great idea: You can take screenshots of your tweets and post them as images on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. This is a newer strategy that many people are using to cross-post their content.

Q7: Is advertising on Twitter high-risk?

Ads are always a bit risky. But Twitter ads aren’t riskier now than they were before. If you’ve used Twitter ads effectively for a while, you might see that they’re not as rewarding as they used to be. That said, you might also continue to see effective returns from your ads. In that case, it might still be a viable option for you. There’s just no one-size-fits-all answer to this question.

As Tim rightly said, if you’re only just starting to explore Twitter ads, start small. The worst thing you can do (on any ad platform) is to go too hard too soon before you even realize what’s working for you and what’s not.

Q8: Would it affect a brand if it takes a stance against Twitter’s actions, on Twitter?

Every brand that takes a stance against anything is putting itself at risk. That doesn’t mean Twitter will penalize a brand for anti-Twitter sentiments. In fact, as our guest pointed out, if it improves engagement, Twitter’s only going to give it more feed time.

Our friends from GiveWP made an excellent point: If you’re a social media manager for a brand and want to take a stance on behalf of the brand, make sure it’s a brand decision and not just your own. After all, you don’t want to lose your job because you posted an unsolicited tweet.

More importantly, measure your brand’s stance against what your audience and community feels. Often, brands with a loyal community will be attuned to their feelings and won’t have a contradictory opinion. If you do, however, be careful of how you handle that.

Well folks, that’s all from me this week. Thanks for reading through and for more great insights from our chat with Christine, 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.

Say hello: The Opinionated Copywriter | LinkedIn | Twitter

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