1. When is the best time of day for a brand to post?
According to Twitter, there are 140,000,000+ active daily users with an average of 340,000,000 daily tweets. Content posted on Twitter quickly disappears from most users accounts, especially on mobile as users will not scroll more than a few times to catch up on tweets. Therefore, it is important to tweet throughout the day and at the times when users are most active. This can be discovered from listening tools and analysis.
2. Any tips on how companies can increase their number of followers in the lead up to Christmas?
- Create visual content which is exciting!
- Engage with your current followers and follow influential tweeters
- Create a search for keywords associated with your brand and/or industry to ensure you are not missing out on live conversations
- Allow social sharing on your website and ensure your Twitter Handle is on all promotional material, email marketing, email signatures and is clearly visible on the website
- Participate in industry Twitter chats - Travel Goodies are #TTOT #CruiseChat #FriFotos
- Ensure your handle is optimised for search!
- If you operate customer service on Twitter, kindly state your hours in your information section to make users aware or they will expect timely answers at all times of the day
- Do not buy followers - they are wasted stats and when you actually run a campaign, your numbers will be skewed in a negative way. Also, it looks terrible to active followers. Users and news sites commonly report these fake followers, outing your brand!
3. What is the importance of creating a hashtag for Christmas marketing campaigns?
- The power of a hashtag is crucial for a strong campaign, especially over the Christmas period when users are bombarded with promotions and brand campaigns. It provides an easily identifiable visual to the brand and the campaign; it also sparks curiosity in those who may not follow the brand. A powerful hashtag will influence others to join the conversation, some haghtags last longer than the campaign which provides lasting results for the brand. Users can easily click on the hashtag to follow the conversation and learn about the campaign, this does not require following the brand, extending the reach of your campaign
- Hashtags allow the brand to easily track the reach of the campaign and brand mentions as well as find new users and influencers
- Be creative with your hashtags but make sure they are identifiable to the campaign. Basic keyword hashtags like #travel and #fashion are commonly used and will not show you the true results of your campaign. Once you've narrowed down your hashtag choices, check to see if they already exist by using Twitter's search function. If they do, is it positive and do you want your brand associated with those tweets?
- Most of all, promote your hashtag so your fans know to use it! You have to ask for what you want in social
- Twitter recently launched Event Hashtag pages, so an offline marketing campaign could qualify for its own page once Twitter launches this fully. Right now, the industry suspects these will be rolled out to big sporting and entertainment events first
4. Interesting Twitter facts/ stats?
- According to Mashable:
- There are 140+ million active users in 30 languages
- 33% of users are 45+, 25% are 35-44 and 23% are 25-34
- 59% are women
- The average user spends 11:50 minutes per visit on Twitter
- 80% of users access their Twitter via mobile
- The first Tweet from Space happened on 22 January 2010 from @Astro_TJ
- In May 2010, Lady Gaga became the first Tweeter to have over 10 million 'Little Monsters'
- In 2011, Twitter stated a figure of around 500K each day, but this statistic doesn't clarify if they are actual individuals or spam bots which Twitter is unfortunately plagued by. Some argue that users who are not active in tweeting are not useful, but users who are on Twitter purely for receiving the most up to the minute information on topics that matter to them are still influenced and build brand affinity
- Twitter kicked off in 2006 and it took three years to reach 1 billion Tweets. In 2011, it announced 1 billion tweets are sent ever week
5. Does twitter have any upcoming developments that could help companies improve their market visibility?
- Hashtags for Events - Twitter launched this new initiative via their first commercial by teaming up with Nascar. Expect to see this with all big events coming up!
- Improved Search - Just last week, Twitter announced they will be rolling out new search features which will provide users with better personalised results leading to a better overall user experience
- Enhanced Profiles - These will be rolled out in the coming months, Twitter states it will increase engagement and drive business goals. It is a great redesign of the page visually, so brands can better brand their page visually and feature important content by promoting a tweet which will automatically expand to show media. Right now, this feature is only available to selected handles. Check out Nike's page for a preview!
- Promoted Tweets - Paid packages are available from Twitter to have a tweet promoted
6. Are there any tools which can be used to monitor your Twitter page analytics?
- Agencies such as Greenlight provide this service for brands, as most companies do not have the social media resource, knowledge or access to the different monitoring tools. Certain agencies have expertise of doing in-depth social media monitoring research. They are staffed by those passionate about the industry, keep up-to-date on platform changes and neat campaigns, plus have extensive knowledge about a range of industries so you can be sure their ideas and optimisation suggestions are well researched
- Social listening tools such as Brandwatch, Sysomos and Radian6 help analyse your Twitter results
- HootSuite Pro account & TweetDeck
- If you are advertising on Twitter, it also provides some analytics for you
- Schmap.it is a great tool and used by many Fortune 500 companies
- SocialBro is a favourite amongst many big name brands as well; it helps you learn about your community through search criteria and filters
7. How can you use Twitter to target different sectors?
- Twitter is a great way to discover influential people in specific industries, as well as brand ambassadors. By building a relationship with these users, you can begin to show your industry knowledge and brand personality
- By engaging with high profile tweeters in key markets, you naturally begin to enter streams of conversations with users who are interested in your brand/industry, resulting in many of them following you
- Producing and sharing campaigns and content that are suitable for that market is really important. If you do not produce strong, engaging content, users will not follow you
8. What are the key dates and times that people will be talking about Christmas on Twitter?
- In December, Twitter is inundated with Advent Calendars, 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways, Christmas Wish lists and Stocking Stuffers. Most campaigns begin by launching hints and mentions two weeks prior to the start of the campaign
- One of the busiest days on Twitter's is Christmas day and the period just after it. We are a society who likes to share
9. How advantageous is it to use a celebrity to promote campaigns on Twitter?
- It is always nice to have a celebrity promote your brand, although users are beginning to crack down on mindless celebrity endorsements. Recently, Nike ran into a problem with Twitter from their #makeitcount campaign, which included celebrities such as Wayne Rooney, as the tweets were not clearly labelled as Marketing Communications. Sometimes this controversy will lead to an increase in spread, engagement and mentions but it might not be worth the risk. Having a celebrity who truly reflects the brand and their goals while also relating to the community and brand endorsements works best
10. How beneficial is it to follow organisations and companies?
- Knowing what your competitors are doing is always beneficial to a brand! It provides you with benchmarks, knowledge of what they are doing and how they are doing it. It also helps you discover conversations about your goods or services that you may want to get involved in
- If you are a retail brand, follow your shopping centre accounts to ensure you are up-to-date on what is happening in the centre and see if they can promote you and vice versa. Any events in-store should be mentioned on the centre's handle, they want visitors just like you
- If you are a travel brand, ensure you follow your travel agents, airports, cruise ports, excursion companies etc. Utilising each other will increase your reach!
