Have you heard about what Twitter is but still don’t know how it works or exactly what it is for? As you know, “if you are not on social networks, you don’t exist” I would like to share it with you in this article.
This is one of those motivating phrases that all entrepreneurs or companies hear when they start their digital transformation and want to make themselves known or increase their sales.
All of them must make a big investment in digital marketing and social media. And one of the first actions should be creating a professional Twitter account and interacting with your audience.
Nowadays, most people know what Twitter is, but if you are one of the few who do not know it or do not know what it is for exactly, this article will help you out of any doubt.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a microblogging social platform that communicates through short messages free of charge with other people or users registered with it.
These messages are called “tweets” and are made up of 280 characters, although until 2017, they consisted of 140, and can also publish videos, photos, infographics, discounts, news, events, etc.
Currently, it already has more than 325 million active users per month, and although in two years, it has suffered stagnation due to the boom in Instagram, it is still one of the social networks with more users.
What were its origins?
It was founded by Jack Dorsey in 2006, emerging as a research project of a small company in the city of San Francisco in the United States.
Both he and his colleagues Evan Williams and Biz Stone had a clear idea that it should resemble the old mobile SMS, where you could receive short messages instantly.
Hence its original name was “twttr” (it sounds almost like the sound of a text message), and the brand icon is a bird (it resembles the sound of birds when they communicate with each other).
Now that you know how it originated, I will detail all the advantages of its use today.
What exactly is Twitter for?
This platform gives visibility to your business, reaching thousands of people in real time. Through this network, you can advertise and get loyal customers.
Sell your products
Whether you are a team of essays writers, accountants, designers, or programmers, you can show all your products. However, in order not to invade too the potential customer with our advertising, you should provide information or content of value to help them solve their doubts and concerns.
Through your tweets, you will be able to capture their attention and make yourself known little by little to get more followers who will follow you. It is a slow but effective process if you are persistent.
Create a good brand image
Sharing your own content, as well as content from other portals in your sector that provides value to your audience, will help your Personal or Corporate Brand to be seen differently than if you only share your own content.
Although the content of your own blog will prevail over that of others.
Try to participate in the interaction your followers give you, and you will create engagement, increasing your reputation and image in front of them.
Good attention to your target audience
You must be willing to accept criticism as well as favorable comments and be available to address all queries or possible doubts of potential buyers.
If you give them good attention, they will surely recommend you and share you on their private accounts, increasing your customer base.
Meet with possible synergies
Knowing companies in your sector virtually can help you make possible collaborations where both parties win because they, in turn, can recommend you to other contacts.
Even your products can reach influential people who, having thousands of followers in their accounts, can help you reach the top.
Therefore, Networking is a good way to make yourself known and interact within your environment.
Export your knowledge
As you well know, starting a personal blog is, for me personally, one of the best ways to start an online business. However, if you spend many hours generating valuable content but then fail to disseminate it, much of your effort will be worthless.
And this is where its usefulness lies because if you integrate your articles into it and your users see it, you will be making them participants of your content, thus increasing your web traffic thanks to all those who manage to see them published in the social network.
Publicize important events
In the case of events and events of relevance to a brand, it is worth noting that this microblogging platform is ideal for making it reach a larger number of people.
This is the case of my own account, through which I try to disseminate and give visibility to some of my talks at online conferences, such as “Monetize” and “Position yourself,” both organized by JF-Digital.
The truth is that, with the help of my diffusion, that of the other speakers of such events, and their respective official Twitter, we have come to drive them on several occasions to the “Trending Topic” during the hours of celebration of these.
Knowing the customer
With the social conversation generated within the platform, you will be able to know the preferences and needs of your ideal customer.
This way, you will be able to orient your products and services precisely towards what they demand and not so much towards what “theoretically” you thought they wanted to obtain.
Always remember to actively (and passively) listen to what is being said about your industry, products, and services.
Analyze your competitors
As with any digital channel, we can spy and analyze what other professionals or brands are doing so that we detect the “gaps” or gaps that they might have.
This would be the opportunity to comprehensively launch or improve our products or services to satisfy a specific need.
And in this sense, it plays a very positive role, being able to see publicly the conversations and threads generated with each content between the brand itself and its respective users.
How does Twitter work?
Below, I will tell you how the microblogging platform works, and you will learn everything you need to learn how to use it professionally from today.
The ease of expressing some information in a few words and the speed with which it reaches other users have made this one of the most used social networks worldwide.
Being public messages, users can like a tweet they like, as well as share it (retweeting it on their account) and start following you so as not to miss anything (which is equivalent to becoming your follower).
Basic Twitter terminology
These are some of the terms you will encounter in a conversation when you find yourself talking about activity on it:
????Retweet (or “retweet”)
However you prefer to write it, an “RT” (this is also how you’ll see it written) is nothing more than sharing a piece of content so that it appears on your profile or wall.
It would be something like the classic content previously published by another person on Facebook, which we can share on our account so that our followers can also see it.
❤️ I like (like)
In this case, it is represented by a heart and indicates that you have liked another account’s post. It is the simplest and quickest way to interact with your community.
In this case, the contents that you marked as “like” would not appear on your profile but would appear to the recipient as a notification.
???? Comment
Precisely, and as its own word says, it is the interaction that consists of leaving feedback in the form of a message to a publication in this social network.
#️⃣ Hashtag
Many people still wonder what a hashtag is. Well, it is a tag through which the platform organizes its contents.
Thus, all those contents containing this tag will be classified together and understood as related from the thematic point of view.
???? Trending Topic
It is closely related to the hashtag since it is a TOP20 of the most used hashtags of the day within this social network.
Depending on your region, they may change due to the types of conversations generated in each country or city and the language and interest aroused by that topic.
How to send a tweet? Practical example
Finally, I will show you how to send a tweet, with some of the most frequent elements you can use, at least when you manage, as a Community Manager, the account of your company or business.
In this case, I have added the following:
- Title or headline of what you want to communicate.
- Some emoticons will make your message more attractive.
- The link to the web content I want to drive traffic to. As a blogger, in this case, I choose my own blog.
- Some hashtags related to the post. As you can see, I have chosen two (I don’t recommend you to “spam” with too many, recommendable one or two).
- You can tag the accounts you want (it is not mandatory) from the “Who is in the photo?” option.
Conclusion
Surely, if you have come this far, you already know what Twitter is and the great benefits it has from a business point of view and, obviously, from an informative point of view.
Knowing how Twitter works is imperative to generate engagement, web traffic, and empathy with your potential customers and social community.
