If you search for the meaning of the term “Tweet” you get the above definition. I would rather put it as – The Chirp of a small Bird that is being heard in the business and consumer circles. Twitter a micro-blogging service that lets you to post 140 characters or less is indeed making a lot of noise in the social media world and is one of the sought after tools the marketers are going after. I recently used Twitter as an engagement tool and I was amazed at the kind of results which it offered. No I am not promoting Twitter neither am I underplaying the other social media tools which you can use – however I am just sharing my Point of View and experiences while using this Tool.
These are some of my takes for building a good Engagement Model using Twitter
Be clear of your Objectives – Most often the mistake which organizations do is that they focus on recruiting followers. The success parameter which is defined – How many followers have you recruited? It is not a wrong parameter to have but the starting point should not be skewed towards recruitment. What you should rather focus on is the level of engagement which you can derive with people around you. Once you start building an engagement strategy thrown in with sweepstakes, contests, etc. automatically people will start to follow you.
Use it as a two way communication rather than a Single channel communication Tool – The B2B organizations that I follow tweet 10/20 maybe more on their insights. What we forget is that in today’s world there is an information overload. Users on an average get information from their internal communications team, reports from research firms, their managers/BU’s sending information and obviously the internet. The last thing the user would want is to get the same feeds from Twitter. Don’t tweet for the sake of tweeting. Have meaningful tweets which can lead into a conversation with your followers or your target audience.
Understand the “Ah-ha” factor – If I am a blogger the number of page visits gives me a high, in Facebook if I upload a picture or post a comment the number of likes is the wow factor, similarly in twitter the number of likes or retweets is the ah-ha factor for the individual user. Try to capitalize that and make the individual feel special. Trust me if you can strike that chord you not only get a follower but also would get a brand advocate.
Build a Community – As in the real world communities are built by humans – i.e. a human touch is needed. Similarly while building a twitter community having the human touch to your handle is crucial. Remember, people love to interact with people and not with non-living things. Ensure that your conversations have the human angle and not robot language. The social media manager or the person who owns the twitter handle of your organization need to understand this and should make those subtle changes to the tweets.
With a variety of Twitter tools available and especially using the #tag wisely you can have real time engagement with your audience, get the pulse of the market and build a solid brand – all at one go.
Happy Tweeting!!!
Published with permission from the blog
