Twitter Marketing

Twitter Gets A Makeover!

The latest Twitter updates have been announced and they’re a little confusing. Yes, the updates offer some great benefits to users, but Twitter is moving away from what makes them unique as they attempt to get more mainstream. They have essentially converted their platform into a Facebook lookalike.

What’s different? First, there is a very large header image on your profile page. An image that covers the entire width of the page. At 1500 x 500 pixels, the image gives you lots of room to work. It can also be repositioned or scaled to fit properly within the new dimensions. Just like your Facebook cover photo, you’ll want to take advantage of this real estate to really showcase your brand.

Secondly, your profile photo is a lot bigger now. it’s 400 x 400 pixels. It will also hang over the header image (just like your profile photo on your Facebook cover photo), so plan your designs accordingly. For example, Kerry Washington’s header image is cut off by the profile photo.

It’s also worth noting that the “egg” is gone from Twitter. Now, if you don’t upload a profile image, you will see a black silhouette of a man (also very similar to the Facebook profile image).

The third “big” change is that popular tweets will have a bigger appearence in your stream. Those tweets that have received more favorites and retweets will actually be bigger than your normal tweets.

You can also “pin” (yes, that’s the term) any tweet to the top of your profile. If you have a specific tweet that you want to promote to visitors, pin it to the top of your page. Oh, wait, you can do that on Facebook too, right?

Aside from the “big” updates, the fun doesn’t stop there. There are even more updates to share!

Under your header image, the standard stats are available: Tweets, Followings, and Followers. But you also have new information. This includes the number of photos/videos shared and the number of favorites. This will give Twitter users a better understanding of how to use the platform. Or it may get some users chasing more numbers – who can have the most favorites?

You will also find your Twitter name, handle, description, and links listed on the left hand side. Again, just like Facebook. Have you noticed a trend yet?

If you click on the list of people a user is following, a colorful Pinterest-looking board of Twitter users appears. I’ll admit it’s a little confusing at first glance, but once you adjust, it’s pretty cool. This new layout allows to better see what the other users’ profiles look like. But, it does take up a lot more space than the old layout.

Two other updates recently announced by Twitter, and which further make the platform seem like Facebook, have to do with tagging and photo uploads.

Now, you can actually tag your friends (up to 10 of them) in each photo you share on Twitter. And, the good news is that these tags won’t actually take up the precious 140 characters in the tweet itself. Once tagged, a user can delete or amend a tag. And if you are concerned about being tagged, you can edit your settings (in your Security and Privacy settings) to dictate who can tag you. The default setting on this feature allows anyone to tag you.

The other fun new feature, which further emphasizes Twitter’s commitment to visual marketing, is that you can upload up to 4 images per tweet. Rather than a single image, the multiple images will be grouped/tiled in the tweet as a collage. You can click on any individual photo to enlarge it full screen. As of this publish, this feature is only available for iPhone users. Although Android and desktop applications should receive this function in the near future.

As you can see, Twitter has seriously overhauled their site to align itself with more mainstream social media layouts. This may benefit them in attracting new users and appealing to a new demographic. But it may also frustrate or upset die-hard Twitter users. Personally, I don’t have an issue with the new layout. I think it’s easy to navigate and more in line with what marketers are used to using on other platforms.

But what do you think? Are you looking forward to the new layout?

Are you struggling to gain the brand attention you want on Twitter?

Whether you’re just starting out or have been using the platform for a while, consistently gaining and growing your audience can be challenging and frustrating. Keep at it, however, and it’s one of the most rewarding networks for meeting new people and uncovering new opportunities.

In this article, I’m going to share three pieces of advice that have worked for me, but none of them are quick or easy. Marketing your brand on Twitter takes a lot of time, effort, and commitment.

If you want to be taken seriously on Twitter, you have to take it seriously.

The Fast, Effortless, and Utterly Meaningless Way to Gain More Followers

Want a million followers in 2 quick and easy steps? Here’s what you do:

1. Sign up for a Twitter account
2. Go buy 1 million followers

Yes, it’s fast. Yes, it’s easy. And yes, it’s a terrible idea.

One million fake followers won’t do anything for you. Even if they happen to be real people, they still don’t know you, they don’t care about you, and they won’t help you increase your influence.

If you don’t buy them, it’s not difficult to follow a massive amount of random people in hopes that they follow you back. This will boost your follower count, as most of the people you follow will automatically follow you back, but it doesn’t help you build relationships with any of them.

My point is, don’t treat your Twitter following as a number. You might feel better having more followers than someone else, but it doesn’t matter unless those followers are paying attention to you.

Quality is more important than quantity. With that in mind, here’s what I suggest:

1. Give People a Reason to Talk to You

With so many people vying for attention on social media, it’s surprising how many boring and uninteresting profiles I see. While you may be tempted to play it safe, it’s much more effective to give your profile some personality.

From your username to your bio, your profile photo to your background, there’s a lot of opportunities to stand out from the crowd. Use every opportunity you have to express who you are, what you like, what you’re passionate about and why you’re there.

For example, my Seahawks won the Super Bowl this year (Go Hawks!), and it brought me a lot of friendly banter with other NFL fans. If you’re a parent, you know that I am too, just from reading the first 2 words in my bio. These are small details, but they open the door to a lot of conversation.

2. Connect With Influencers in Your Industry

There are Twitter celebrities out there. People with tens of thousands of Twitter followers. Some of them might be valuable to follow, but don’t count on them to boost your reputation just by connecting with them or mentioning their name.

Chances are, they don’t care.

Do you know what’s more effective? Finding people with a moderate following who carry influence in the same industry. These are people who don’t have so many followers that they don’t pay attention, but people are paying attention to them. They are ready with a friendly response when someone mentions their name or shares their content.

Connect with a handful of influencers on your level, and collaborate to grow your influence with their audiences, and vice versa. Share each others’ content, trade guest blog posts, and you’ll end up gaining the trust of a wider audience that’s still relevant to your industry and your goals.

3. Go Organic

I realized something recently: My Twitter feed was getting stale. As I scrolled through it one morning, there were a countless number of people sharing similar content. Their entire stream looked like this:

Tweet 1: “Blah Blah Blah http://linktoarticle.com”

Tweet 2: “Thanks for the RT and/or Share @username!”

Tweet 3: “Blah Blah Blah http://linktoanotherarticle.com”

This is how most of us settle into a Twitter strategy (myself included). Sure, we’re providing relevant and valuable content. Yes, we’re doing our duty by thanking our followers and fans. Yes, we are completely devoid of human conversation.

So, I started changing my strategy.

As soon as I made an effort to act like a person, and start talking to other real people, I saw a huge spike in my activity. People started listening more, caring more, and mentioning me more. All because I started making an effort to converse, rather than just broadcast.

Having more conversations makes a difference. Reaching out randomly to people and checking in makes a difference. Listening to people and replying with some thoughtful insight makes a difference. Make the extra effort to take the conversation further.

Scheduling valuable content to your Twitter stream is still important. Just make sure you’re engaging organically as well. The scheduled content might position you as an authority, but the conversation shows that you’re human, too.

Unlock Twitter’s Power By Making it Meaningful

Twitter provides a  powerful way to grow your influence and build relationships online. It’s been my focus for the past 3 years, and I’m always surprised by the opportunities I’m able to uncover.

If you’re confused about Twitter or feeling discouraged, don’t give up. I’ve been there. I know many other successful users who have also been there. It takes a lot of dedication, but, if you stick to it, you’ll find it absolutely worth your effort in the end.

If you’re looking for more insight, check out this Slideshare presentation I put together:

There are also a ton of great articles by the authors here at Social Solutions Collective. Take a look, connect with every one of us on Twitter, and start a conversation!

Twitter has been quite busy. Twitter unveiled a few new advertising options throughout the month of April, positioning themselves to compete with the “other” boys in blue.

Some of these new options are mobile-driven. Mobile is hot and considering 78% of Twitter’s monthly active users use the platform via their mobile device (Source: DMR), there is a huge opportunity awaiting businesses ready to bite.

Here’s a run-down of the latest offerings:

1. App Install Native Ads

Using MoPub’s mobile advertising exchange, app developers will now be able to create targeted ads prompting people to download their app, similar to what we currently see on Facebook. Right now this is in beta, but should be released by the end of the year.

2. Website Cards

This looks really exciting! According to Twitter, a website card is  “a powerful creative ad…a new way for advertisers to easily surface website content within a Tweet and drive relevant traffic to any page of their site, such as their home page, product page, or an important blog post.” Website cards allows users to discover interesting content while giving advertisers the ability to get a higher number of website clicks since users are able to preview an image, related context and a clear call to action in their timeline. This feature is available to all users.

3. TV Conversation Targeting

This is now available in 4 more countries: Brazil, Canada, France and Spain. There are several more in beta-testing.

4. Expanded Geo-Targeting

Included in this update are state/region targeting in Brazil and Canada, postal code targeting in the U.S. (SWEET!) and major expansion to state/region targeting in eight countries: Australia, France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands and the UK.  For those businesses who are global, these new geo-targeting options are gold.

Which of these latest Twitter advertising options are you excited to try out?

If you are still not sure about advertising on Twitter, check out my post 6 Reasons Promoted Tweets Rock!