While Twitter has not attained the great heights that Facebook has when it comes to marketing, it is still a force to be reckoned with so you should not overlook it as a tool.
Twitter has continued to grow since going public and the microblogging platform plays an important role in brand marketing.
If you are not using it as a serious part of your marketing strategy, now is the time to do it.
Twitter has more than 270 million users.
You don't want to miss out on the opportunity to reach out to your target audience here.
Whether you are new to Twitter or just haven't been using it as much as you need to, then it is important to know how to use it right.
When you know how to use Twitter the right way, it won't take long before you are a master of the marketing tool.
Here is what you need to know: Tweet more than just links and headlines Sure, sending out a quick tweet that is nothing more than a link to a blog post or the headline of a news article is quick and simple.
But is that really something that is going to grab someone's attention? If you are tweeting only once or twice a day, then those short blurbs will quickly be scrolled past by users with short attention spans.
Instead, start mixing it up.
Tweet images, questions, quotes- things that are going to get more notice from your followers.
These are more likely to encourage engagement with your audience.
You also want to avoid tweeting nothing but marketing messages.
Those get old pretty fast.
Give your audience something interesting to read, even if it isn't all about your newest product.
Know how to use the @ symbol If you have used Twitter at all, you know that the @ symbol is used as part of the user's Twitter handle.
If you want to mention another user in your tweet, you simply type in @username.
However, using it that way will only let your followers and the followers of the other user see that tweet in the Twitter feed.
To send out a tweet that can be seen by the people that you follow as well, simply put a period at the start of your tweet before the @symbol.
Use hashtags with care Nothing ruins a tweet faster than a long string of hashtagged words.
The importance of the hashtag is to make it easy for users to find tweets that contain a certain keyword.
Use words that are relevant to your brand and the conversations you want to start.
And, limit yourself to using only one or two in a tweet.
Tweet at the right time The last thing you want is to send out some great tweets and have them fall on deaf ears (or, in this case, computer screens).
Most of your audience is not going to be on Twitter 24/7.
There is going to be a prime time during the day when you are most likely to reach a high number of followers.
Find it! Do your research and find out what time of day your followers are the most active on Twitter.
This could be in the evening when they are off work, first thing in the morning, or late at night, depending on who your audience is.
When you find out what that magic time is, then that is when you should be tweeting.
Twitter is still a great marketing tool for businesses because it is a quick way to interact and engage with followers.
If you haven't been giving it much effort, now is the time to turn that around.
Are you making Twitter an important part of your social media marketing strategy?