Twitter marketing strategy guide

Ah, Twitter. Who knows who will even own Twitter by the end of 2022? Will it still be the stockholders? Possibly. Will it be Elon Musk? Maybe. Will it be me? Probably not. But who can say for sure?

Regardless of what the future holds, Twitter has been around since 2006, and it is still one of the most popular social media platforms.

While other sites like Instagram and TikTok may have surpassed it in many metrics, Twitter still has a lot to offer businesses! But you have to be strategic, or you can waste a lot of time and possibly money. Let’s look at how to utilize Twitter strategically in a way that will work in 2022 and beyond. 

Let’s get started!

Overall social media tips

You need to be strategic about what you’re sharing on any social media platform. I like to use the analogy of cooking, specifically using the acronym PIE.

• Promotional
• Informational
• Entertaining

If you were cooking an actual pie, you wouldn’t just throw random ingredients in a bowl and expect it to taste good. But people still wonder why their random posts on social media aren’t helping their business or nonprofit.

Instead, decide how much of your content you want to be promotional, how much you want to be informational, and how much you want to be entertaining.

Here are a few tips:

• Don’t be too promotional. If you get nothing else out of this whole article, understand this: posting nothing but promotional content on any social media platform will turn people off. They won’t want to do business with you if all you’re doing is promoting yourself!
• Entertaining content is like the sugar in an actual dessert. While some people love cotton candy that’s almost pure sugar, most recipes need just a pinch of sugar. But no sugar, and it will taste terrible.
• If you need to be known as an expert, focus on informational. But any social media post where people have to do business with you to use the information is actually promotional, not informational.

Minimum viable Twitter strategy

Maybe you want some sort of presence on Twitter but don’t want to put too much thought or effort into it. I get it; that’s the majority of our clients’ positions.

Twitter marketing in 2022 and beyond doesn’t have to be complicated! You can use the same content you’re posting on other social media platforms. Just post it on Twitter as well! However, make sure that your tweets are interesting and engaging so that people will want to follow you and do business with you.

Tweet consistently and frequently 

The number one social media rule is: be consistent! When you’re trying to gain followers, the worst thing you can do is post sporadically. If people see that you only post once a week or even once a month, they will not want to follow you. They’ll forget about you!

On Twitter, it’s generally expected that you’ll post more often than on other social networks. However, you don’t want to post so often that your followers get overwhelmed or bored. Try to find a happy medium where you’re tweeting consistently, but not too much.

Did you want more specific advice than that? Okay, you twisted my arm. A good rule of thumb is to tweet several times a day, possibly 2 to 5. If your audience is active on Twitter, they’ll almost expect you to tweet multiple times a day.

Increase engagement on Twitter 

The more engagement you have on your tweets, the more people will see them, and the more valuable Twitter will be for you. So how do you get more engagement on your tweets?

The simple answer is to start tagging other accounts on Twitter. Of course, you can’t do that indiscriminately, so here are a few tips.

• Make sure your tagging makes sense from an organic standpoint. Don’t force it. Post tweets where it makes sense to mention another person or organization, and just tag them when you mention them.
• Tag other accounts that appear to have a similar audience to what you want.
• When sharing helpful articles that other people wrote, tag the organization or author. Less well-known authors will be more likely to respond and engage.

Another strategy to increase engagement is hashtags. They help people find your tweets and make it easier for people to follow a conversation.

When using hashtags, make sure that you’re using them correctly. Don’t just slap a bunch of unrelated hashtags on your tweet.

Here are a few tips for hashtags:

• Don’t use too many hashtags, or people will get annoyed. 2 to 3 hashtags per tweet is a decent guideline.
• Make sure your hashtags are relevant to your tweet and your target audience.
• Search for your hashtags ahead of time to make sure other people are using them and that they don’t mean something you don’t intend them to.

Promote important tweets

Over the years, Twitter has experimented with several different paid advertising options. Currently, they offer options for campaigns that can help with the following:

• Reach
• Video views
• Pre-roll views
• App installs
• Website traffic
• Engagement
• Followers
• App re-engagements 

Arguably the easiest way to get additional engagement and exposure for a single Tweet is Twitter’s “Promote” option. To use it, follow these steps:

1. Log into your Twitter account and click on the “Profile” option in your menu.
2. Scroll down to the tweet you want to promote and click the “Promote” button.
3. Click the “Get Started” button.
4. Pick your goal, likely “Increase engagement” in this case, then click “Next.”
5. Customize your audience by picking the location, age range, and gender.
6. Pick your daily budget and how long you want your promotion to last.
7. Review all your information, add the payment method if it’s not already there, and click the “Create promotion” button.

That’s all there is to it! Your tweet will get additional exposure for whatever length of time you selected, and you’ll be able to see how many impressions, clicks, and engagements it received.

Re-evaluate your strategy yearly

Twitter is constantly changing, and what works today may not work tomorrow. Your organization’s goals may not be the same in six or twelve months. That’s why it’s important to re-evaluate your strategy every year or so.

When re-evaluating, make sure your tactics and strategy align with your current business goals. If not, it’s time to make some changes. Think about what you should do more of, what you should do less of, and what you should do differently.

Need social media help?

If you need help with your social media strategy, feel free to reach out. We can help you create and implement a marketing plan that works for your business or nonprofit, including a strategic social media presence.