This year Twitter reported its first-ever net profit, revenue increase by 2 percent and advertising revenue increase by 7 percent over the previous year. The number of monthly active users increased by only 4%, but the daily active users went up 12% year over year. This means Twitter is still a big player in social media, and as a marketer, you need to continue improving your Twitter marketing efforts. First, you’ll need to fully understand and learn to leverage out all of their features, so that you can use them on a normal basis to be as productive as possible.
Here are some outlines on Twitter hacks you should start practicing:
#1 Twitter Has an Advanced Search
That’s exactly the best way to describe it, advanced. There is a lot of information you can gather by simply using that search button. This is one of the fortified and although underappreciated Twitter hacks that can get you rolling fast. Some of its features include:
- searching based on a set of words,
- searching for several sets of words,
- searching for something that uses none of the set of words,
- searching hashtags,
- searching using any supported language,
- searching for people and accounts,
- searching for tweets sent to or from a certain account,
- searching for tweets sent from a specific location,
- tweets from a specific date, positive tweets, negative ones, retweets and even searching for a whole host of incredible things.
One of our favorite and probably most helpful things about this Twitter hack is that you can search for peoples email addresses, and it is proven that 6 out of 7 times it will show you a conversation a person has had where they have given out their email to someone.
It’s a pretty neat trick, and you’ll get to save a bunch of time for useful tasks you need to take care of. In addition to this, you can also use this Twitter hack to zero in on the followers and prospect individuals based on industry, this can help you follow them and interact on a regular basis.
#2 There are Twitter Chats and Hashtags
Twitter chats will probably become one of your favorite Twitter hacks and are actually one of the best things ever. Being an extension of your hashtag, it should be a driven part of your marketing strategy that will help keep things organized and trackable.
You should start using this Twitter hack by setting a time and date when you know a handful of your followers tend to be online. You can also take note of the times and days they retweet, share or comment on your tweets.
In choosing a good hashtag and using it, the same one has to be used throughout the chat session. It should stay short and concise, memorable and unique. If you make them too complicated with a bunch of characters and signs, it might just turn people off. The moment you decide to start using this Twitter hack you are going to have to set an itinerary and be well organized.
Remember that people come from different walks of life and different social circles. Make sure to handle your twitter chat so that only specific topics can be discussed within your set time frame.
Remember this isn’t a one-man team, if you are going to practice using these Twitter hacks you need to have an assigned staff ready, they are necessary to keep things running properly and to prevent any further problems from occurring like having your hashtag hijacked.
Use them to start promoting your chat and hashtags. While your Twitter chat is live, monitor it, you also need to engage and be promotive with your followers. The more you use these Twitter hacks the more you’ll gain in engagement, followers, reputation, and information.
#3 The Fun Use of Keyboard Shortcuts and Follow Lists
We have a very special Twitter hack that saves time if you are in a rush, which is Twitters keyboard shortcuts. Above is actually a picture of what they look like. If you are not familiar with them, it’s as simple as hitting “N” on your keyboard to start.
There’s also a little Twitter hack that will help you use Twitter to access only the information that you want, and it’s called a Follow List. You can use this to group users together based on interests and personalities. When using media marketing we are always looking for people, that also means addressing the right ones and taking favorable responses from those who are in tune with your updates and posts.
This Twitter hack will also help you see what they are tweeting about and give you the opportunity to join in.
Try making a list of 100 people you think are influential, such as big timers, potential partners and even just regular followers. Then make a private Twitter list that you can use to engage with these said individuals daily. Always remember to stay casual and helpful, don’t try to sound too promotional.
It’s all about building a relationship and finding the opportunity to collaborate, which is important. You can also try and test your popularity by checking any public lists that you’ve been added to. Or even join someone else’s public list, and start working on things there. You’ll get plenty of exposure this way and have more visibility with list owners and followers.
If you want to know how to find the best Twitter lists in your niche, read this article.
#4 The Opportunity to Analyse
To make things even easier, we have this amazing Twitter hack: Twitter’s analytics. The best part is that it’s free, so it’s a great opportunity to take advantage of. Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to handle your overall impressions as a brand, whether it’s from a single tweet or profile visits, or a whole flood of tweets.
Obviously, as a good host, we need to analyze these campaigns, this just makes things a whole lot simpler. Most of us already know about our Google analytics, but what we fail to realize is our Twitter has free access to its analytics, and it provides great data like:
- average retweets
- reach of your tweets
- most influential content
- your influencer followers
So if you wade around in the info, you’ll realize that just having a twitter account isn’t the best strategy, you actually have to monitor everything and take note of what works and what doesn’t. This Twitter hack was built to help you have a better understanding of what works well for your followers and what doesn’t. This will help you recognize what’s actually gathering you impressive traffic and re-evaluate things that aren’t hitting their mark.
Twitter is all about focused relationship management. Followers expect to be heard and it’d be a good thing to start using this Twitter hack to build a better relationship with them through honest and timely replies. Know what your followers want, evaluate what they are sharing; request or complaint? Check if their tweets about your brand are going in the direction that you want them to.
Being as it may that this is, in fact, social media, it is critical that you handle any type of issue before it bombshells.
Take the information you gathered from the analytics to prioritize instances where you need to respond, tackle issues personally and help internal situations before they escalate if required. Don’t be so scripted about this, remember that your followers do not prefer robotic responses, and they shouldn’t have to encounter them.
Think about creating two Twitter accounts, one can focus on things like marketing and those positive engagements and the latter can be for problems that may occur and dealing with irate followers. Be clear and transparent with your responses and with your audience. Don’t just keep them waiting, if you’re having a rough time handling things, give them a heads up and let them know how long they might have to wait.
Take note that your audience has their own set of business and working hours. This doesn’t mean you have to go and be a push-over just to satisfy your followers or your team. Make sure to also show a sense of authority with each, and take the time to educate them on social approach and service, empower them.
With the help of these little Twitter hacks, you’re sure to get things rolling quickly. Take time to consider being proactive. Why? Simply because Twitter can be used as great communication and service platform to help you have a better connection with your audience and target market.
Try your best to post regular updates and provide your audience with a level-best assurance that you know what you are doing and that their trust in you is much appreciated. Never forget about transparency, because customers enjoy knowing they can trust the person at the other end.
Wrapping it Up
It is important to never forget that you are creating marketing plans for long-term branding, which should be reviewed and updated at least annually. Just going after numbers and stories is not a full proof business plan. Take your time to select the most important topics related to your brand that will help you create quality content for your quality followers on Twitter. Rest assured, Once you pick up on these little Twitter hacks, you’ll become a pro in no time!
Heather says
I didn’t know acquiring somebody’s email id was this simple. I think I will be amending my social media marketing strategy a bit.
Logan says
That’s nice to hear, good luck!
Daniel says
I’m an expressive person so my twitter hashtags would generally be a whole sentence. Never gave importance to a short, memorable and catchy hashtag.. will apply it soon
Ron says
I have had a habit of posting under a certain hashtag. However, i have observed popular brands post on very specific timings. From that time on wards i have adapted to proper analytics.
Marjo says
Thanks to this article, i have now discovered the Follow List option. I can now finally monitor my target audience with ease.
Logan says
Glad the article helped!
Godian says
i never really gave much importance to Twitter analytics. Always used google analytics for the traffic on my website. i will now certianly use twitter analytics to keep a track of my traffic..
Nihad says
Just a quick question, is Twitter analytics rather technical or can I manage it on my own? Is it like Google analytics?
Logan says
It’s pretty simple and easy to use, I suggest you to give it a try
Sophie says
Twitters monthly users went up by “only” 4% in a year? That’s still a lot considering they have 336 million active monthly users. This means as per this stat, next month, their users will be about 350 million!! That is still a huge increase!
Logan says
It most certainly is!
Tianna Esparza says
Recently I came across one study and found out that Twitter user is six times more likely to retweet a video than a photo. That being said, you have a much greater potential for engagement when you share a video, this is something that can be very useful.
Theresa says
Thank you for sharing all these with us! Twitter has so much more possibilities that I could imagined. Since I wasn’t using it before, I just knew about basic stuff. Now we are planning to get active with our company profile and will definitely have to learn more about it.
Nikki Herring says
A great hack is also to use the power of influencer marketing. This strategy is very cost-effective and they drive a lot of engagement to your Twitter account. So researching influencers situations in your niche and investing in this should be your next step. Thanks for sharing these hacks Jarvee team, I appreciate it! 🙂
Jacquline says
I didn’t know for the part of free Twitter analytics. Thanks for sharing. Twitter is the social media less exploited from my side and i want to educate my self a bit in that direction, this is how i have found this article. Very nice and informative.
Elmma says
I don’t like Twitter so much but very much appreciate the time invested in this article and all your efforts to make the social media closer to us all.
Serghei Ivanschevich says
All of this will help me in developing my Twitter strategy. The time is esence and if I have more time for the strategy and spend less for operational tasks that better for me.