Along with Facebook and Google+, Twitter forms the “Big 3” of social media networks. Thus, Twitter marketing becomes a powerful tool for businesses and websites of all shapes and sizes – from the multi-national online retailer to the niche blog. It is certainly a must have for leveraging an online presence, visitors, brand recognition, and/or sales.

Taking advantage of Twitter requires some knowledge of best practices. Of course, knowing what not to do will help you determine a sound Twitter marketing strategy.

The following mistakes will kill your efforts: (1)

• You Don’t Have a Content Strategy
  Ignoring engaging content that can impact Twitter tops the list for Cournoyer. By placing great content on a blog and leveraging it with Twitter, companies can position themselves as a “thought leader in your field.” It’s a great way to drive visitors to your site.

• You Tweet Too Often or Not Enough
  Find that right balance with tweets. While some mention twice a day as that “sweet spot,” Cournoyer likes the five to 10 tweets per day mark.

• Your Tweets Are Too “Me-Focused”
  Talking about yourself too much will get you tuned out. Consider the 4-1-1 principle, which uses one tweet for your own content, another tweet that’s purely promotional, and four that share content from others around the Internet.

• You Lack Staff Involvement
  Encourage your staff to, at the very least, share content and promote the brand with Twitter and other social networks. You can get your staff involved more with Twitter, putting a face to the business and improving the idea of positioning the company as thought leaders.

How can you better utilize the powerful marketing tool of Twitter?  Contact us to learn more effective strategies that can help your business.

(1) Source: Brendan Cournoyer

When it comes to marketing, it’s all about content.  Informative, entertaining, and useful blog posts that are circulated on social media have become a mainstay for businesses.  Along with written content, media such as images and videos have become powerful for businesses as well.

However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for businesses.  It must be tailored to not only the business, but the industry. 

Real estate marketing is one industry that undeniably lends itself to a powerful area – visual media.  Prospective customers will value written content to an extent, but they are consistently drawn in by their eyes.  As a result, real estate marketing must leverage videos and images effectively to capitalize on each and every opportunity.

Remember that photos and videos are versatile.  Don’t be afraid to showcase media that adds some creativity to the mix.  A video walkthrough or unique photo can be a great change of pace from the standard media interpretations in real estate.  

Other elements, such as the wording that gets the visitor to view the media, is crucial.  Spend some time on your call-to-action (CTA) phrases to get the most of your efforts.

Media can be a major asset to any real estate marketing strategy.  Contact us to learn more about how you can improve your efforts to get the results you desire.

Image source

1. Your Hashtag Can Get Hijacked: On January 18, McDonald’s created the #McDstories hashtag to inspire customers to share personal stories at the popular restaurant.  However, it led to a flood of negative stories that prompted the chain to yank it two hours later.  It still goes on strong today, though.

2. Don’t Pay for Celebrity Tweets: Snickers paid a popular model and reality star (Jordon, or Katie Price) to tweet about out-of-character tweets such as China’s gross domestic product.  This “prank” led to followers thinking her account had been hacked, and it ultimately led to the wrong kind of attention for Snickers, Shandrow notes.

3. Say No to Mass Marketing Tweets: Nine Twitter accounts were created by Toyota to get the word out about the new Camry during the Super Bowl.  The backlash led to the closing of the accounts.  The moral of the story was clear: mass marketing, impersonal tweets can quickly alienate customers.

4. Remove Insensitivities: KitchenAid, for example, had to fire and clean up the mess of a social media manager after an insensitive tweet pertaining to politics was made. 

   Another example is Urban Outfitters, who on October 29 (during Hurricane Sandy), tweeted: “This storm blows (but free shipping doesn’t)! Today only…”  

   The backlash still continues to this day.