When it comes to Twitter, the learning curve can prove quite steep with its language:  hashtags, @ mentions, RTs, and #phrasesthatlooklikethis. In this day and age where professionals and businesses are using social media to market their business and engage with clients, how can they navigate Twitter to better market themselves? There are many differences among Twitter and other social media outlets, and with many clients interested in creating a strong Twitter brand, McCauley Marketing Services offers the following tips to optimize your tweets.

One of the biggest components of Twitter is the hashtag. Designated by the pound symbol (#), a hashtag is a word or phrase with no spaces included to assign a category to your tweet. Hashtags allow your tweet to show up in searches or in aggregators, such as Google, that track trending topics. Clicking on the hashtag allows others to see tweets marked with that same keyword. By including hashtags in your tweets, not only can you engage with others who are talking about similar topics, but others can find your content as well.

So what is the point of a hashtag? The idea of Twitter is to reach prospects and spread your message.  Each tweet only allows 140 characters, so it’s important to make each one count. When a user clicks on a hashtag link, it goes to a streaming page of that topic.  Recently, Twitter introduced the “Discover” section that filters trending topics relevant to your localization and interests based on where and what you tweet about. Filling a tweet with random or overly generic hashtags can be ineffective because they are used so frequently that your communication might get lost with the thousands of other tweets on the subject. Hashtags can be effective when they’re tailored to your audience or originally created by you. The easiest way to find relevant or unique hashtags is to explore Twitter’s discover page; additionally, there are also sites specific to find popular trends and tags such as hashtags.org, Twubs, wefollow, and Twitterfall. As Twitter users view and follow your business, they may share or interact with you through hashtags in your category.

Now that we’ve hashed out the hashtag tool, here are a few more tips to becoming an effective tweeter:

• RT, RT, RT: Retweet when content is relevant. The tweeter will be happy that you’re spreading their message and your followers will be exposed to new content.
• Share new content: Write tweets with direct links to share blogs, resources, or websites to your followers. Companies can post from multiple platforms and track leads who visit their sites as a result.
• Follow Back: Follow leaders in the industry or interesting individuals who post new content. Engage in conversations and stay up-to-date with companies and people. Your followers will be interested in who you follow.
• Don’t over-tweet: Don’t flood followers’ streams by tweeting too frequently. By staggering tweets over the day, you can reach different audiences since everyone uses Twitter at different times of the day. Information will also remain fairly new and exciting to fellow followers.
• Shorten links:  Instead of posting a lengthy URL, Hootsuite and Tweetdeck provide ow.ly and bit.ly where you can convert long URL links into a shortened version that easily fits into a tweet and still links to the original page.

For more information about Twitter and other social media marketing that McCauley Marketing Services provides, please contact us. Also, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ for the latest tips and information.