Twitter was founded in 2006. By 2013, it ranked in the top 10 most visited websites (Source). While it is not as popular as Facebook or Instagram, Twitter does boast over 100 million users and maintains it’s place as a social media giant. According to Pew Research most Twitter users fall in the 18-29 year old range, with 30-49 coming in after. In this post, we will discuss some of Twitter’s features to help you determine if you should use Twitter for marketing your business.
Tweets
Twitter is a social platform built around micro-blogging. Unlike other platforms, posts on Twitter (known as tweets) have a very limited character count. At its inception, posts on Twitter were limited to 140 characters. In 2017, however, the character count was expanded to 280 characters. This character limitation gives users an opportunity to get creative in how they share the things they want to share.
You can also post threads. Threads are created by tweeting something and then replying to that tweet with another tweet. This will link the second tweet to the original one so people know it’s a continuing thought. Many users utilize threads as a way of posting long-form content on this short-form platform.
Videos and Photographs
As with most social media platforms, Twitter allows you to post photos and videos to your page. You can also add alt text to your photos. Alt text, or alternative text, is used by assistive devices (like screen readers) to allow users with visual impairments to hear a description of what is in your image. You have to manually enter alt text when posting a photo. It’s a cool feature that hasn’t been implemented across all social platforms quite yet.
Spaces
Twitter is currently developing a new feature called “Spaces.” It’s almost like podcasting live. You can broadcast your voice to anyone who chooses to listen, and you can invite co-hosts into the space as well. So far, most of what you can do with Spaces is limited to mobile users, but desktop users can listen in. For a more extensive overview of Spaces, check out Twitter’s help page.
Interaction
All social platforms are built to create interaction between users. This is especially true for Twitter. You can grow a following on Facebook and Instagram by posting as little as 1-2 times a week. Twitter, however, takes a little more effort. Pages that see lots of growth tend to be active every day. And you can’t just throw posts on your page and call it done. You have to interact with other people’s tweets to really grow an audience. Though it can mean investing a little more time in the platform (should you choose to use Twitter for marketing) you can develop a strong, loyal base of followers on the site.
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For help with managing your social media pages, contact Bold River Marketing. We offer social media management services and we’d love to help you manage your page, develop engaging content, and watch you succeed.