Different strokes for different folks
The rules of social media advertising vary from one social network to another. What your target audience responds to best on LinkedIn might be very different from what appeals to your target followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook. Make sure you understand who your target audience is for each social network before executing an ad campaign, so that your ad messaging aligns with their purchasing, browsing or discovery intent on a given network. Last week we talked about content types that drive Promoted Tweets engagement, now we’ll address a few best practices for how to promote that content to your target audience. There are countless Twitter for Business tips out there for how to appeal to your audience with organic tweets, but we’re going to explore specific tactics for advertising your content using Promoted Tweets.
5 tactics for writing compelling Promoted Tweets
- You don’t have to fill 140 characters. Make sure to focus on the impact of each word in your tweet, rather than trying to jam-pack each one with as much information as possible. Today’s online users are looking to get as much information as possible quickly and in quick sound bites. Too many characters or an overly wordy tweet isn’t going to be read by users who are skimming through Top Tweets and Promoted Tweets while searching on Twitter. Too densely worded of a tweet might actually detract users from clicking on or sharing your tweet.
- People like free. Don’t be afraid to use the word “free” in your tweet. Your tweets already have a ‘sponsored’ label hanging off of them, so users know that your tweet is an advertisement. Users on the Web today expect giveaways, contests and promotions. While you should try to strike a balance between overt advertising and sharing interesting content and providing value for users with your Promoted Tweets, promotional offerings certainly have their place with Twitter advertising.
- Avoid being overly self-promotional. First of all, your brand is already built into your Promoted Tweet with prominent placement of your Twitter handle and icon. Also, you’re targeting new followers and an audience who hasn’t necessarily heard of your product or service. They’re going to follow or click through if they find your content engaging, not based on name recognition. Save your limited character count for words that will drive engagement, instead of including your company name and Twitter handle in your tweets.
- Include a call to action. With most social media marketing efforts, businesses are typically looking to drive traffic from their social networks to their websites. To that effect, make sure you’re encouraging users to interact with your content beyond the tweet, beyond your Twitter profile and beyond sharing. Encourage them to click through to your website, with both a call to action and a link. For example, one tweet variation that’s worked well for us is asking a compelling question, providing a call to action (e.g. “Download the guide) and including a link that aligns with the call to action.
- Appeal to a larger audience; don’t be too specific or technical. While you can narrow your target audience using specific ad criteria for each of your Promoted Tweets campaigns, you’re still going to be reaching a large audience with your tweets. Make sure you’re appealing to enough people by using language that’s in straightforward, layman’s terms rather than cluttering your tweet with jargon or too technical of terms. While it’s important to qualify your audience and make sure they’re your desired target, also make sure you’re attracting more than just a small segment of your target audience.
Check Back for More Updates
Want to learn more about Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts? You’re in luck! We’re finishing up our second month as a Twitter Promoted Products beta advertiser and have one more month to go. We’ll continue to document our progress and lessons along the way, so be sure to check back on Optify’s Lead Generation Blog and follow us on Twitter for frequent updates.
