Twitter Website Cards - Basics!

They say that “a picture paints a thousand words,” and Twitter’s recently unveiled “website cards” might just show that statement to be true.

Available on both desktop and mobile, Twitter cards allow marketers to add media to tweets – meaning businesses now have additional space to add content to. Users can attach photos, videos and media to Tweets that drive traffic to their website. Users simply have to add a few lines of HTML to their webpage, and those who Tweet links to that content will have a “Card” added to the Tweet that’s visible to all of their followers.

The website card allows users to easily discover interesting content while giving advertisers the ability to drive a higher volume of clicks since users are able to preview an image, related content, etc.

Website cards can be used to drive traffic to your website’s homepage, a product page or a specific landing page, perhaps giving your audience a little preview, or further information about what they will find when they click through.

Business users of website cards can use a range of targeting options based on signals including keywords or tailored market segments. The website cards can also be used in conjunction with conversion tracking to measure the end-to-end conversion from a Tweet engagement / Twitter campaign through to a user making a purchase or signing up to say, a newsletter.

The main reason these cards are useful is that they can be used to create a “call to action”. If you get your content and marketing message right, you should be able to improve your click-through rates to your website.

You will need an advertiser account on Twitter to start creating website cards. Twitter has now made its advertiser platform available for businesses in the UK, USA, Canada, Ireland, South Africa and a few other countries.  The website cards are pretty easy to create but it is worth noting that:

•               Maximum image size is 1 MB

•               Minimum required image height is 96 pixels

•               Minimum required image width is 240 pixels

•               Minimum of 5:2 aspect ratio required (An image of 640 pixels x 256 pixels). 

Hashtags - Getting More Exposure on Social Media

Hashtags were first created by an early Twitter user as a way to keep up with new abbreviations and trending phrases. While they were originally implemented into the Twitter platform, hashtags can now be used across a wide variety of social media sites. The proliferation of hashtags is truly incredible. What began on Twitter has now spread to Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Google search, and almost everywhere in between.

In short, a hashtag is a word or phrase that is preceded by a number sign, in the form of #keyword. Hashtags are commonly a single word, something like #marketing, but sometimes they can be comprised of an entire phrase, like KitKat's #HaveABreak.

When you're using hashtags in your content, you're identifying the most important and popular keywords to highlight. Users are able to search through social media, both on individual platforms and on third-party websites which scan many different news streams, and find you or your message by the hashtags you've associated with it.

Two types of hashtags

There are essentially two types of hashtags: those that consumers can identify with your brand, and hashtags that are currently trending.

Hashtags which represent your brand are the ones you should be focusing on in the long-term. These are phrases that should be highlighted on a regular basis in your posts and tweets, and will serve as the foundation of your hashtag marketing strategy.

Trending hashtags are phrases that are really popular on social media and have the possibility to bring you a lot of online profile in a short period of time. While Twitter provides the most popular hashtags directly on its site, other websites like Sprout and Trendsmap can make it easy to find out what words and phrases are trending across various different social media platforms. It's important to keep it relevant. Make sure your hashtag is related to your post content. Using one or two keywords and phrases in your posts is acceptable, but refrain from putting too many in there at once. Not only does this take away from the content you’re actually trying to promote, but it can also push consumers away who see the practice as unprofessional.

Which hashtags to use

Websites such as Hashtagify.me and Twellow.com are great tools which have lots of data you can use to analyse hashtags. These tools allow you to identify which are the most popular or relevant hashtags. When you type in a hashtag, these services will show you other hashtags to consider and will display how popular each hashtag is and how closely it correlates to the original. This information is invaluable to business people who want to promote their products and services over social media. By using keywords that are truly relevant to your product, service, or even just your target market, you can connect with a wide range of prospective customers.

Understanding Twitter Analytics To Get You Results

I f you want to improve, you have to measure your results to see what isn’t working and, more importantly, what is.

The good thing is, if you have a Twitter account set up, you can view your analytics for FREE.

‘Why do I need to see my analytics?’ you might be wondering. As with every other marketing strategy, you should be evaluating the results so you can prioritise your time on strategies that give you the results you want.

Image Source: PanoramaStock

And everything is displayed simply on your screen so you don’t have to be a marketing expert to understand what pieces of data to dig out.

Twitter shows you everything so you can really get to know your audience and see what they like. It’s no use just presuming what content they like from you.

It’s crucial that your audience appreciate your content or you’ll notice that nobody seems interested in your services.

Here’s how to access your analytics dashboard:

• Sign into your Twitter account
• Next, visit ads.twitter.com. It will automatically link your account to this page
• Across the top of your screen will be Campaigns, Creatives, Analytics and Tools.

You only need to focus on the Analytics section for the information that tells you everything you need to know.

From there, you can view:
• Followers
• Tweet activity

1. From the followers section, you can view your followers’ demographics, interests and gender.

Why is this important?

If all of your followers are from a location far away, then you know that they probably aren't going to be potential clients. (Instead, you can re-focus your content to talk about the industry.)

If this is the case, you may also want to target Twitter users who are from your location.

You can also evaluate the pace at which your account is growing (by that, I mean the rate at which you are getting more followers).

If you hover over each segment of the section called Your current follower audience size, you can see the speed at which your account is growing.

Followers increase is great news, but remember that the data only makes a difference if it is what
you want.

Check the analytics for the main language of your audience.

Check whether your audience are potential clients. If the analytics show that most of your followers spoke French(when your potential clients are English), you have to change the way you target users. 

2. Tweet activity

This part of the analytics is probably the most important. Your content is the core of your social media presence.

If your followers don’t like your content, then they probably won’t be interested in your services.

Just to break it down, here’s what Impressions and Engagements mean.
Impressions are the number of times users saw your tweet on their timeline.
Engagements are the total number of times a user has interacted with your tweet. For example, a retweet, favourite or reply.

Tweet with an image have more engagements than just text.

The goal is to have more engagement. If people just see your tweet and do nothing with it (i.e. retweet, reply or favourite it), you need to restructure your content strategy.

Let’s recap on the key points for maximising your Twitter presence.

Once a week, or every fortnight, look at your Twitter analytics to evaluate what is working. Rather than focussing on the bad, focus on what gets you results. And keep doing that.

Look at what types of tweets get more engagement. Do images perform better? Or text? And if text, what type of content? Informative? Jokes? Business advice?

Social media is forever evolving. So you may need to review your strategy every few Months.

How To Have A Social Media Presence Without Being Present?

Running a social media strategy as well as being a business owner will only lead to stress and sleepless nights.  But everyone is on social media, right? Even the Pope.

You need to strike the balance between informative and annoying. Studies show the optimal postings for the two most popular networking sites are:

Twitter: 3 posts, daily
Facebook: 5 posts, weekly

Doesn’t require a lot of effort, does it? But finding free time is any business owner’s challenge, so you need a method of having active accounts, without it taking hours and feeling like a chore. 

Welcome to scheduling. It’s a strange thought that people can tweet without actually being behind the screen at the time, but it’s a time-saving approach to social media marketing.

Having a consistent online presence is a necessary part of marketing, but you don’t want to be doing it every day.

So which schedule tool should you use?

TWITTER

1. Tweetdeck

https://web.tweetdeck.com/

For Tweetdeck newbies, this is your new best friend when it comes to developing your Twitter presence.

You don’t have to create an account; just sign in with your Twitter logins and you’re off - no email confirmation required. And it’s free! Music to everyone’s ears.

You can plan posts into the far future. Ideal for those who have a lot to say. A huge pro is that Tweetdeck’s layout looks similar to Twitter (probably because Twitter bought it in 2011).

At any time, you can log back in and amend scheduled tweets or delete them. This is a great idea if something you have scheduled is no longer accurate or relevant. You can keep track of when your posts are, too, if you log in often.

HOW TO USE IT

1. Visit https://web.tweetdeck.com

2. Sign in using your Twitter login details

3. Click ‘New Tweet’

- Select your account

- Type your tweet you want scheduling

- Click ‘Schedule Tweet’

- Select the relevant date and time

- Once you’ve proofread, click ‘Tweet at…’-

TIPS

- Don’t be confused by all the columns. The beauty of Tweetdeck is that you can see your direct messages, timeline, notifications and messages all on one screen. Delete all the columns apart from ‘Scheduled’ to tidy up your dashboard.

- Scroll to the right of the page, so you can just focus on the Scheduled column. Here you will see all the tweets you have planned for the future.

- If you have multiple accounts, you can add them all. You can even post the same content across all accounts easily, by selecting all the accounts.

- Don’t forget to add an image with your text, too. Just select the ‘Add Image’ option, before submitting the tweet.

- Once you become an expert, utilise all the columns by monitoring what your followers are retweeting and your notifications.

FACEBOOK

1. Facebook

www.facebook.com

Even avid social media users don’t know you can use Facebook to schedule posts and many are paying for services that do no different.

Using Facebook to schedule is free and you can prepare a post using the same process as posting normally. You can only automate on a page, not a personal account. Again, you can see your scheduled posts and amend or delete them at any time.

HOW TO USE IT

1. Sign into your Facebook page.

2. Type the post you want scheduling. Do not click ‘Post’.

3. Click on the clock symbol.

4. Select the date from the calendar and choose the time you want the post scheduling.

5. Click on ‘Schedule’ once you’re happy with your post.

TIPS

- With a 63,000 character limit, utilise this space with detailed posts.

- You can schedule up to 6 months ahead, so plan time-relevant posts, such as Christmas.

- Be consistent with your postings. Aim for at least 5 a week.

- Avoid newsworthy content, because for the date you’ve scheduled it, it will no longer be news.

- Select your times wisely. People are more likely to see your post at 7am, when they are waking up, than 9pm on a Friday night. Target locations will also play a part. 

It’s tempting to rush scheduling, but your followers will notice if you’ve just posted anything. Interesting posts about the industry, links to your service and entertaining posts will vary your content and make your account interesting.

Be wary of posting at the same time and day across your accounts, because you want to mix it up a bit.

Scheduling makes life easier, but don’t neglect your accounts. Regularly checking notifications and interacting with your followers will further improve your social media marketing.

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