When you think of Twitter, what comes to mind? It’s not just a platform to express unfiltered opinions and share humorous videos and memes, but rather, it’s an excellent opportunity to listen to an audience, competitors, and news surrounding a myriad of industries – a great social media marketing tool. Regardless of what you’re using Twitter for, it’s useful to monitor for news and trends by searching for relevant keywords, mentions, hashtags, and URLs – taking the traditional Google search to a whole new level. Let’s dive deeper into ways to best amplify your social media marketing by utilizing Twitter to monitor for relevant industry trends and listen in real time to what people have to say.
Keywords & trending topics. One of Twitter’s strongest assets is the ability to see what’s trending in real time by a large, broad population. Plain and simple, staying plugged in to news and trending hashtags provides the opportunity to listen to what key individuals and companies have to say, and grab breaking news in real time. There is a great opportunity to jump in and position yourself, brand, or company in a relevant, thought provoking way. At the beginning of the pandemic, @NJGov decided to share more lighthearted, relatable content to encourage social distancing. The team shared a tweet reminding everyone to keep one “Springsteen of space,” measuring out six feet. This tweet was relevant, yet humorous and provided a relatable photo to its audience. Plus, it gained more traction and provided its audience with something to talk about. “Trendjacking” is a great way to get in front of new audiences while keeping your current followers engaged, and even drive traffic to a page.
Utilize key features. The Twitter world is extremely populated, but its advanced search feature opens up a new avenue to customize and control relevant content. With the advanced search, you could dig deeper and be as specific as you want, searching for verbatim phrases, exclusions, particular hashtags, places, and more. It can help you understand an industry at large, its audience and competitors. It is also a way to discover new trends and important discussions and simply, it provides a glimpse into what an audience cares about. In terms of competitors, it’s beneficial to see what they’re doing and how they’re communicating with target audiences. The advanced search feature can reveal how receptive the audience is, further noting what’s working and what isn’t.
Listen before you speak. Overall, listening on Twitter is everything. Pay close attention to who is engaging with you, but also how others are engaging with each other. Especially during a time with such a loaded news cycle, it’s critical to be attuned to what is going on in the world in real time, to ensure an individual and company is being as sensitive as possible. When it comes to monitoring for a brand, in addition to listening to news and trending topics, make sure to keep a close eye on mentions – positive and negative. Timing is important, and can overt a potential crisis waiting to happen. Addressing all comments and questions in a timely manner is key, which is why tracking and monitoring who is talking about you and why, matters.
Social media, particularly Twitter, is a strong force not to be reckoned with. With all of the platforms and tools we have access to today, it’s hard to imagine a world without it and the myriad of benefits attached to it. With that being said, we must fully utilize and take advantage of all there is to offer. Why? Just by listening, it could be helpful when it comes to placing your brand in trending topics and relevant news, listen to what an audience is saying in real time, and lastly, evaluate what competitors are doing and how you could get ahead.
Ready to jumpstart your social media marketing efforts? Work with us – [email protected].
