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The expert Logos Communications Team considers Twitter an integral part of any organization’s social media strategy. Why? The reach of the platform (founded in 2006 and growing exponentially ever since) is expansive! Here are just a few statistics that underpin our conclusion.

• Twitter generated $3.7 billion revenue in 2020, an 8.8% increase year-on-year. (And please note that the expected 2021 Twitter growth, according to the company leaders, will surpass this, for a variety of reasons related to demographic shifts, the ongoing “work from home” revolution, and the rise of millennials as a significant portion of the business population).
• Eighty-six percent of Twitter’s revenue came from business advertising in 2020. That is advertising from all business sectors and vertical markets, and businesses of all sizes. Are your competitors using Twitter? We would suggest you check on that, as you do your media competitive analysis (which we recommend you revisit, potentially with our help, quarterly at a minimum).
• Twitter did post a net loss of $1.1 billion in 2020. This was the company’s first annual loss since 2017; but that loss reflects massive investments the company is making in new technology, new acquisitions, new consolidated digital platforms. Keep your eyes peeled. We think Twitter is about to come roaring back in 2022, as its innovative technology investments bear fruit.
• And the most important reason for small and medium-sized businesses that our team believes to pay attention to this social media platform? Twitter has 180 million daily active users and 38 million users in the United States. In other words, almost 20% of U.S. adults use and pay attention to Twitter, daily.

So, if you agree and are going to post on Twitter, may we offer a few suggestions?

First, remember Twitter is a SHORT-FORM platform. When Twitter first started, there was a mandated 140-character limit. In the last few years, it has increased to 280-characters. The research companies who measure social media effectiveness, though, remind us that eloquent brevity is key.

So, the Logos recommendation is to limit yourself to less than 150 characters. Additionally, if you are interested in your post being easily RE-TWEETED, (which is one of the secrets to obtaining far more “reach” for your tweets), you must leave room so that the user re-tweeting you has enough characters for his/her comment, and your tweet can still be seen and easily consumed by the audience that person reaches.

Secondly, most veteran “Tweeters” monitor the best times for Tweeting. There appears to be a consensus among the social media platform research groups. Want your Tweet seen by the maximum number of people? Here are two main recommendations for timing in order of efficacy:

1. 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. – EST – That is the best median time, even if your targeted user lives in Colorado, or New Mexico, or anywhere outside of EDT. You can experiment with different time targets, but we bet you will find this to be a solid recommendation.
2. 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. – EST

Third, do NOT use an automated tool (like Buffer) for your tweets. We understand this could be considered controversial. But Twitter’s algorithm does not want to promote automated tweets, over tweets published by real humans who are posting in real-time, and therefore, responding to other tweets in real-time. That is simply the fact. So, if you are going to use the platform, regularly, use your automated calendar as a reminder, and take the 2-4 minutes to publish your Tweet in real-time.

Fourth, Twitter was created to be a friendly, collaborative platform, in its essence. Avoid negativity. Avoid disinformation. Use solid information sources. And feel free to respond to others by retweeting their key messages, when they are germane to your messages, or part of your value proposition. Consider tagging other users, who are influencers.

Finally, try and become an expert at getting your key messages retweeted by others. How do you do that? Tag others who might be interested in your subject matter. Try a daily scheduling process when you have something particularly important to say.  The social media measurement gurus assure us that the first hour of a tweet has the highest impact, but the life of a tweet is 24 hours. So, retweeting your morning tweet two-three more times in a day, provided it is eloquent and memorable, helps your Tweet reach its maximum potential. Without retweets, a tweet simply fizzles and dies a much quicker death.

One social media authority recently gave us some very solid advice that we want to pass on. “Retweets are a hidden economy,” he told us. If necessary, you can purchase retweets from big accounts to build your audience faster. You can also join Twitter groups and retweet others’ tweets. If you do that, his advice was that you should retweet those, later in the evening. Then remove the retweets the next day. You can trade tweets in offline marketplaces. You can get people or businesses to pay you to retweet their content if your missions jive with theirs.

The cliche saying “all boats rise together” is the essence of Twitter. It is faster to grow an audience on Twitter when you join with like-minded people. So, take the time to research affinity groups, individuals and influencers who can collaborate with you on your mission and vision, and become part of your online community. Logos has clients in many vertical markets. As an example, we would suggest that health/wellness organizations look for the thousands of health-oriented groups and large influencers to follow, retweet, and eventually reach out to.

We can help with all of this, and much more, when it comes to social media marketing. Contact us to learn more.