by | Feb 6, 2015

Social media is critical to online marketing success. The strategic use of different social platforms can significantly expand your company’s reach, giving you access to new audiences.
Twitter is one of the best social media tools for achieving this goal.
Almost half of Canadian Internet-users have a Twitter account, according to a global web research firm. Users have access to 500 million new Tweets every day.
Standing out from the crowd largely depends on one thing: Tweeting interesting content that directly appeals to your target audiences. That’s why Twitter recently unveiled features that let you get more out of this platform.

Social Media - Core Online MarketingCreate Videos to Engage Your Followers

Tweets have evolved from simple 140-character messages. When users scroll through their timelines (the stream of Tweets they see from users they follow), they’re immersed in a variety of content. Tweets are bolstered with images, audio clips, and Vines (six-second looping videos).
Twitter has unveiled its unique answer to video. On the mobile app, users can seamlessly capture, refine, and share videos up to 30 seconds. Clips appear as thumbnails and start playing with a tap.
The feature adds a new dimension to live-Tweeting; going to an event and writing regular updates. With video, sharing your perspective of an event, speech, or anything that happens in the course of a day will have a greater chance of engaging other users.
In fact, multimedia Tweets – such as ones that include videos or photos – get 35% more retweets than those that are text-based. In other words, you’ll reach many more users by creating original videos.

Start Group Direct Messages for Personal Interaction

Twitter users have always had to choose between wholly public or private interaction.
You can either make your Tweets public or change your settings so others have to request permission to see them. No in-between option like Facebook’s “Friends of Friends” setting.
Two Twitter users can also talk through direct messages, which only they can read.
This strict distinction is now changing.
With Twitter’s new direct messaging system, you can start private conversations with up to 20 people, including those who don’t follow each other. This feature gives you new ways to market yourself and your business.
If you are at a tradeshow, and people in attendance are Tweeting about it using a certain hashtag (a searchable phrase marked by “#” at the beginning), you can now start a private group discussion inviting them to your booth or promoting a deal. You are now personally interacting with one of your target  markets.
You can also use this new feature to set up face-to-face meetings or discuss specialized products and services with specific groups of people. Essentially, it gives you another valuable way to engage target audience members.

What Does the Future Hold?

Twitter has other innovations in store. In the near future, your Tweets will have more power to reach potential buyers.
Near the end of 2014, the company announced it was exploring a way to put Tweets on users’ timelines from accounts they don’t follow. Based on engagement history, people will see relevant content posted by anyone.
This means that creating interesting posts will be more important than ever. If you post original material, audience members across the globe will see it.
Strategically taking advantage of these  new Twiiter features will ehance your overall online marketing efforts – and ultimately results.
>> Core Online Marketing is an outsourced digital marketing agency with expertise in content creation, social media, SEO, email marketing, and much more! Contact us or sign up for our free online marketing seminar.

Like this? You might also like:

Ben Molfetta
Latest posts by Ben Molfetta (see all)