Tag Archives: twitter tips

How to add effective ‘calls to action’ to Twitter

Twitter, like all social networks, should be used to provide valuable content that followers find engaging and are happy to share. This builds awareness and helps grow an engaged audience, a percentage of whom will become customers over time.

Calls to action should be added to engaging content to encourage your customers to engage directly with you. For example, by entering a competition, signing up for your email newsletter, reading your blog or buying from you.

There are a number of ways you can add effective ‘calls to action’ to Twitter so here are five:

1) Use your Twitter header - Add a call to action to your Twitter header which should be 1500px x 500px. Make sure you leave a boundary of around 100px otherwise your text will be too close to the borders and may not be visible. ‘Follow me’ and ‘Tweet me’ are two example.

2) Add a link to your bio - Although there’s only 160 characters, there is enough room in your bio (description) to add a call to action with a link. For example, ‘Read my blog: <link>.’

3) Use Twitter cards - Use Twitter Lead Generation Cards which are part of Twitter’s advertising platform to drive action. The big advantage here is that people interested in your call to action, only have to click a button as Twitter uses the email address they already have for the user’s account. This leads to a good rate of conversion. Examples of call to actions you could use are ‘Win an iPad!’ and ‘Join my email list’. In the case of the latter, you can automatically add email addresses to your list by connecting your Twitter card to Mailchimp or a similar email service.

4) Tweet links - Include a links to landing pages in your tweets. You can encourage people to visit a custom made page by making your tweet a call to action and including a link to a landing page. Examples would include signing up for membership, downloading an app or buying a product.

5) Ask for a follow or retweet - If you have a good reason for people to follow or retweet you then ask them. For example, ask them to follow and or retweet to enter them into a draw or competition.

If you use any other call to actions on Twitter please add them to the Comments below.

For more Twitter Tips you’re welcome to read my 100 Twitter Tips.

5 great tips for using Twitter hashtags

Despite being around for four years now, big brands and small businesses could make better use of Twitter hashtags which can help raise awareness of their products and services as well as help grow their audience.

Twitter hashtags group conversations by topic, theme or subject and they’re also great for promoting events, running competitions and Tweet chats. You can create your own conversation or follow someone else’s. Selecting a hashtag has the same effect as entering it into the twitter.com Search field as search results for that hashtag, that is the conversation, are then displayed in a single stream.

Here are 5 tips to make the most of hashtags:

1) Make it concise and understandable - Ensure your hashtag is concise (maximum of 15 characters) but that it also conveys meaning and is easily understandable. #LetsDoLunch from Domino’s Pizza UK and #DenimPairs from ASOS UK (campaign launching this Friday) are good examples. There is little point in including your business or brand name as your account name will reflect that.

2) Use capital letters within hashtag - As illustrated by the hashtag examples in 1), it’s a good idea to use capital letters within hashtags to separate words, sometimes called CamelCase. This also prevents problems of misunderstanding as demonstrated by the hashtag - quickly corrected - that was used to promote Susan Boyle’s album at the end of last year.

We’re talking about Susan Boyle’s Album Launch Party, and noticed on Twitter this hashtag #susanalbumparty - look at it carefully..(I know!)

— BBC Radio 1 (@BBCR1) November 21, 2012

3) Spread the word - If you are using for an event, competition or draw then promote, promote, promote! Before an event ensure that all attendees are aware of the hashtag and display it on signage and screens at your event. Encourage them to tweet about the event before during and after. For competitions and draws use other social networks such as Facebook to promote…here’s an example for a great Twitter hashtag competition.

4) Use hashtags to encourage user generated content - Encourage engagement by asking your community to upload or post photos and videos accompanied by a hashtag. This makes their content easy to identify and works particularly well on image and video sites like Pinterest, Vine and Instagram. Yes, hashtags work on these sites too.

5) Not just on Twitter - Hashtags are generally associated with Twitter but they work in the same way on LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and Vine although not Facebook…yet. So don’t forget to use hashtags on these social networks too.

Bonus tip - you can view the conversation around any hashtag by using the following web address - http://twitter.com/<#hashtag>. For example, http://twitter.com/#GlosBiz.

For more help with Twitter for your business check out my regular Twitter workshops in Cheltenham. I can also come to you and provide in-house Twitter training.