Creating a Twitter Strategy to Build ROI

The first question that is probably running through your mind right now is, “how can writing only 140 characters improve ROI?” Well, you need to create a Twitter strategy, as part of your social media strategy, by utilizing the tools that Twitter offers. The great thing about Twitter is that everyone is on the same playing field; you along with your competition only have 140 characters to share a valuable message with your audience while still staying true to your brand’s image. The 140 characters that stand out and build ROI are the ones that have a sound social media strategy behind them.

Value Behind 140 Characters
Within those 140 characters, reflect who you are as a company and what your primary goals are. Tweet content that will be valuable to the reader 80% of the time and for 20% of the time, tweet about what’s happening in your business. For example, part of your social media strategy is creating a Twitter campaign to promote a new product or service is a valuable way to draw in an audience and start a conversation that will result in ROI.

# Properly
A common mistake is hashtagging every word – this is an obvious way to show your audience that you don’t know what you’re doing. Hashtags were created to link what you’re tweeting with discussions others are having on Twitter and used to track those conversations. Hashtagging every word or hashtagging an entire sentence will not bring more you more followers. However, when hashtagging properly you can quickly become part of different discussions and build you’re following to then drive ROI.

Drive Traffic Back to Your Website
Social media platforms are used as tools to drive traffic back to your website to then improve ROI. A strategy to direct an audience back to your website is to tweet inbound links, but keep in mind SEO. When using keywords, and properly hashtagging those keywords, you are increasing your SEO. Use keywords, but also remember to place inbound links back to sections of your website that are appropriate with what you’re tweeting about.

Create a Following
Begin building your business from creating a Twitter strategy, as part of your social media strategy, by first following companies and people within your industry. Utilize the #Discover button to search for people, industries and topics of relevance. By doing this, you will see what others are discussing and by simply retweeting or tweeting directly at those businesses, you are becoming part of the conversation. Being involved in conversations will draw attention to your company and create a following of your own. Without a following, you cannot drive traffic back to your website, build credibility, and therefore, you cannot generate ROI. So, reach out and start a conversation and be a part of the conversation.

Publish Interesting and Useful Content
As mentioned in our previous blog, “5 Ways to Develop a Business-to-Business Facebook Strategy That Works,” content is key. Remember you are always posting for engagement and thinking about how the content you share provides value to the reader. Sharing information is done the most and it is the easiest on Twitter through retweeting tweets or tweeting directly someone. Content needs to be interesting to generate retweeting or rather a Twitter conversation. Retweets will lead to more exposure, SEO, credibility, and ROI.

Five Key Social Media Takeaways:

1. Use the 140 characters wisely to create content/campaigns that are worth others sharing
2. Find discussions happening on Twitter that are related to your industry and use hashtags to link your content with those discussions #Discover
3. Link content back to your website
4. Become part of the conversation by retweeting and tweeting valuable content to build a larger audience
5. Create content that is valuable and interesting for the reader

About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.