When it comes to social media, there’s no limit to what a brand can achieve if done correctly. From coordinated campaigns that work cross-platform to stand-alone posts that go viral, each online marketing strategy should be well thought out and calculated to have the best impact.

At Myk Baxter Marketing, North East UK’s most popular digital marketing agencies and website development consultancies, we are big believers in new technology and new platforms that come with it. 

As the world keeps their life in their pocket on a device the size of a palm, every business has almost endless access to an audience – an audience the size of the world at their fingertips. 

In this series, published over the next few weeks, we will provide a short guide on how to use specific types of social media to grow your brand and make the most of what the digital marketing world can offer. 

This week, we’re looking at Twitter, and how it can be used by businesses and business owners to leverage a brand, its products, services and everything in between.

Twitter for Business Growth

Twitter, which first hit the digital world in 2006, has changed a lot. The iconic 140 character length has now been doubled to 280 and threads now allow users to string related tweets together into a longer idea. 

To all who say long-form advertising is dead – you’re not wrong, but you’re not right either. For twitter, a single 280 character tweet can have as much impact as a 10-post thread. What makes it successful is the timing, the quality of the content and the execution.

Given that the platform has grown to accommodate more words, it’s no surprise that there is much more high-quality writing and content on the platform than ever before. Basically put, twitter has transformed over the years into a micro-blogging platform.

Peer to Peer Interactions on Twitter

Before we get into the details, to grow a brand on Twitter, you need to understand how the average twitter user interacts with the brands they want to follow. At Myk Baxter Marketing, we have realised that people on Twitter follow other people more than they follow brands. We also know that people like accounts that are consistent and predictable.

That’s why at MBM we help bring a human voice to brands to bridge the gap between soulless corporate marketing and soulful human expression. We’re social creatures after all so what’s to say we can’t interact with a brand in a social way?

Take the recent caterpillar cake debacle in the UK where M&S logged a legal complaint against Aldi due to their caterpillar cake that looked remarkably similar to their trademarked chocolate sponge log cake, Colin the Caterpillar. 

The war of Cuthbert and Colin was headline news, but mostly due to the two brands, and others jumping on the bandwagon. Tweets began to emerge not from a corporate mouthpiece but from a human behind a computer screen. 

“Hey Marks and Spencer we’re taking a stand against caterpillar cruelty. Can Colin and Cuthbert be besties?” said Aldi on Twitter as an attempt to calm the storm.

M&S swiftly responded “”Hey @AldiUK we love a charity idea (Colin’s been a BIG fundraiser for years). We just want you to use your own character. How about #kevinthecarrotcake? That idea’s on us… and we promise we won’t do Keith.”

Although some criticised the M&S brand for not joining forces for charity, the whole event was approached in a very personal and relatable way. Whether the drama is warranted or not, there’s no doubt that the personal approach gets people talking, following, interacting and shopping. 

So How Do I Grow My Business on Twitter?

Making the most of your business’ Twitter presence depends a lot on your brand’s tone and style. However, as mentioned above, more and more brands see the benefit of going off-tone to interact in a more natural way. M&S’s tone is notoriously high-brow, but on twitter they’re just like the rest of us. 

But whatever you choose to Tweet and however you choose to Tweet it, remember that to get people engaged, following and interacting with your brand you need to Tweet constantly, about a similar topic when possible and engaging in conversations with your audience about said topic. 

And although Twitter feels like you need to be Tweeting several times a day, the truth is the median Twitter users posts only once per month, with the most prolific of brands posting around 157 times per month. At MBM, we like to sit somewhere in the middle when providing social media marketing services. 

The truth is, the more you Tweet, the more impressions you will receive and the faster you will grow. With the right approach, your tweets that get retweeted will become even more powerful and now that the Twitter algorithm is expanding the reach of tweets beyond someone’s followers – the chances have significantly improved for brands looking to grow on the platform. 

At Myk Baxter Marketing, we can help tailor your Twitter strategies to best suit your brand. Witty, on-point tweets that get people laughing to dedicated twitter community building opportunities, we look to get people following “people” – and by “people” we mean brands that interact like real people. Find out more by visiting www.mykbaxtermarketing.com today.