Already connected in the ecosystem of the Internet of Things, Twitter offers vast potential for IoT companies to engage, and encourage customers and prospects to pay attention to their brand. After all, Twitter is fun, addicting and a social media channel too large to ignore. Roughly 316 million active monthly users post 500+ million Tweets per day, with 80 percent of these users on mobile, as of June 30, 2015. How often do you check your timeline to see what’s happening? A recent Pew Research study reports that 63 percent of U.S. adults on Twitter use the platform for news.
While building and growing your Twitterverse, here are new features that enhance IoT storytelling, as well as proven principles to keep in mind:
New Twitter features
- Moments. The lightning bolt tab on your twitter feed pulls together top tweets around the biggest news stories and trending topics. Twitter calls it “nothing but net.” Consider Moments as potential social newsjacking opportunities (8 Ways to Make IoT Newsjacking Work for Your Company). If they’re relevant, Tweet images, video clips or GIFs from your IoT market.
- Curator. The Curator tool helps publishers and brands find the best tweets to feature in their content.
- Embedded Collection Timeline. Instead of a roll call format, publish and highlight a collection of Tweets displayed edge-to-edge on your website in a grid or list template.
- Twitter polls. Create a two-choice poll and invite your followers to vote using Twitter. It’s a creative way to engage your followers, solicit feedback on your products and encourage sharing.
Twitter Best Practices
- Listen and observe.Use twitter.com to find businesses you admire (or compete with) and observe what’s great and what’s not about their Twitter stream.
- Remember 80/20. 80 percent of your Tweets should engage with your followers via retweets, replies, favorites and non-promotional content. The remaining Tweets can include promotions or requests to click on a link.
- Test and learn. Analytics can tell when it’s the best time to engage your followers, as well as which content elicits a response.
- Watch your timeline. Don’t re-tweet the same information three times in a row. #Enough is #enough #annoying!
Did you know? According to a Twitter Customer Insight Study, 50 percent of Twitter followers visited a websites of the SMBs they follow and 60 percent purchased something because of what they saw on Twitter.
Twitter can be great a social media channel, if done correctly. If you’re interested in learning how your company can use Twitter and other social media tools for increased visibility in the IoT space, contact Marissa Evans at mevans@calysto.com.
