Chapter 4: Twitter

Chapter 4 from “Social Media Marketing Workbook” is about using Twitter for a company account. Twitter is the social media site known for micro blogging. Everything posted on the site is short 140 characters or less. Something that sets Twitter apart from other social sites is that you and the other account do not have to agree to follow each other unless you set restrictions on your account. For a business account that is not ideal, you will want anyone to be able to find you. For personal accounts, it is nice to be able to approve those who follow you. However, either way you do not have to follow them back and they do not have to follow you.

One thing I agreed with in this chapter is the point that Twitter is noisy. Things are posted very quickly and with short content. It is crazy full of information. They compare Twitter to listening to a talk radio show. News on Twitter develops quickly and can spread like wildfire if it gets to the trending list. At every moment, there is a list of 20 things that are trending. It can be world-wide or local but these thousands of posts all have something in common which is a hashtag.

   

A hashtag is something that my generation is so used to that they have issues explaining what it is. I know this personally when my grandma asked me to explain what it was to her and I was lost for words. The simplest way is how they have it stated in the book “it indicates a keyword or theme and is clickable in a tweet” (pg. 146). Having it laid out for me makes it so I want to go back and better explain it to her. Or better yet I should let her read this chapter. Hashtags can be very simple or very complex, but the simpler they are the more likely people will use it because they can remember it and it does not use their characters up. Hashtags are not required to post on Twitter but it is ideal for a company’s post. They make it easier to have conversations and continue talking with your group.

A piece of advice that I found useful from this chapter is talking to someone who has more followers than you, but is in the same industry. Their followers can see those posts and could become interested in your company from seeing it. It is a good way to gain followers. For someone with a personal account this would be like mentioning a famous person’s account. Plus, if they respond you gain a friend in the industry and you both can do things to help each other out.

Twitter is great for quick news and responses. Having an account for your company means you can interact with your market and the other companies with in it. Having an active Twitter, especially with interesting content like videos or funny posts will gain interest in your company.