TwitterTop Tips and Best Practice

Corinna Jones23/04/2015| @corriejones24

What makes a good tweet?• Grammatically correct and in clear,

concise language

• You’ve got 140 characters, but statistics show that for best engagement your tweet should be 71-100 characters

• Mention other Twitter handles

• Include a link to direct users to another source of information

• Use a relevant hashtag, which trendjacksonto what others are talking about or links to a University campaign

What makes a good tweet?• Format: Engaging picture or video content

– Tweets with images receive 94% more retweets, 89% more favourites, 18% more clicks

– 80% of Twitter usage in the UK in on mobile devices – your image shouldn’t be too large or it will take too long to load

• Content: Be aware of your audience - stop and think whether this is a topic they would want to read about

Content tips

• Be aware of the difference between ‘Tweets’ and ‘Tweets and replies’!

– Any tweet that starts with a Twitter handle is a direct tweet, and will show in the ‘Tweets and replies’ section of your page

– Its social reach will be limited to the one account you sent it to

– Start your tweet with text, rather than a Twitter handle

Content tips• You cannot use punctuation in a hashtag

– Drop . , / & - ‘ “ ! ? £ from your hashtags

• Any text contained in a tweet will appear in a Twitter search

– Think about using keywords as well as hashtags

• Refer to the Communications and Marketing Editorial style guide for help with writing in an appropriate tone of voice for the University

Think about when to post

• The point of Twitter is for content to be relevant and timely

• Look at what’s trending and how this can relate to us

Think about when to post• B2C engagement and CTRs

are highest on weekends and Wednesday - Quicksprout

• Takeaway lessons:

– Wednesday and Friday could be good days for ‘big’ posts

– You need to post regularly for best engagement – we post everyday from the corporate channel

– Will students want to see lots of posts about the University on a weekend?

Think about when to post• According to Twitter, users

are 181% more likely to be on Twitter during their commute

• Users are 119% more likely to use Twitter during school or work hours

• Takeaway lesson:

– Think about when your users are online –lunchtime, between lectures (e.g. 12.45-1pm)

5 questions to ask yourself before you post to your social media channels - Hootsuite

Look at what others are doing• What are competitors

posting about?

• What works in their posts and what doesn’t?

• What lessons can we take from this?

• Look outside of the Higher Education sector

– BBC News (UK) elections coverage

Take advantage of the free tools available• Followerwonk: Find, Analyse and Optimise for Social Growth

• #onemilliontweetmap: Visualise tweets and aggregated Twitter data in a world map

• Klout: A ranking based on your social authority - know what your online impact is

• Bitly: A free link shortener – save characters and measure click throughs

• 59 free Twitter tools – navigate this list by analytics, chats, discovery, follow/unfollow, mentions & monitoring, scheduling, timing, trending topics, twitter clients, other

Useful accounts to follow@simplymeasured

@moblized_social

@buffer

@mashable

@jasongor_don

@marketingcloud

@boomdgtl

@spinxdigital

@hootsuite

@Smexaminer

@addthis

• Use Twitter itself to find and read interesting articles and blog posts

• This is an easy, bite-sized way to stay up to date with trends in social media marketing

• Takeaway lesson:

– Search for #SocialMediaMarketing on Twitter and have a read

Behind @unisouthampton• Our Twitter account has 29,658 followers

– 56% male, 44% female

– 91% have their official language set as English

• Our social aims are in support of the University’s C&M strategy

– The content we tweet must maintain and build our reputation with students (current and prospective), staff, alumni and partners

– We tweet several times a day (6 maximum) and aim to respond to messages within 2-3 hours

• We use SocialSignIn to manage posts, monitor our inbox, and analyse campaigns

– This is a paid dashboard, other free options are available

Any questions?Corinna Jonesc.jones@soton.ac.uk