Twitter has had a rough go with its revenues and marketing participation for about as long as it has offered specialized business tools. At the same time, the social media giant has among the largest user bases out there, which has – in and of itself – lured many companies. At the same time, Twitter has had massive problems with revenues, largely due to a failure to launch with respect to ad spending from its business users.
This does not mean that Twitter is entirely useless. Rather, plenty of entrepreneurial firms have had immense success with the platform, it is just a matter of using the social media to its strengths, and always keeping expectations in check. Twitter is an affordable and somewhat straightforward option that can be especially advantageous to the smallest companies, as creativity and a unique approach to brand messaging can quickly build some buzz in the marketplace.
Of course, this all begins with gaining a working knowledge of Twitter’s advertising offerings and best practices.
Lagging behind
Marketing Week recently pointed out that Twitter’s advertising options are simply not gaining the same type of steam seen among other social media companies, including Facebook and Snapchat, though it noted that the company did see 20 percent growth overall in the last fiscal quarter. For a comparison, the source affirmed that Facebook has more than two-thirds of the social media advertising market share currently, compared to the 7.9 percent Twitter has garnered.
After feeling pressure from investors – and apparently recognizing that the options they were putting forward simply were not getting the attention or budget as those of their competitors, it seems as though the social media giant is about to awaken to the challenge.
According to the news provider, Twitter’s Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey released a statement regarding the strategic changes being made, pointing to the establishment of tactics to make better use of the audience on the site, as well as perfecting metrics and analytics for advertisers. Furthermore, he added that the initial options might not have been as flexible as they needed to be to allow marketers the control and freedom they need to put forth a winning campaign on the website.
Unfortunately, some believe that this latest push might end with a zero sum.
“Despite Twitter’s offering becoming ‘more interesting’ for brands, these developments have been largely overshadowed by what competitors like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have rolled out,” Forrester Analyst Samantha Merlivat explained, according to Marketing Week. “Twitter’s latest initiatives feel like too little, too late.”
It is worth pointing out here that the social media platforms that are managing to bring in a tremendous amount of advertising revenues are getting extremely crowded as a result, and Twitter is still somewhat of a level, open playing field. This can benefit smaller companies immensely.
How to make it count
While Twitter works to overhaul its advertising tools, business leaders need not wait to begin capitalizing on the opportunities involved.
Here are a few ways to get some value out of Twitter today:
- Customer engagement: Use Twitter as a tool to cultivate valuable conversations among prospects and current clientele. Informative tweets and plenty of effort to actively engage users will be a win for smaller firms.
- Content amplifier: Once a strong following has been established, Twitter can be a perfect amplification system for all of the content the business is creating. Always share links to content through this site.
- Get guerilla: Guerilla marketing gets hot and cold from time to time, but a strong campaign that completely diverges from the norm and potentially goes viral can bolster a brand’s stature almost immediately.
As always, know the audience, and plan properly to ensure every bit of activity on Twitter is working toward a bigger objective. Want to see if Twitter would benefit your business?
