Twitter marketing not generating leads? Then change your content.

Here’s a thought… six years ago if you had asked me what ‘Twitter’ was, I would have probably replied: ‘the standard means of communication between two small birds!’ or something along those lines (I know, hilarious…) so it really is crazy to think that as Twitter enters only its 6th year of existence, it boasts the following level of worldwide popularity…

• 500 million active users
• Over 340 million tweets DAILY!
• Over 1.6 billion search queries every single day

Since its launch, Twitter has grown in popularity consistently and remarkably yet it is only in the last couple of years that businesses have started to really capitalise on the revenue opportunity that Twitter presents to them.

# Tag Heaven…

For example, you can’t watch the box now without being presented with a series of #tags related to whatever is on at that time! News reporters’ names are presented at the beginning of a report with their @name as standard and adverts include requests to ‘Like’ Facebook pages, follow @names and share #tags. So within seconds of a show airing, an advert running or a news report being delivered, ripples of opinion, points of view and content rich material echo across the Twittersphere like a tsunami of truly biblical proportions and it spreads FAST! From one end of the globe to the other and all of that in what is quite literally a matter of seconds! The social benefits of information being made so openly available and communication being encouraged in this way seem obvious even if the lingo etc can be a little alien, especially for a first time user looking to start their own personal account. But what is so often overlooked are the business opportunities that social networking (and not just Twitter) present, which are just as, if not even more, exciting.

Don’t just make it look nice, DRIVE optimisation

For any forward thinking business owner / entrepreneur looking to increase revenue, grow their business and plan for the future, a comprehensive online strategy is essential and this goes far beyond an all-singing, all-dancing website. Having a Twitter account, a Facebook page and even a Pinterest account are paramount to success and these should definitely be incorporated into any plans. The key here though (and a constant theme of this post) is content and what I mean by that is, as interesting as it might be to know what the weather is like in your area, or how the view is out of your office window, your social media strategy should be anchored to a strong backbone of content that is shareable, high quality, original and makes prospective clients want to engage with you.

“We are not cisterns made for hoarding… we are channels made for sharing” Billy Graham

Many businesses do a degree of web optimisation for themselves and improve their websites to drive more traffic / generate more new business enquiries. All well and good, but without a well thought out social networking strategy, built to not only support but drive website growth whilst spreading awareness, you may as well be taking a knife to a gun fight! Industry news, blog posts and product reviews all make for great reading but you can do more to make that content work hard for you.

Let’s say you have 5,000 site visits a month on average, these are the 5,000 potential opportunities your online strategy currently commands. If you were to then share these articles on Twitter with say your 500 followers, this then opens up your services to another 500 potential new customers. Nice and easy but unfortunately that’s usually where the trail ends. You have cast your line and now you’re with all the other fishermen / women waiting for a bite. Well you could wait…

OR you can toss a grenade into the pond!

By exploring the option to have rich content written for you by a professional agency, one that employs journalists and not just copywriters, you are now in a position to engage your target audience on a whole new level! Suddenly, of those 500 followers, let’s say 12 RT the information / articles you have posted. Said material is now in front of an additional 2,000 followers with minimal effort and you have increased the exposure of your business by at least 50%. What’s more, if it’s good content, your Tweets, FB posts and Pins will gain more and more momentum as your business grows which will mean more followers, more RTs and more shares. So ultimately more new business.

That’s just one example of the power of Twitter and just some of the social networking avenues that are available to you right now. But as I touched on above, the key here really is in the content - you need to keep your audience engaged with rich, interesting and fresh information that is both current and relevant. More and more businesses are realising this and capitalising on an untapped goldmine of opportunity.

Need content?

Not many companies have the facilities in-house to create the kind of content that thrives on social media. If you are struggling to keep on top of your content creation, why not call our team today on 0845 658 3334 and let us do it for you?

Or, if you just want to keep up to date on all things content, then follow us on Twitter @redrocketmedia