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Marketing Your Brand in 140 Characters or Less

Posted in: Blog, Twitter by SpiderWriters on December 28, 2009

In website design, the credo used to be that one had an average of five seconds to capture the attention of a visitor with compelling “above the fold” content. If nothing placed immediately under the address bar prompted somebody to scroll down the remainder of the page, you could be certain the next action would either be the back button or a link offsite. While this principle still holds true – there will always be cause to optimize a website for maximum stickiness, it can be applied to marketing via social media. In the case of micro-blogging sites like Twitter, and to some extent the status update feature on Facebook, your space is limited. And every word posted must count.

It is said that brevity is the soul of wit, and where social marketing is concerned it is also the heart of your strategy. As you consider each tweet and status update to promote your products and services, you must choose the words wisely, and tempt followers to want to click-through to the point of sale or conversion.

One solution for gauging interest would be to approach micro-posts as you would your e-mail marketing strategy. When you prepare a blast, it’s natural to want to achieve a strong open rate. Therefore, the subject line of your message is what will lead people to click through to the mail. One advantage to Twitter, as sometimes opposed to e-mail, is that certain words won’t be filtered as spam. If you have complimentary products or deep discounts to advertise, usage of the words free and sale won’t penalize you on social networks. However, it’s also important to note how often you push the hard sell. Repeated canned text could be a turn-off to followers. Check your analytics to determine how many referrals from Facebook, Twitter, and other networks lead visitors to your landing pages.

Do you engage followers on a regular basis? As you study your social accounts and gauge what interests people, try a direct approach. Address followers with links to specific information on your site or third-party affiliates. Using a URL shortening service like bit.ly can inform you if your target, and others, click through on your suggestion.

Utilizing the economy of words to relay your company’s message can improve traffic flow to your website. Where the Internet tends to foster short attention spans, use the most important words to your advantage and stretch interest from visitors.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist who assists clients with social media optimization and Virginia web design services.