Showing posts with label emojis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emojis. Show all posts

Saturday, 8 July 2017

The ABCs of A/B testing | How to base your subject lines on science


 When time-starved customers are bombarded with emails every day, your subject lines can make an enormous difference in whether subscribers actually see your messages.

In fact, recent research shows 47 percent of email recipients quickly decide whether to open or ignore emails based on the subject line alone. Worse, 69 percent of readers who report email as spam are motivated to do so by how the subject line reads.

Of course, psychology plays a major role in that behavior, and researchers are continually trying to determine the parameters involved. For example, Experian last year found personalizing subject lines led to a 42 percent lift in unique open rates for the consumer products and services segment, an improvement that averaged out to 29 percent when applied across industries. However, personalization was completely ineffective in emails pitched to publishers, and it only improved opens by 1 percent when sent to media and entertainment representatives.

Because applying reader psychology to the email creation process is an inexact science, the only way to determine the most effective wording of your subject lines is often via A/B testing.

“There are limitless possible emotional combinations of language available,” observes Parry Malm on Econsultancy.com. “Knowing which work best for your audience is impossible without testing. The opportunity is to quantify emotion … then optimize based on the results … then profit from better subject lines.”

Fortunately, such testing is easy and convenient through the use of online tools.

VerticalResponse, for example, boasts an A/B testing feature that allows Pro Plan users to quickly and easily compare alternate email subject lines. Two different subject lines are sent to 25 percent of an address list, and within minutes of initiating the tests, the technology automatically sends the subject line that drew more opens to the remaining contacts, boosting the open rates for the entire campaign.

Testing options offer choices for better open rates

So how does A/B testing work? As its name implies, it helps you make decisions in your email campaign by temporarily presenting two different options to your audience, then gauging response rates to determine which option is better received. Here’s what the process generally entails:
  1. Determine which factors you’d like to test. Before getting started, you need a good handle on the subject-line variables you’d like to compare. Industry research in that regard is valuable, but you often can’t determine what will work best for your specific audiences and circumstances without going directly to the source.  To think about elements to compare, consider the questions that have occurred to you as you’ve tried to finesse your subject lines in the past. For example, you may be wondering:
  • Are short or long subject lines more appealing?
  • How would my audience respond to numbers and dollar figures?
  • How would recipients react to their names in the subject line?
  • How much other customization is advisable?
  • Should my subject line be phrased as a statement or question?
  • Are exclamation points OK?
  • Should I use industry jargon or more colloquial terms?
  • Will humor be well received, or should I maintain a straightforward tone? Once you’ve established your most burning questions, you can create a spreadsheet allowing you to record and compare results.
  1. Establish logistics. In designing your test structure, you must establish ground rules so results aren’t skewed; that way, you gain real, scientific insights. Aim to control as many extenuating variables as possible. For example:
  • Your test groups should be equal in number.
  • Your tests should run for an equal time interval.
  • The tests should go out at the same time of day. Run your tests as frequently as you’d like. After the completion of each, you can fill in the results on your spreadsheet, after which you can take them up for consideration when crafting future emails.


Some common variables

As mentioned, you’ll need to decide which variables are most relevant to your campaign. However, you may want to be aware of research already conducted and how that might affect your own testing. You might also consider the following best practices in getting started:
  • Question versus statement
    Sources differ on the advisability of incorporating question marks into your subject lines, but many recommend against it on the grounds the recipient may not open the email if his immediate mental answer to your question is negative. One source recommends instead making the subject line a statement, like “Question about your career,” which could prompt the reader to click to learn the nature of the question.
  • Short versus long Brevity is of the essence when trying to appeal to busy consumers in a world vying for their attention. One study found subject lines of six to 10 words gleaned the most opens (21 percent), followed by those with zero to five words (16 percent) and 11 to 15 words (14 percent). Note 68 percent of emails are opened on mobile, and most mobile devices display only four to seven words of subject lines.
  • Humorous versus straightforward That depends heavily on your target audience and whether it veers toward the conservative. Obviously you should stay away from anything that’s offensive, but in general, audiences respond positively to clever lines that are unexpected or make them smile. One study also points to much higher open rates for subject lines readers view as original. Still, overly ambiguous lines may lose you fans; one source points to 56 percent better open rates for messages that are very clear as to their intent.
  • Emojis versus no emojis
    Salesforce reported last year on the increased use of characters and emojis in subject lines, estimating some 2 percent of B2C subject lines included them last year. “Using special characters and emojis in subject lines may seem gimmicky or silly,” advises Chad White in the report. “However, adding these visual elements to subject lines has proven quite effective for some brands, which should come as no surprise since adding images to tweets, blog posts or just about any other media also improves response.”
  • Personalization versus no personalization
    Research differs on the extent to which personalization improves open rates. But most analysts believe it’s a good concept to embrace as consumers increasingly expect big data to help customize their business transactions. “Consumers expect their interactions with a brand to be dynamic and personally relevant,” notes Shelley Kessler on MarketingSherpa.com. “A brand that recognizes a subscriber by name in the subject line of an email is able to establish an immediate, personal connection with that subscriber, and that is reflected in our research.”

Recommended reading: Our Vice President of Product, Thomas Fanelli, gives readers five ways to to get started with personalization.


Also worth your consideration

Recent research points to the following other helpful information as you attempt to create meaningful subject lines for your emails. However, we still recommend testing these concepts on your own to determine whether they hold true for your audiences and circumstances.
  • Email opens decrease 19 percent when the word “newsletter” is included in the subject line.
  • Emails with no subject line are opened 8 percent more often than those with a subject line.
  • Emails with “FW:” (denoting forwarding) in the subject line are opened 17 percent more often.
  • Text that creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity improves open rates 22 percent.
  • Using the words “daily” or “weekly” in subject lines boosts open rates, whereas the word “monthly” is detrimental.
  • Subject lines that simply describe email content are more effective than those including a hard sell or call to action.
  • Subject lines incorporating the word “free” are opened 10 percent more often.
  • Other words that often perform well in subject lines include “content,” “video,” and “news.” Words that typically do more harm than good include “perfect,” “good,” “donate,” and “report.” 
  • Certain words in subject lines are more likely than others to derail your email to spam; learn some of them here.
  • Subject lines incorporating passive words perform up to 14 percent better than those with active words.
  • Fewer than 1 percent of B2C subject lines include hashtags, which can deter opens but are nevertheless useful in pointing traffic toward social media campaigns. “Hashtags let you tap into big ideas and themes,” notes Chad White at Salesforce. 

Recommended reading: See more magic marketing words you should be using.

Ready to get started? A/B testing requires some thought, but it can help narrow down your email marketing strategy so you can take maximum advantage of one of the least expensive and most effective marketing tools available.



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Monday, 3 July 2017

Adding Art to Words: How emojis can brighten up your emails


 We’ve all felt proud of email campaigns we’ve sent, whether because they’ve had phenomenal open rates, spurred strong sales, or simply looked great. What we’ve never considered, though, is that some of those campaigns may have actually contained works of art. 
But now that New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has acquired the original 176 emojis developed in 1999 as part of its permanent collection, it might be time to start framing those campaigns.
Emojis, as you are surely aware, are the ubiquitous faces, icons, and other colorful pictures that adorn every phone and email, text, and social media app in existence.
Now that one of the world’s leading museums has officially recognized their cultural significance, and given them a gloss of high-culture cache in the process, how can you put emojis to work for you?

Use emojis in subject lines

Emojis convey thoughts and feelings in a flash, so they can be great hooks for subject lines. Why spell out that you have happy news to share when a smiley face or other sunny emoji says it instantly? Emojis also save space, helping keep your subject lines below the magical 49-character threshold that boosts open rates. They can also add a little life to an otherwise standard marketing message, like here:
Emojis in subject lines also help your emails “pop” when your reader scans his or her inbox and sees line after line of text.

Use emojis in body copy

“When words fail, emojis speak” is an oft-quoted truism of the internet. Don’t hesitate to use emojis to greet your readers, sign off at the end of a message, or create a break in your text. And while emojis in subject lines are fairly common these days, they’re still rare in the bodies of emails — meaning you will get extra attention if they’re done well.

Don’t forget to test

Text will always show up as text; even if the font displays incorrectly, it’s still readable. Not so with emojis. Because different operating systems, browsers, email clients, and devices all display emojis in different ways, be sure to test your emoji-laden email campaigns before you send them. What looks perfect on an iPhone may look even better on a desktop, and may not even appear on an Android. Of course, you’ll want to use emojis that look the best across the most devices. Testing helps you avoid the dreaded blank box:
Assuming your business and brand lend themselves to emojis (not all do, of course), emojis can be a creative way to brighten up your email marketing. And who knows, with a little luck, they might also end up hanging in a museum some day.

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Tuesday, 27 June 2017

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: But What About Emojis?


In today’s digital age, communicating your marketing message is all about being clear, concise, and direct. Twitter gives us 140 characters to get our point across; we abbreviate “OMG,” “LOL,” and “OMW,” for text messages; crowded inboxes require standout subject lines for readers to open your campaign; and Instagram now allows you to hashtag emojis. We’ve all heard the idiom before: “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and it’s never been more true.

In a recent study by Appboy, they discovered emoji use in emails has increased an unprecedented 7,100 percent compared to last year.



So what does that mean for your email marketing? If you’re already in the process of spring cleaning your marketing efforts and coming up with fresh new subject lines, content, and creative, consider the impact of emojis to convey your message.

Keep in mind that emoji use in your marketing may look different than in your personal communications. Are you trying to highlight a specific promotion, deal, or point? Are you celebrating a milestone or event? Is there a seasonal campaign you’re running? Emojis can be a great way to draw attention to these programs or add an emotional, visual element to your communications.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your marketing and get a little creative. Try running an A/B test to see if emojis work for your brand. While emoji use is on the rise, you may find that they aren’t the right fit for your brand. (🤔)



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Sunday, 12 March 2017

Twitter Marketing Tips: The Complete List


This is the most comprehensive list of Twitter Marketing Tips on earth.
Whatever your goals are, you’ll love this list!
Whether you want to get more Twitter followers, get sales leads, or just increase your website’s traffic, this guide has you covered.
A few weeks ago, all the information in this guide was dispersed all over the web, but I’ve put it together in once place so you can bookmark this page and quickly read it every time you need.
Here you go!
New Bonus PDF: Learn how to grow your business faster with our best Twitter Marketing tips. Click Here to Download The PDF
You can sort through the tips based on your individual goals:

Tips On How to Tweet Effectively

HOW TO TWEET EFFECTIVELY (1)

Ask questions to increase engagement

Use relevant questions to entice more people to engage with your tweets. For example, you can end your tweets with questions like “What do you think?” or “Any thoughts?”. This way, more people will fell tempted actually to answer your questions.
Also, you can reframe your blog post titles. For example:
  • Instead of “20 ways to get more traffic” you could tweet “Do you want more traffic? These 20 techniques will blow your mind.”
Questions
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Don’t overuse #hashtags; one to two per tweet

Hashtags
Recent studies found that tweets with hashtags get two times more engagement than tweets without. However, when you include more than two hashtags in a tweet, your engagement can decrease up to 17%, so don’t overuse them.
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Inject some humor to your tweets

Humor can make your brand much more memorable. In fact, 80 out of 100 college-age kids remember ads that make them laugh, according to some sources. Don’t be afraid to be funny, your brand won’t lose credibility, but all the opposite.
But before you start making bad jokes, here are some things you need to consider:
  • Avoid controversial topics – what may be funny for some people may be rude for others.
  • Don’t force humor – people can easily detect when humor doesn’t come naturally.
  • Don’t be afraid to make fun of yourself – when you do it, people perceive your brand as human.
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Stand out from the crowd with emojis

emoji
Science discovered that when someone sees an emoticon on social media, the same parts of the brain are activated as if he or she looks at a real human face. It’s also proven that a human face is an effective attention-grabbing mechanism. It means that if you incorporate emoticons in your tweets, they are more likely to be seen by more people.
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Vary link location

Have you ever wondered what’s the best location to include a link in a tweet to get the higher amount of clicks (beginning, middle, or end)?
Dan Zarella made an experiment a few years ago and found that the best location for clicks is 25% of the way through the Tweet. However, I highly encourage you to perform your own testing since your results may vary.
Heatmap
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Use the right image dimensions

There’s nothing worse than a blurred image in a cloudy day [:(] so make sure to use the right image dimensions when sharing visual content. Here are the optimal image sizes for Twitter:
  • Tweets: 1,024 x 512 px.
  • Summary cards: 120 x 120 px.
  • Summary cards with large images: 280 x 150 px.
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Use this data to reach more people

I highly encourage you to find your optimal time to tweet, but in the meantime you can start by sharing your content based on the following criteria:
  • Monday-Friday between 12:00 and 5:00 pm
  • Wednesday at 5:00 pm
  • On weekends, experiment with 2:00-3:00 am, 6:00-7:00 am, and 9:00-10:00 pm
Several studies have found that, on average, those are the best times to tweet to get the most reach.
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Use the right words

Dan Zarella – social media scientist – found that the words you use in your tweets have a different impact in your audience.
For instance, words like great, please, retweet, and “you” can actually increase your engagement. On the other hand, words like work, home, bored, and sleep can decrease it. You can find the complete studies in the sources area below.
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Use shortened links

As you probably know, you have a 140-character limit to writing a tweet, so the more space you save, the better. By shortening your links, you are not only able to save a lot of tweeting space, but to track how many people actually click on those links (depending on the tool you use).
shortened link
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Use Images and Videos

According to recent studies, Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites, and 150% more retweets. Also, native video on Twitter drives 2.5x more replies, 2.8x more retweets, and 1.9x more likes, so if you’re not implementing visual content in your Twitter Marketing strategy, you’re missing out a huge opportunity to grow your brand.
visual content
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Keep your Tweets between 71-100 characters

Marketing is all about simplifying your core message so people can actually understand it, and when it comes to Twitter Marketing, you can apply the same technique. As a matter of fact, Buffer found that short tweets get the most retweets.
Length of a tweet
A rule of thumb is to keep your tweets between 71-100 characters when possible.
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Tips On How to Get More Followers

HOW TO GET MORE FOLLOWERS

Add a good profile picture 

This sounds pretty simple, but it’s surprising how many people use an image of their dog or a cartoon as their profile picture. Social media is all about human connections, so if you’re building your personal brand make sure to show your real face. On the other hand, if you’re trying to build a brand through Twitter, then show your logo.
profile picture
The first impression is vital, and your profile picture is one of the first things people see when visiting your account. If you want to stand out and get more followers, make sure to add a good profile picture.
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Follow back carefully

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to follow back to everyone who follows you. Instead, try only to follow back people who are relevant to your business and who seem active on Twitter. This way, you’ll keep your community clean and engaged.
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Create a killer (but descriptive) bio

You have a 160-character limit to write a Twitter bio, but it doesn’t mean you can’t create a killer one. In fact, this is a great opportunity to explain the world who you are in a short, sweet way. And since, on average, Twitter bios are very predictable, a little bit of originality will help you stand out.
Twitter bio
Here are 7 elements you should pay attention to when writing your bio:
  1. Make it accurate – just tell people exactly who you are.
  2. Be cool – don’t be afraid to use some humor.
  3. Make it targeted – write it in a way you can attract people like you.
  4. Brag a little – tell other people about your accomplishments.
  5. Be you – incorporate a bit of your personality. Do you like video games? Tell people about it.
  6. Make it interesting – most Twitter bios are boring. Give people a reason to think you’re not “Another one of those.”
  7. Include relevant hashtags – when you add hashtags to your bio, more people will find your account when searching for those terms.
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Promote your Twitter account

You could purchase a bulk order of followers today and get thousands of new followers by tomorrow morning, but that wouldn’t take you anywhere. It’s much more effective to proactively publicize your account and get followers who actually care about you.
If you write a guest post, link to your Twitter profile; if you’re active on other social networks, promote it there, too. The point here is to not stopping.
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Follow fifty people with similar interests per day

Recent studies have found that around 25-30% of the people you follow will follow you back. It means that for every 50 people you follow, around 13-15 people will follow you back. It’s a great and quick way to start building your following. As long as you follow highly-targeted people, you’ll be fine.
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Share highly-relevant content

Whether you admit it or not, content is one of the most important things when it comes to social media. If you consistently share irrelevant content, your audience will stop paying attention to you. On the other hand, if you constantly share highly-relevant content, your audience will engage more with your tweets.
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Make sure your Handle and Username match your brand

Consistency across all of your marketing channels can increase your likelihood to be found by your desired audience. When you match your Twitter handle and username, people are able to find you more easily.
username and handle
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Engage your audience

You won’t build a loyal following if you just set your Twitter feed on autopilot and go to play video games all day. Although automation can be really helpful for your business, you’ll need to put your hands in the fire, eventually.
Your Twitter account will be much more effective if you become a trusted advisor. Sharing relevant content, answering questions, and being an active member of your community can help you get more attention from your followers.
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Tips on How to Get More Leads

HOW TO GET MORE LEADS

Keep an eye on your Direct Messages

In words of Kristi Hines (one of the best freelance writers in the world):
“While it’s not a groundbreaking tip, my biggest one is to keep an eye on your direct messages. Some people ignore them because they assume they are just spam.
I know that many of the ones I receive are, but in the midst of those, I also receive legitimate inquiries from potential customers. Those always make checking my inbox worth it! Also, note that you can allow anyone to send you a direct message in your privacy settings, regardless of whether you follow them.”

Be on top of your customer service

20 years ago, people used to call companies to complain, ask for support, or just to provide some feedback. Nowadays things are very different; people generally prefer to send an email or connect with a company through social media.
That’s why it’s very important that you be on top of your customer service on Twitter. This way, you can quickly identify any problem and provide support in a very effective way.
Companies like JetBlue, Nike, Seamless, and Comcast understand this concept. If you ever need their help, just head over to Twitter and send them a tweet. They will respond very quickly.
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Create a Twitter contest

Contests have worked very well for all centuries. And they continue working like magic in this day and age. People LOVE free stuff, and if you’re able to structure your message in a creative way, your campaign will receive a ton of attention, and, ultimately, you’ll get more sales.
Contest
As a matter of fact, some studies have found that social media contests influence purchasing decisions for 3 in 4 participants. That’s why so many brands are using social media contests to drive awareness, generate sales leads, and increase engagement. Some examples are Coke, Zaggora, Maybelline, and Taco Bell.
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Never, ever stop checking your competition

Competitive auditing is one of the most effective ways to grow your business. Think about it: when you study what your competitors are doing, you’re able to learn what’s working for them. And you can apply those same strategies in your business.
Although not all the strategies your competitors are using will work for you, it’s a great way to start. Make a list of at least 10 competitors who are very active on Twitter and analyze exactly what they are doing. How many tweets they’re sending every day? What kind of content they’re sharing? How many followers they have? What are they doing to get new followers?
By answering all those questions, you’ll be able to develop a strategy to outsmart your competitors and grow much faster.
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Try different calls to action

As you probably know, calls to action are very effective mechanisms to get people completing your desired action. And when it comes to Twitter, a call to action can increase the number of people who click on your links. When you tell people exactly what to do, your results can dramatically increase.
Twitter itself has found interesting data about what kind of CTAs attract the most clicks and retweets:
  • Asking for a download (for example, “Click here to download our app”) can increase your clicks by up to 13%.
Call to action 1
  • Asking for a retweet (for example, “Retweet this to enter our contest”) can increase your retweets by up to 311%.
Call to action 2
The bottom line?
Make sure to include a call to action in your tweets. You can also test different variations of your CTAs so you can figure out which one works the best.
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Create Lead Generation Cards

People are generally lazy; they like simple things. And when you make it easy to sign up to your email list, more people will actually do it. Here’s where lead generation cards come in very handy.
These cards allow you to attach a form into your tweets and integrate it with your email marketing provider, which means people can sign up to your email list without even having to leave Twitter. This is a very effective technique to start generating more leads.
Lead generation card
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Use Twitter chats to generate new leads

In words of Forbes, a Twitter chat is “a live event, usually moderated and focused around a general topic.” These chats are very effective to connect with highly-relevant people. And when you use them properly, Twitter Chats can be great channels for lead generation.
For example, saying you run a content marketing agency, you could host a weekly Twitter Chat on “How to create content that stands out” where you answer questions and provide useful information to the participants.
By promoting that kind of events with your followers, you’ll be able to position yourself as an authority in your industry, which will help you generate more leads in the long run.
SEMrush is a great example of this technique in action. They host a chat called #SEOcafe where they answer questions related to SEO and link building.
SEMrush Chat
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Connect with the right people

The most important part of Twitter Marketing is not how many followers you have, but how interested they are in what you have to say. A big mistake people make when it comes to Twitter Marketing is to start following random people in hopes they follow them back.
You shouldn’t do that. Instead, focus on getting followers that actually care about you. It’s much better to have 10 engaged followers than 1000 followers who don’t interact with you at all.
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Use a classic icebreaker

Let’s face it: Most of your Twitter followers are entirely unknown; they are just a number on your account and you’re a number on theirs. To build stronger connections, try to use a classic icebreaker. If you share a common interest with one of your followers, tell them about it.
If someone shares a relevant tweet, retweet it and let the author know that you loved what she or he shared. By taking this approach, you’ll be memorable enough to start a long-term relationship, and, therefore, to build a stronger following.
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Cultivate relationships

This tip may sound obvious, but it’s surprising how many marketers forget to cultivate relationships in social media. Although you have a 140-character limit to writing a tweet, that’s more than enough to start a real conversation.
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Be Transparent

Being transparent with your target audience can help you build a larger following. You can start by sharing personal stories, the problems you and/or your company are facing, and some financial numbers.
For instance, people like Rand Fishkin (Founder of Moz) and Pat Flynn (Founder of Smart Passive Income) constantly share their annual and monthly revenue. They are great examples of transparency in action.
income report
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Tips on How to Increase Productivity

HOW TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

Don’t engage with every tweet from the people you follow

The truth of the matter is you can’t keep up with every one of your followers (especially when you have a large following), and you don’t need to. Instead, focus on engaging with those tweets that are more relevant to your business and you can benefit from in some way.
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Use BuzzSumo to find great content to share

BuzzSumo allows you to find the most popular content regarding a specific topic. All you need to do is enter a broad keyword into the tool(for example, basketball) and BuzzSumo will show you the most shared articles on that topic.
buzzsumo
Lots of shares = Great content, so this is an awesome way to find content your audience will love. You can also filter results based on language, country, and type of content (i.e. video, article, infographic), which means you can find exactly what you’re looking for.
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Use Twitter’s Advanced Search to find exactly what you need

Recent studies found that, on average, more than 500 million tweets are sent every day, but want to know the best part? You can get access to EVERY SINGLE ONE of them (and the accounts attached to those tweets).
How? By using Twitter’s Advanced Search.
This tool allows you to find tweets based on keywords, phrases, usernames, and even hashtags so you can find exactly what you’re looking for.
For instance, you could use this tool to find tweets that are mentioning your competitors, so you can see what people are saying about them. This way, you can develop a strategy to pinpoint and outsmart them.
Advanced search
Also, you could search for tweets that are mentioning a specific hashtag to learn what people think about that particular topic. This way, you could brainstorm better topic ideas for your blog posts.
Whatever your goals are, make sure to use Twitter’s Advanced Search. By doing this, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions.
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Automate during your off hours

If you want to get the highest reach as possible, you need to be tweeting 24/7, so make sure you automate Twitter during your off hours. This way, you’ll be present even when you’re sleeping.
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Take advantage of tools 

Technology enables us to be 84% more productive, so don’t be afraid to use it to automate some of your most tedious tasks. By leveraging tools like FollowerWonk, Hootsuite, and Feedly, you’ll be able to curate and share content more efficiently.
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Use IFTTT to get the most out of Twitter

IFTTT (If This Then That) allows you to connect your favorite apps together so you can get the most out of them. For instance, you can connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts, so when you like something on Facebook, you automatically share it as a Twitter tweet.  
You can also connect Google Drive and Twitter, so you can automatically save all your new followers in a spreadsheet. This way, you could have a better control of who follows you.
Twitter IFTTT
There are hundreds of different ways you can use IFTTT to be more productive with social media, and if you’re creative, you can save a ton of time and money.
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Tips on How to Get More Traffic

Tag relevant profiles in images

Did you know that you can tag up to 10 people in a tweet image? Well, it’s a great way to let people know that you’ve mentioned them in a blog post.
Image tags
For example, let’s say that you create a blog post called “The Top 10 SEO Blog Posts Ever Created” and you link to 10 relevant posts. Instead of emailing the authors separately, you could create a customized image for your blog post and tag all the people you mentioned in it.
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Use promoted tweets to amplify your messages

There’s a simple reason why many companies use promoted tweets: they extend the lifetime of your tweets in a very effective way, and, therefore, you’re able to get higher results. If you find that a tweet is performing very well, you can put a budget behind it so you can reach even more people.
For example, Airbnb used promoted tweets to extend the lifetime of their new rental service campaign, which resulted in 4% of engagement rate.
Airbnb
Yeah, 4 is a small number, but considering that your tweet is put in front of thousands of people, that’s a good engagement rate.
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Embed tweets in your blog posts

A quick and easy way to increase the engagement of your tweets is to embed them in your blog content. This will not only encourage more people to like and/or retweet your tweets, but will add more value and credibility to your articles.
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Use shareable content

If sharing your content is too hard, people simply won’t share it. A slow website, hard-to-find social sharing buttons, and asking people to make more than 3 clicks to share your content are common factors to decrease social shares.
Use tools like Click to Tweet and Twilight to make your content more shareable. These tools allow people to share your content with the ease of a click.
click to tweet
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Look at the trends

Trendy topics are great to engage users. That’s why you need to seek consistently for relevant updates and news within your industry. For example, every time Google releases a new update, HubSpot creates an informative blog post around that update. This helps HubSpot get a ton of attention.
Trends
Make sure you subscribe to the major magazines and websites in your industry so you can be informed of the hottest news and topics. This way, you’ll be able to act fast and get the most out of that news. You can also use tools like Google Trends or What The Trend to see how popular is a particular topic.
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Tweet links to your blog more often

Twitter is a great platform to engage with your customers, but it’s also an excellent way to drive traffic to your blog, so make sure you constantly tweet links to your own content. As long as you provide value it won’t be perceived as spam.
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Connect your LinkedIn account with your Twitter account

When you sync your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, not only are you able to track your connections from LinkedIn and follow them on Twitter, but also you can share content across both social networks at the same time.
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Share content more than once

Twitter is full of noise – most of your tweets won’t be seen by many people. That’s why it’s crucial that you share the same content more than once. This way, you’ll be able to get more reach. Many companies consider this as a good practice and have never received any complaint from their users.
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Tweet at your optimal time

You’ll never reach all of your followers at the same time, no matter what you do. However, you can reach the highest percentage of them by tweeting when most of your audience is online. Tools like FollowerWonk and HootSuite can help you find your optimal time to tweet.
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Strategically look at which hashtags to use

Hashtags help Twitter organize all the content. For example, when you include #ContentMarketing in a tweet, Twitter knows your tweet talks about “Content Marketing”. When someone is searching for a specific term, Twitter displays all the tweets containing that particular hashtag.
This is very useful to gain visibility and attract the right people.
hashtags 2
For instance, if you want to attract people who are interested in basketball, you should include related hashtags (for example, #NBA or #BasketBall), so when they search for those terms in Twitter they can find your content.
You can use tools like RiteTag.com and Hashtagify.com to find what hashtags are more popular in your industry. Try to create a list of 10 relevant hashtags and include them in your tweets.
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Miscellaneous

MISCELLANEOUS

Don’t sell

Twitter is a great marketing channel. You can use it to build relationships with your customers (and prospective customers), drive traffic to your blog, and even generate sales leads. However, Twitter is not for selling (unless you’re buying ads). Instead, focus on providing value to users; share valuable content and engage with your audience. Let your marketing funnel do the selling.
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Don’t be a spammer

This is a rule of thumb for marketing in general, but especially for social media. If you constantly spam people with your offers, they’ll hate you. Period.
Instead, be helpful and provide value to the community.
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Read the Twitter blog

Twitter itself constantly shares awesome tips and tricks about how to use their platform to get the most out of your marketing efforts. It should be one of your go-to resources for actionable social media advice.
Twitter blog

Use keywords in your tweets

This year (2015) Google announced that now Tweets also appear in search results, which means you can increase your reach by adding relevant keywords to your tweets.
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Match emails with customer usernames

SocialBro – a Twitter management tool – allows you to upload a list of emails and match them to their respective Twitter accounts. Then, you can analyze the kind of keywords they use in their tweets, their demographics, interests, and much more.
Social Bro
By uploading the list of your customers’ emails, you’re able to track what they’re saying about your brand and products. This way, you can quickly identify complaints and/or suggestions, and, therefore, grow much faster.
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Make sure it’s not all about you

Marketing is not all about you nor your products, it’s all about your audience. A rule of thumb is to share 80% valuable content and 20% advertising. By taking this approach, you’ll be able to build a more loyal following.
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Get a Twitter tutorial from someone younger

Yes, you can be a great Twitter marketer and “understand” the theory of social media, but when it comes to the practical application, you can’t keep up. The “unofficial rules” of the game are much more important, so don’t be afraid to ask someone younger for a quick tutorial. Trust me, you’ll shortcut a huge learning curve.
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Create and share curated lists

Twitter lists have only one purpose: To help you organize and group people together based on different characteristics (i.e, interests, location, function, and so on). For instance, if you run an eCommerce website you could create a list that includes all of your customers so you can track what they’re saying and how they interact with your brand and your competitors.
Twitter lists
On the other hand, if you’re a blogger, you could create a list of influencers so you can keep up with the hottest topics and ideas for your blog posts.The best part about creating Twitter lists is that you can share them with other people, which is a clever way to attract new followers.
All you need to do is to copy your list’s URL and attach it into a tweet or a PM to anyone you want to share it with. Also, you can manually add people, just make sure you let them know that you’ve added them to your list.
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Use Twitter Analytics

The data you collect from users might be the key to success. Think about it: Data can tell you whether your tweets are performing well, what’s your optimal time to tweet, and even what kind of people are following you. This information can help you make more informed decisions and develop more effective marketing strategies. 
Twitter analytics
Embrace Twitter Analytics and start taking advantage of it. This way, you’ll get the most out of Twitter.
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Retweet with a comment

This year (2015) Twitter released a brand new feature that allows you to add a comment on the content you’re retweeting. In my personal opinion, this is a great opportunity to add value to the conversation. Now people are able to understand WHY you are retweeting in the first place.
Retweet with a comment
You don’t need to add a comment to every tweet you retweet, though. Just consider what’s better for every situation, and, when possible, add some value by adding your own thoughts.
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A/B test your tweets

It’s highly recommendable that you consistently test at least two different variations of your tweets. This way, you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t. And every time, you will tweet more efficiently.
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Import email leads into a twitter list

As I covered earlier, Twitter lists are very helpful to group people based on different criteria like demographics and interests. And a good way to start taking advantage of them is to import your email leads into a twitter list. This way, you can track what they’re talking about and come up with some ideas to convert them into customers.
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Reframe content to suit your audience

Earlier in this guide, I told you that you should share your content more than once, remember? Now, every time you re-share a tweet make sure to reframe it so you aren’t just repeating yourself. This way, you can literally double the engagement you receive from every piece of content you share.
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Don’t send auto-DMs

If you’re just starting with Twitter, you probably think that auto-direct messages are great (don’t worry, I thought that, too), but the truth of the matter is they don’t work anymore. People are smarter than a few years ago, and they can quickly smell spam hundreds of miles away.
Even if you’re just saying hello, most people will know it’s an automated message so its effectivity is literally zero.
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