How to Use Twitter to Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy

A lot of clients that I work with have asked me this question: “How is Twitter going to help with our Marketing?”

Coming from someone in the Marketing world who really only uses Twitter in their professional life, I can understand their hesitation. I mean, what can you really accomplish with only 140 characters?

Well, with 302 million monthly active users and over 500 million tweets sent per day, according to the latest stats from Twitter, I think it’s safe to say you have quite a bit to work with!

Why Twitter?

Many users see a tweet as a sort of “text message,” a quick and easy form of communication that is utilized by the millennials in this ever-changing world of technology. And yes, Twitter in one facet does provide this to its users. I mean how else will you see the latest Kim Kardashian selfie?

On the other side of the Twittersphere, however, there lives a valuable resource full of industry thought leaders, groundbreaking news, and a new level of educational materials being shared by some of the greatest minds in the world.

For my clients (and businesses like yours), this is the side of Twitter we want to tap into.

As an Inbound Marketing Account Strategist, a large amount of my efforts for clients revolve around content.

By utilizing content as a strategic Marketing approach, you can focus on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent information to attract and retain customers, and ultimately drive profitable customer action according to the Content Marketing Institute.

With this in mind, the ultimate question becomes how is Twitter going to help our Content Marketing Strategy? I have 4 reasons that I believe make the biggest IMPACT (pun intended.)

1. Expanding Your Reach

As you share your content on the platform, Twitter provides a way to build an audience of relevant followers, expanding your reach. With the platform, you can easily interact with these users, many who are ideal customers. Even if you do not immediately build a relationship with them, you are putting content out to a group of like-minded individuals that can appreciate your content, drive traffic back to your website, and perhaps even share it with their own networks.

2. Building Relationships

By interacting with your Twitter followers you can build professional relationships. Twitter is not a one-way street; you have to give a little to get a little.

Stay active and engage with other industry influencers. By showing interest in them and their content you can create an on-going dialogue that can ultimately lead to shares, referrals, or even co-marketing opportunities.

3. Generating New Content Ideas

Twitter is not only a great place to share ideas and establish thought leadership, it is also a great way of finding new and valuable information. Don’t be afraid to RT (retweet) other’s messages.

We are not recreating the wheel here; give credit where credit is due. By sharing others message you are ultimately building up the value of your industry as a whole and will help you to continue to build relationships.

Twitter is also a great source to pull ideas for your own editorial calendar. For example, if you come across a tweet that piques your curiosity and sparks an idea, expand upon it further by writing a blog about it.

If you disagree with an opinion you see in a tweet (or even more with the content that was associated with said tweet), write an article with your counterargument. I think you get the picture.

4. Social Proof

In a recent slideshare presentation created by Mark Schaefer (which inspired this blog post) he made a great point about how powerful a tweet can be. He goes on to discuss how Twitter helps to establish social proof, and it went a little something like this:

Say you have two different blogs about, I don’t know, “How To Not Mess Up A First Date?”

One has been tweeted 10 times.

One has been tweeted 10,000 times.

I think it is pretty clear which one you would choose to read. The proof is in the numbers.

This type of hype around an article, a product, or a business not only helps establish thought leadership, but also drives potential customers directly to your website.

You can also establish a lead nurturing campaign from here to help “ease the worries and woes that arise when trying to guide leads down the conversion funnel”.

Key Takeaway

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of using Twitter to help in your marketing efforts.

Sit down and poke around the platform. Read different tweets, search for and interact with some of your top respected industry influencers. You may be surprised at how active they are on Twitter. Want to know more about the power of Twitter? Feel free to reach out me @TheGibsonGal #inboundMarketing.