Twitter 101

Twitter 101Martin-Wilbourn Partners

Twitter

• Twitter has more than 500 million users• 60% Female, 40% Male• 120,000 tweets are posted every

second• 340 Million tweets are posted per day• Every day, 1 million new accounts are

created• 43% of Americans are exposed to

tweets from traditional media

Twitter

• 64% of Twitter users are more likely to buy products of brands they follow

• 53% of users have recommend companies and products on Twitter

• 50% of shoppers have made a purchase based on a recommendation posted on social media

• Engagement levels among Twitter users rose from 69% in 2011 to 76% in 2012

Twitter: Super Bowl

• 26 Super Bowl commercials included Twitter references.– Four referenced Facebook–One referenced Instagram–One referenced YouTube– Zero referenced Google+

• Twitter increased its hashtag mentions by 300% over the course of 2011

Twitter: Super Bowl

Twitter Glossary• Blocking – Action used to keep someone on Twitter from

following you or adding you to their lists, resulting in no mentions of them being delivered to your Mentions tab.

• Deactivation – A way to remove a profile from Twitter. Information from deactivated profiles remains in Twitter’s system for 30 days.

• Direct Message (DM) – Private, 140-character message between two people. You may only DM a user who follows you.

• Favorite – To mark a tweet by clicking the yellow star next to a message. Marked posts are housed in your personal “Favorites” section.

Twitter Glossary

• Follow – Subscribing to someone’s tweets or updates.

• Follow Count – Quantity of people or accounts you follow, and how many people or accounts follow you.

• Follower – Twitter user who has followed you.

• Following – Reflects the quantity of other Twitter users you have chosen to follow.

Twitter Glossary

• Handle – Username selected by a user and its accompanying URL (i.e. @BrentSGambill and Twitter.com/BrentSGambill).

• Hashtag (#) – The # symbol is used to denote a topic of conversation, allowing users to participate in a larger linked discussion (i.e. #Braves, #MadMen). A hashtag is a discovery tool that allows others to find your tweets, based on topics. You can also click on a hashtag to see all the tweets that mention it in real time – even from people you do not follow.

Twitter Glossary• Listed – To be included in another Twitter user’s list. Listed

numbers and details appear in the statistics section of your profile.

• Lists – Curated groups of other users. Used to tie specific individuals into a group on your Twitter account.

• Mention (@) – Referencing another user by including the @ sign followed directly by their username (i.e. @LRChamber) in a tweet. Users are notified when mentioned. It is also a way to conduct discussions with other users in a public realm.

• Modified Tweet (MT) – Placed before the retweeted text when users manually retweet a message with modifications, for example shortening a tweet.

Twitter Glossary• Name – A listing separate from your handle. It can be different

from your username and is used to locate you on Twitter. Must be 20 characters or fewer.

• Profile Picture – Personal image uploaded to your Twitter profile via the Settings tab of your account.

• Promoted Tweets – Tweets that businesses have paid to promote. They appear at the top of search results on Twitter.

• Protected/Private Accounts – Twitter accounts are public by default. Choosing to protect your account means your tweets will only be seen by approved followers and will not appear in search results.

Twitter Glossary

• Reply – Tweet posted in reply to another user’s post, usually posted by clicking the “reply” button next to their tweet in your timeline. Always begins with @username.

• Retweet (RT) - Re-posting or giving credit to someone else’s tweet. The retweet button allows instant sharing of another’s full embedded post.

• Retweet with Comment - Re-posting or giving credit to someone else’s tweet by manually cutting and pasting content into a post.

Twitter Glossary

• Timeline – Real-time stream of tweets you see on your homepage. It’s comprised of updates from users you follow.

• Trends – Subject algorithmically determined to be one of the most popular topics at the moment on Twitter.

• Tweet – 140-character message.

• Unfollow – To cease following another Twitter user. Their tweets no longer show up in your timeline.

Twitter Glossary• URL – Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a web address that

points to a unique page on the Internet.

• URL Shortener – Turns a long URL into a shorter URL. Shortening services can be found online (i.e. Bitly, TinyURL).

• Username – Also known as a Twitter handle. Must be unique and contain fewer than 15 characters. Is used to identify you on Twitter for replies and mentions.

• Verification – Process whereby a user’s Twitter account is stamped to show that a legitimate source is authoring the account’s tweets. Sometimes used for accounts who experience identity confusion on Twitter.

Twitter Tips: Branding

• Consistency– Handles– Bios

• Official Page

• Imaging– Profile Photo– Header– Background

Twitter Tips: Organization

• Social Media Directory– Page Managers

• Monitoring

• Training

• Page managers should use separate mobile twitter apps for personal and company





Twitter Tips: Content

• Consistent posting

• Include links– Tweets with links are three times

more likely to be RT’d

• Be timely


• Specific words can lead to a higher rate of retweets

• The most commonly retweeted words:– You– Twitter– Please– Retweet– Post– Check out


• Posts with more than 118 characters on Twitter have less engagement.– Users do not want to read longer tweets, and

retweets with comments are more difficult to retweet.

• Grammar matters. Use proper punctuation.– Colons and periods are the most commonly

used punctuation.– Question marks and semicolons are not

commonly used.


• How many tweets per day?– Research indicates ten to twenty tweets is a

good daily average for brands.– Infrequent posts can lead to unengaged

followers.– Over-tweeting leads to engaged unfollows.

• Engagement is higher on posts with photos.– Instagram no longer embeds photos on

Twitter.– Twitter has photo filters?


• A common mistake is starting a tweet with @someone for a post meant for the public.–When a tweet begins with

@someone, only the two accounts (one posting and one mentioned) will see the post, along with anyone who follows both.

Twitter Tips: Hashtags• The hashtag was first used in August 2007.

• A hashtag is a ”tag” used to categorize tweets according to topics.

• To add a hashtag, you preface the relevant term with pound sign (#).

• It allows people who follow a topic to find your tweet and hopefully follow you.

• You can create your own business hashtag.

• Be careful of using trending hashtags– Example: #LRChamber #WPS #MWPartners

Twitter Tips: Hashtags

• Use sparingly & respectfully

• Search a hashtag before using it

• Hashtags provide useful context & cues for topics

• Excessive use causes annoyance, confusion or frustration

• Use hashtags when it adds value, not on every word in a post

• Create an official hashtag for your business




Twitter Tips: Engage

• Communicate with users who engage with and mention your brand.

• Negative tweets will happen.– Customer service is #1.– Respond. Be personable. Be polite.– Next step is to move to phone or email contact.

• Follow other users.

• Respond to new followers.







Twitter Tips: Customer Service




Twitter Tips: Policy

• Create a Social Media Standards & Practices Guide– Provides rules for employees– Page managers need expectations

for their work on social media– Involve public relations strategies

Martin-Wilbourn Partners

• Follow me at @BrentSGambill• Follow us at @MWPartners• Website: MWPartners.com• Blog: MWPartners.com/Podium

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