Social Media Platforms- Twitter is The Heart & Soul

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[quote style=”boxed”]Twitter is where the real conversations take place.[/quote]

For me Twitter is the heart and soul of all of my social media activities. It is where most of my connections and information comes from and is sent to. When I post a photo to Instagram I use twitter hashtags and post it to Twitter as well. Same for Tumblr and sometimes even LinkedIn. For me Twitter is where my business and professional life live although they are definitely intersected by my two other passions: Craft Beer and Specialty Coffee. To me Twitter is primarily about business. (although for sure LinkedIn is ALL business and professional but thats the next post) I am NOT attempting to explain or define Twitter to you if you don’t know what it is or how to use it read those links. I am explaining how I see and use Twitter.

Twitter has risen to become one of the most talked about, integrated, relied upon and fascinating social media platforms.

Far more than some other Social Media networks Twitter brings together a more wide ranging conversation amongst both close knit and widely dispersed networks of people.  It’s partially the use of hashtags and the immediacy and non permanence of it. Another crucial part is the forcing of brevity and relevance by the 140 character limit which challenges us all to say more with fewer words. However part of it seems to be just plain #magic.

Most reports say that Twitter is the fastest growing platform. However as with almost everything in life 15% of the twitter users contribute roughly 85% of all the content. That of course means that just like everywhere else on the internet it is mostly lurkers and learners with a relative few launchers and leaders. However the launchers and leaders that ARE active tend to be truly excellent.

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Twitter has also completely exploded our cultures focus on the headline. Twitter is the key platform that tests your headline writing ability and talent. Write a killer headline (tweet) and you will catch peoples attention, get retweets, favorites and follows.

A few marketing thoughts:

Facebook and Twitter:

To me these two platforms are polar opposite. The message you put on Facebook seldom if ever resonates effectively on Twitter. And vice versa often but many times a tight tweet can easily go on Facebook unmodified. However it is my strong opinion that you should NEVER connect your facebook and twitter accounts and do auto-posting! Take the extra 30 seconds and craft a audience and platform specific message for each. Otherwise why do you have both?

Twitter Management Tools:

There are a LOT of great ones out there. And even Twitters own webpage and their App are both fantastic and work really well. My hands down favorite tool for using twitter on a mobile device is Tweetbot. Hootsuite is also a truly remarkable tool for managing multiple twitter, facebook and other social media accounts. It also does some pretty swell tweet scheduling.

Twitter Roles:

For many people Twitter is a very strange dual identity beast like the Aztec god/godess of duality Ometotl it is both the all business all the time platform and the place where twerking on the VMAs blows up. But one thing that twitter is NOT very good at usually is connecting with close friends and family. It is not a life dissertation site nor an endless baby photo network. it’s not where you normally post recipes. (although zombie apocalypse survival guides do well on Twitter) For your business Twitter can be used extremely effectively as both an awareness generator and more specifically a lead generator. Since twitter is timely and relevant and hyper short it lends more credibility to the message. And twitters newly opened Lead Gen cards is proving to be a boon for companies everywhere who want to reach new customers where they are at rather than making them all come to them. So stay focused, concise (headlines that POP!) deliver value not spam and don’t spend all your time megaphoning us to buy your product. Sometimes it pays to get a little more seductive and make us WANT what you are selling. That’s the way Twitter works.

In summary Twitter to me is the very core of all of my Social media marketing activities. But I am one of those highly vocal, active twitter users so don’t take just my word for it because apparently I am one of those 15% of twitter users.

What do you use twitter for? is it your main network or a side network? 

[highlight]And even more importantly is this Joy Divisions best song? (the answer is heck yes!)[/highlight]

By Andy Newbom

My name is Andy Newbom. At this time there are less than 10 Newboms in the world. Not sure if thats good or bad.