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Perhaps many of you are like me and find Twitter confusing. As someone who’s in my early 30’s I think it should be something that I’m more drawn to, however that hasn’t been the case. I can see the reasons why celebrities and businesses would have Twitter but I can’t see why someone would want to follow me and hear about my “average” day.
When I started diving into Twitter, it’s power and how it really allows people to engage with both celebrities and brands I started to understand a little bit more about why it’s so important for companies to you it. For instance, I find it very interesting to see that people who use Twitter are 3 times more likely to follow a brand than those who use Facebook. They are also more likely to recommend a brand and to purchase an time from a brand they follow.
So if you’re at all like me, allow me to share what I’ve found with you.
Today Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networks as well as one of the fastest growing networks for the 55-65 year old demographic. A very important piece of information for those brands who are trying to engage with this target market.
So what is the key to getting a mentioned on Twitter? Basically, brands need to ask a question/make a statement that encourages people to engage back and start some sort of interaction.
What is the key to getting a retweet? Interesting and unique messages is the key. Basically think of the type of things that get shared on Facebook, the things people find humorous, that make some sort of statement, that they find moving or that they feel like deserve to be shared and heard by more people. The topics that get shared are the ones that relate to THEM not the ones that YOU find interesting or moving. For this reason, it is very important to know who your followers are and who your market is.
Is it better to share content via words or via pictures?
Personally, I don’t think there is a one size fits all. Some consumers are visual and have a need for short, concise messages. Other consumers prefer to read their communication in a quick real-time manner. For this reason brands need to be involved in more than just one platform. For write communication, Twitter is a real-time interaction, or customer service line if you will, where people can get quick and instant answers and solutions to their problems directly from the brands they follow. It’s a great way to create loyal customers and to keep them. For visual communication, Instagram is a great way to communicate to consumers who have a need of quick to the point interaction. While this media platform started with just photos, they have evolved to include videos. This is ideal for brands, allowing them to share short messages with their followers without them having any need to read any communication.
I don’t know about all of you but I am definitely looking forward to see what new social media platforms come out in the near future.
Emerging Media and the Market ... from the eyes of a Graduate Student 
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on Twitter. I also was not an early adopter, but I definitely appreciate the power Twitter has to engage users. What fascinates me the most is how quickly messages can be shared throughout users’ networks. This also makes Twitter very useful for situations like crisis management. I joke that breaking news happens on Twitter, then people gripe about it on Facebook. Twitter’s 140 character format lends itself to quick messages and is a great platform for disseminating information quickly. To your question about words or pictures, I side with pictures. Tweets that contain photos average a 35% boost in retweets!