Twitter can help a brand or business in multiple ways – it can be used as a customer service tool; it can build an engaging community of potential consumers and then allow businesses to share common interests and listen to what and how that community thinks; it can also act as a platform for launching or promoting products or company announcements.
According to US-based content creation company Visually, 74 per cent of Twitter users follow small-to-medium businesses to receive updates on future products while 60 per cent of users who follow a small business on the platform have purchased an item because of Twitter.
Success on the social media network relies on three main elements: understanding how it actually works; listening to the target audience; and tweeting the right content at the right time.
The first two are largely individual choices and skills that can be acquired but the third is a little tricky – it can be difficult to come up with different formats of content to engage with audiences on a regular basis. However, if retailers want to gain a loyal following on Twitter, they have to consistently provide their audience with great content.
Anyone can put together 140 characters and call it a tweet but that doesn’t work the same way with businesses. Tweets need to provide compelling content that sparks engagement with the intended audience. Here is a list of ideas to get the ball rolling.
Leverage photo collages
Twitter’s photo collage feature allows businesses to take communication beyond the 140 characters and add depth to messages. People love visual elements and what industry lends itself better to aesthetically pleasing photos than the jewellery industry? Collages are a great way to promote business activities, such as new products that have just landed in store and exciting discoveries at trade shows.
While on the topic of images, ensure all visuals are high quality as grainy or pixelated pictures cause a sore spot in followers’ eyes. As a guide, appropriate specifications for images would be 1024 pixels x 512 pixels.
Offer free tips and tricks
Product-related tips or other useful bits of information should be shared with followers. People nowadays are extremely busy and are always on the lookout for quick and easy solutions that can help them save time and increase productivity. For example, if a jeweller posted a story on their business blog about top tips for jewellery storage, they could then create a small Twitter video and share it with a link to the blog post.
Run contests
If there is one sure-fire way to increase engagement and generate brand awareness, it’s through contests. As such, jewellers would be wise to promote any in-store or online competitions via a tweet. Just make sure the rules aren’t too complicated to understand and don’t ask too much of audiences.
Real-time tweeting
Tweeting about live events is a great way to keep consumers in the loop and have them coming back for similar updates.
Sending out tweets about a store launch event or buying day with visuals can generate a tonne of excitement as they provide followers with the feeling they are a part of the celebrations. MTV, for instance, was live tweeting during the entire American Music Awards, encouraging people to not only follow updates but join the conversation.
Integrating global events
Creating an exclusive hashtag for a business that relates to a particular campaign or event will help any tweet to stand out from the crowd. When creating hashtags, mention the business name plus event plus a catchy keyword. A good example comes from online retailer Flipkart, which recently ran a contest to celebrate World TV day using the hashtag #TVDayWithFlipkart. Cartier also showcased its new season collection effectively with #CartierSummer.
Use third-party tools
Finally, there is an enormous amount of tools that have been developed to help businesses increase their success on Twitter.
Notable mentions for jewellery brands and retailers include Swayy, a content discovery tool that provides custom-curated content; Buffer, which offers advice on the right time to make a post; and Twitter’s Advance Search feature – many people don’t consider this function but it is actually a useful tool for finding content as well as popular people, hashtags and photos.