What is Twitter and How does it work?
If you’ve heard of Twitter but not sure what it is,we thought we’d give you an overview of exactly what it is, how it works, and why you should consider adding it into your social media marketing plans.
The best definition of what Twitter is (in our view) is on Wikipedia which states:-
“Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as ‘tweets’. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.
Senders can restrict deliver to those in their circle of contacts or by default allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, SMS or external applications. The service itself costs nothing to use (although SMS may incur phone service provider fees).
There is a 140 character limit on message length – which was set to allow compatibility with SMS messaging. Since its creation in 2006, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide.
So in effect Twitter allows you to post small regular comments about yourself, your organisation or pretty much anything you want to share with anyone. The phrase micro-blogging is the very best description.
Traffic to Twitter has been phenomenal and no politician worth his/her salt would now not exist without a Twitter account and pretty much every journalist now users Twitter as a source of information and comment from celebs on current issues.
Traffic to Twitter has increased in excess of 1,500+ in the last year alone.
Setting up a Twitter page is quite straight forward, but gaining followers is a little more tricky. Twitter likes to ensure that you gain a certain ‘credibility’ before it allows you to follow too many people. As a rule of thumb it like sto see the ratio of followers to following being equal'ish up to aroud 1,800 followers, once you have reached around that number you can then go on to follow more yourself.
Twitter is at the centre of many organisations social media marketing strategies and can drive real quantifiable returns on investment, with some retailers seeing instant sales as a result of tweeting about new products, special offers and sales.
We assist in getting the most out of Twitter for many of our clients and if you would like to find out more about how you can maximise the power of Twitter, simply call our Social Media Marketing experts on 0844 871 7272.