Many introverts shy away from Twitter, hating the idea of sharing themselves online. However, you don’t need to tweet about your breakfast or share endless selfies to create an effective online persona. Here are 5 strategies for an effective Twitter feed that keep you in the background while promoting your brand.
1. Treat Twitter Like a Trade Title
Curate posts from trade magazines in your industry. Add some insight from leading influencers on Twitter. Retweet news stories that affect your sector and share photographs of conference presentations or new work you’ve done.
By creating an interesting feed full of useful information, you’ll attract relevant people, without having to interact on a more personal level (though it’s only polite to at least like it when someone shares one of your posts – and if you can say thank you, so much the better). Add in slideshows with your own insight and white papers or blog posts you’ve written for improved results.
2. Treat Twitter Like an Educator
There are thousands of educational articles online, about every aspect of business, along with courses (including accredited ones), many of which are free. People engage with useful content on social media, so share these links, along with research, funding opportunities, and information about conferences and calls for papers, to give your followers an inspirational education without having to say much yourself.
This approach will attract a more academic audience, along with useful business contacts. By following academics back, you can get access to more quality research that can be shared, and used to help people learn. Similar to treating Twitter like a trade title, this approach can help establish you as an expert in your area, and present your brand as being ‘in the know’.
3. Treat Twitter Like a Gallery
Pictures get higher engagement than text or links alone. Share photographs, teamed with relevant hashtags (eg, a picture of new POS material could be accompanied with text reading, “Every touchpoint should be considered in #retail.”)
Posting images without any text at all can also be effective, particularly if you have a multi-lingual audience. A picture paints a thousand words…
4. Treat Twitter like a TV Channel
If photos are good, videos are better – and don’t think you have to invest in making hours of film. TedX, The RSA and Forbes are just a few of the places you can find videos to link to, and intersperse with your own content on your feed.
Adding live footage (for example, of a conference speaker) is also worth considering – and don’t think everything has to be polished. Authenticity reaps rewards in current communications.
5. Treat Twitter like a Radio Station
Similarly, there are many excellent podcasts available, along with music streaming galore. Curate a blend of spoken word and musical content to create your own radio station – without any need for you to act as a presenter. Add audio snippets and live streamed conferences to boost this further.
By taking a social media approach that you feel comfortable with, you’re more likely to stay on top of posting. If you’re not sure which approach suits you best, try a mix of all of them: or get in touch with Onyx and we can do it all for you.
“Treat Twitter like an educator” – I love this! Whenever anyone challenges me about the importance of Twitter, this is always the first message I give them. Would you be interested in sharing this post with our community on creators.co? I think a lot of our young readers and writers would get a lot from this.