5 Twitter Tips & Tricks for Salons & Spas
Weighing in at over 346 million monthly active users, Twitter is no small-fry on the social media scene and, if used properly, can be a powerful marketing tool for you. Setting up a Twitter account is easy. What is less simple is growing a following and using it as a tool to generate leads and build a brand, and then engaging with a target audience and interacting with them.
What sets Twitter apart from other social media networks is the ability to share information and content, drive engagement for promotional activities, interact with consumers, and use the platform for networking, branding, and reputation management, all in the blink of an eye and solely with short-form content. Twitter’s primary use is interaction as opposed to casting a wide net and broadcasting content.
The big question surrounding Twitter for years has been how to get more followers, when it should be how to get more active Twitter followers. These five tips should help.
Tip #1: Keep It Simple
Twitter is the epitome of the human attention span deficit. Everything about the platform encourages short, sweet and to the point encounters, starting with your Twitter handle and ending with the 280-character limit.
Your Twitter handle should be recognizable (no random numbers or punctuation marks), relevant, easy to remember, and short enough for users to tag them. If people need to type more than a few characters to find you, they’re likely to give up trying. Long handles are also less likely to be tagged due to character count limits. It’s also important to maintain consistency with brand name across all social media platforms.
A clean, simple profile picture is also beneficial and makes your brand easy to distinguish. Using your company logo is a great option, and the cleaner and simpler the logo, the better.
Bonus Tip: Employees with personal accounts who are trying to promote their services on Twitter (i.e. hair stylists) should use a professional headshot against a solid, neutral-toned background as their profile image.
Your Twitter bio should follow these same guidelines. Neil Patel, entrepreneur and marketing maven, offers these helpful hints for merchants to consider when crafting your Twitter bio:
- Tell people exactly who your brand is and what it represents.
- Don’t be afraid to infuse some personality or humor.
- It’s okay to brag a little. Talk about any accomplishments or unique characteristics that set you apart.
- Write with your target audience in mind.
- Include relevant hashtags.
- Tag other brands you may be affiliated with.
Tip #2: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
We all know the adage. Organization is key when planning any social media activity, but it is especially true for this fast-paced platform. Sprout Social recommends coming up with campaigns two to three weeks in advance.
Along the same vein, you should have a posting schedule that details what and when you plan on Tweeting. Including as much detail as possible (links to new posts and other updates, etc.).
Bonus Tip: Sending out links to content only once is one of the biggest mistakes brands make on social media, especially on Twitter. Tweeting links once almost ensure that most users won’t see that content, so it’s important to send out links multiple times and ensure that they are spaced out so as many people as possible will see it.
In planning when they should Tweet, you should consider that there are certain days of the week and times of day when users are more active on the platform and, therefore, more likely to see and engage with your content. While these days and times may vary based on time zone and target demographic, in general, Buffer estimates that Tweets posted Friday through Sunday have higher click-through rates than those posted Monday through Thursday. However, some studies show the complete opposite. Some studies show that peak hours to post Tweets are around lunchtime and evening commutes. Neil Patel suggests posting every hour seven days a week at a minimum. If that seems a little overwhelming, it’s best to start small and build from there. What that means is that you will have to do some testing of your own to find out what days and times work out best for your brand.
Whether you are posting three times a day or 40 times a day, it’s always recommended to use a scheduling tool for most Tweets. This allows you to plan well in advance.
Tip #3: Utilize the Optimal Number of #Hashtags
Tweets that contain hashtags receive twice as much engagement as those that don’t, but only to a point. Any more that two hashtags and engagement drops by 17%. The optimal number of hashtags on Twitter is 1-2.
If you are only getting a maximum of two hashtags before they become irrelevant, then you will want to make sure you’re using the best possible hashtags for your post. Using the appropriate number of hashtags isn’t enough. You must also use the right hashtags to attract followers.
Hashtags should add context to Tweets and there are a couple of tools you can use to suggest what those might be. You can then assess the effectiveness of the hashtags they choose by utilizing Twitter Analytics to see how well their chosen
Tip #4: Visuals Outperform Every Time
Posts with a multimedia component drive engagement.
Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites, and 150% more retweets than those without.
Video outperforms every other kind of content on every social media platform. On Twitter, videos receive 10 times more engagement and are 6 times more likely to be retweeted than Tweets that do not contain video.
Users want more visual content, so why not give it to them?
Tip #5: Twitter Chats = Active Followers
Twitter chats are basically public conversations on Twitter surrounding a unique hashtag. They are usually recurring and revolve around specific topics aimed at connecting people with the same interests. Twitter chats can be difficult to run, especially for beginners, but running and/or participating in industry-related Twitter chats can be a great way for you to promote your brand and engage in the larger community at an accelerated pace.
The people that participate in Twitter chats are the ones that are actively engaging on the network. These are the people who are using Twitter for its intended purpose: to interact. These are also the people who are more likely to reply to your Tweets, retweet their content and amplify your message.
Wrap Up
Twitter is lightning fast. Those 346 million users generate nearly 8,500 new tweets posted every second, which makes the average lifespan of one tweet less than 18 minutes. It’s easy to get lost in the void.
That means that not only do you need to keep your Twitter account updated and ensure you are posting often; you need to post content that packs a punch and catches users’ attention.
Stay tuned for our final social installment, thanks for reading! Share this post below, we appreciate it!
