The Science of Great Tweets for Ad Agency New Business

the science of Twitter for ad agency new business

This is a guide to highlight the best tips, practices and studies to help your agency succeed on Twitter.

Ever since I learned that only 1% of internet participants actively create original content, I knew that I needed to be in this elite group of Twitter accounts whose content is being read and shared by others.

I’ve been actively creating content since 2007, a year after Twitter was founded. I write articles about tips, tactics and trends for advertising, digital, media and Public Relations professionals. Twitter helped to accelerate the search rankings of my content and has generated more traffic to my website than any other tool.

Just  like using the best SEO practices, it’s important to know the best Twitter practices to deliver highly targeted online traffic for your agency.

A recent webinar co-hosted by Twitter and Buffer provides some of the best practices for creating awareness and appeal through Twitter along with how to measure and improve tweeting for business.

The webinar is entitled, “The Science of Creating Must Click Content on Twitter”.  The session was led by @CourtneySeiter, head of content marketing at Buffer and @JimmyHang, marketing manager on Twitter’s S&B team.

Here are some of the highlights, along with my insights and some additional Twitter resources.

How to Write A Great Tweet

  • Your tweets should be conversational
  • Avoid using business jargon
  • Think about the kind of  content that will be consumed and shared by followers
  • Creating content that is newsworthy, inspirational or even humorous helps to draw in your followers
  • Writing your own content that is written in your own voice is important to for Twitter success
  • Research by Track Social found that the sweet spot for the right Tweet length is 100 characters.

 Viral Words and Phrases

Twitter is powerful for amplifying your content.

78% of user engagement with a brand’s Tweets is in the form of Retweets, according to Salesforce research.

Dan Zarrella of Hubspot compared common words  Tweets vs ReTweets to create this list of the top 10 words most likely to get retweeted:

  1. you
  2. twitter
  3. please
  4. retweet
  5. post
  6. blog
  7. social
  8. free
  9. media
  10. help

To help your content spread, check out additional information from a headline data study of the top words and phrases, conducted by a company called Ripen,

Additional insights to make your Tweets more viral:

  • Tweets that specifically ask followers to “Retweet” receive 12 times higher retweet rates than those that do not, according to  Salesforce.
  • Tweets that contain action words, more verbs, fewer nouns,  have a higher click-through rate than tweets with more nouns and adjectives.
  • Tweets containing “via,” “@,” “RT,” “please,” and “check” had higher click through rates.
  • You can supercharge your Tweets by adding Vine or YouTube videos or photos. It can double engagements.
  • A Norwegian business school experimenting with different headline structures, found that question headlines referencing the reader were the most effective.

Measuring, Testing and Revising

When I first started using Twitter, I conducted many of my own tests to determine the best day/time to post. A tool called ManageFlitter can help you to pinpoint the most optimum times of each day when the greatest number of your followers are on Twitter. In addition to ManageFlitter, I recommend these helpful Twitter tools:

  • Socialoomph to schedule and repurpose your content
  • Bitly a URL shortener and tracker
  • HootsuitePro to schedule, manage and manage manual Tweets

Measuring your progress and using various tools will help you to greatly improve your success with Twitter.

Buffer’s head of content marketing, Courtney Selter’s suggests the following 5 key metrics you should include:

  1. Follower growth: How many new followers you get every day, week or month.
  2. Follower quality and engagement: How many users interact with your account.
  3. Reach: How many users favorite or retweet your Tweets.
  4. Clicks: How many users click on your links.
  5. Conversion: How many users sign up for your service or buy your product.

The following is the SlideShare presentation deck from, “The Science of Creating Must Click Content on Twitter” webinar.

 

For more helpful information on Twitter, check out the following presentations, studies and guides:

You may also be interested in viewing the  following 30 minute video of this webinar, “The Science of Creating Must Click Content on Twitter”.

About Michael Gass

Consultant | Trainer | Author | Speaker

Since 2007, he has been pioneering the use of social media, inbound and content marketing strategies specifically for agency new business.

He is the founder of Fuel Lines Business Development, LLC, a firm which provides business development training and consulting services to advertising, digital, media and PR agencies.

%d bloggers like this: