Twitter is one of the best and easiest ways a company can quickly and effectively reach their market. But it's not enough for marketing gurus to become complacent using the service – with the social media website's upcoming IPO, they're aiming to shake up their business practices. However, catching up to one of two new planned concepts and features before they become prevalent will likely help anyone using the service to improve the effectiveness of their tweets. Employers are looking for marketers who understand how to best use Twitter and other social media tools to improve branding and increase consumer engagement. A marketer's modern resume is sure to feature examples of how he or she boosted campaign performance using some of the following tips:
Direct Messaging to Non-Followers
One upcoming feature Twitter plans to unveil in the near future has been reported by Mashable. A new option for direct messaging, or DM, will soon allow users to receive DMs from anyone. In the past, to send DMs to one another, users had to follow each other on the service – now, that feature is open to anyone. While Twitter users will have to opt-in to the new service option, those who do will be prime candidates for advertising. What's more, the now-common practice of bad press through the service, where users having bad experiences can put their opinions on blast throughout the entire world, will now be highly reduced.
To take advantage of this, companies need to be smart and selective about their use. Those who opt to send a wide variety of DMs will see themselves marked as spammers, their social media credibility torpedoed. Instead, the service should be used in a targeted fashion, focusing on users within certain demographics. The outreach won't just be limited to consumers, either – getting the buzz out about a new feature or product will be easier than ever, needing as little as one successful DM to a reporter.
Pre-Planning Tweets
The publishing schedule and need for social media employers to be glued to Twitter will soon be much less necessary. According to AdWeek, Twitter marketers will now be able to plan out tweets for up to a year in advance of the current sate.
"With scheduled tweets, you can publish content at any time without having staff on-call to tweet on evenings, weekends, holidays or other inconvenient times," said Twitter's ad division product manager, Christine Lee, on the company's blog. "Advertisers also gain the flexibility to plan content in advance for events like premieres and product releases."
The advantages inherent in this new feature speak for themselves. Holiday-themed and time-sensitive information can now be scheduled and displayed at companies' choice. However, the feature won't be a panacea – to avoid brand damage, remaining aware of the company's current timeline information will be necessary. Should a breaking news event cast a certain shadow over the events of a day, a pre-planned tweet can spell disaster.
