In a podcast last month, marketing gurus Neil Patel and Eric Siu raised the question:
Should you even use Twitter in 2020?
Discussing whether Twitter is still worth it from a marketing perspective, they mused that while Twitter posts don’t always result in significant amounts of traffic to a brand's website, the quality of traffic it does attract is really high, particularly in the B2B realm.
They also considered Twitter’s value as an engagement tool, concluding that the micro-interactions between brand and potential customers is very powerful, and difficult to replicate in the same way on other social media platforms.
The conclusion was yes, marketers should still be using Twitter in 2020. But it came with a caveat. To make it worthwhile, they considered that brands need to be taking a more thoughtful and strategic approach to their Twitter activity.
In this blog post, we dig into the Twitter opportunity a little more and demonstrate why Twitter is still a viable marketing opportunity in 2020. We also look at the latest Twitter marketing trends and provide tips for how to maximise your impact on Twitter for the year ahead.
There are currently 330 million Twitter users worldwide - and 145 million daily active users. That’s a huge pool of buyers to tap into and engage with.
Research also shows that B2B marketers are still considering Twitter an effective marketing tool - 67% of B2B businesses use the platform for digital marketing purposes.
It appears to be working too. 40% of Twitter users have purchased something after seeing it on Twitter.
Twitter has had its fair share of negative press attention in recent years, from political propaganda and fake accounts to severe harassment cases.
It might have put people off for a time, but this year growth is back up to the highest level seen since 2015. Besides, Twitter has been working to correct many of these problems, including a serious clean-up effort to remove spam and bot accounts.
So who is using Twitter?
Twitter is more popular among men than women - recent figures show 66% of users are male and 34% are female. Although usage may be more skewed towards men, as a general trend, women tend to interact with brands on social media more than men do.
63% of Twitter users worldwide are between 35-65 years old, which reveals Twitter to be an attractive social media option for an audience that’s more mature than that of Instagram and Snapchat.
These stats are worth bearing in mind when thinking about whether Twitter is right for connecting with your audience.
To get your brand's voice heard, you need a clear Twitter marketing strategy to push you ahead of the competition. To build a winning strategy, you might find some inspiration from these top Twitter marketing trends for 2020.
Video is one of the top ways to engage with an audience on Twitter. Research shows that tweets with videos get over six times as many retweets as tweets with photos. Videos on Twitter can be used to inform, educate and entertain. Check out our top tips on using video for social media.
Live broadcasts allow companies to take video engagement one step further. Twitter expert Madalyn Sklar says, “When you’re broadcasting live, you’ll see all the comments, you’ll see the conversation happening, and you can actually talk to people and it makes for a really fun way to converse with your community.”
Twitter’s “Trends for you” section is a helpful tool for directing users to trending topics based on their personal preferences. Businesses are taking advantage of this feature and creating content that aligns with trending topics in order to engage with their audience.
See how The Royal Society of Literature took advantage of #NationalStressAwarenessDay with this tweet:
Businesses can also identify which topics are trending in their own personalised social networks, rather than across the web as a whole, by following “Trends For You”.
You can plan ahead and create content around upcoming holidays, events and even popular hashtags. Or, hop on conversations in real-time as they unfold. This will help you to both gain exposure and demonstrate relevance.
Twitter chats are public conversations organised around a specific topic on Twitter. They happen at an arranged time, with a specific hashtag. They are a great way to connect with your audience and share viewpoints about particular topics. It enables brands to get more active Twitter followers, i.e. people who engage with you through retweets, comments and likes, as opposed to just using the platform to silently consume content.
Start by getting involved in Twitter chats related to your industry. Find where your target audience is active, ready to engage, and join the conversation. Ensure your focus is on discussion and conversation rather than simply selling your products and services.
If you’re at an industry event, or even hosting an event, try live-tweeting. This is a great way to connect with a wider audience as it brings in people who aren’t there in the physical space to join in the conversation.
How about this for a pretty powerful example of using live-tweeting to connect with people? When Ellen DeGeneres tweeted this from the Oscars a few years ago, it almost made people feel like they were there too, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Brangelina.
In 2020, Twitter should be less about broadcasting and more about conversation. According to Sprout Social, being more conversational means higher engagement, which results in additional activity for your Twitter account in the long run. The social media management platform have also put together some useful tips on how to be more conversational on Twitter:
Here at Equinet, we often pose questions in our Tweets. It has the effect of drawing people in and getting them thinking about their own views or behaviours, and encourages them to connect. Here’s a recent example:
As we move into 2020, Twitter will remain a great platform for sharing information and content, interacting with buyers, driving engagement, networking and building brand presence. Hopefully, some of the trends we’ve explored will provide you with some fresh inspiration for how to do these things effectively.
Finally, it’s helpful to remember some important elements of a winning Twitter strategy, like setting clear objectives - and measuring results. As well as planning your tweets ahead of time; aligning them to your blog calendar and wider campaigns.
So don't underestimate the power of the humble Tweet, and make sure you're getting your voice heard on Twitter in 2020.