What is Twitter & why is it important: Twitter has gained popularity over time in a considerable way. It gives you a great opportunity to interact with people. This happens because when the people who have followed you, are connected to the latest news.
Twitter is very essential social media platform & it can help you more than you realize. Let us tell you how. But when we talk about Twitter let’s explain in-depth about this Social Media Platform.
Twitter is an online social networking service that allows people to post and read short 280-character* statuses called “tweets”. It was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass and launched by July 2006. It gained quick worldwide.
Features of Twitter
- Tweets
A Tweet is to Twitter what status is to Facebook. By default settings, tweets are publicly visible, but there is an option to restrict the audience to just the followers. People who have accounts on Twitter can tweet via the website, applications on smartphones.
- Retweet
Retweeting is when a tweet is forwarded via Twitter by people. The retweeted tweet will be displayed on your Twitter timeline. Both tweets and retweets can be tracked to see which ones are most popular.
- Followers
Followers are the people who follow/subscribe to your account. These followers are the people who can see your tweets. They can check the people who are unsubscribing them on Twitter (“unfollowing”). In addition, users can block those who have followed them.
- Lists
A list is a curated group of Twitter users. It has three uses that have become most visible
- Lists as a way of organizing your followers.
- Lists as a form of recommendation.
- Lists as a way of measuring influence.
Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream of Tweets from only the users on that list.
- Favourites
These are represented by a small star icon in a Tweet, are most commonly used when users like a Tweet. Favoriting a Tweet can let the original poster know that you liked their Tweet, or you can save the Tweet for later.
What is Twitter & why is it important?
The Advantages of Twitter:
- Hashtags
When a new company or person starts a Twitter, they are baffled about the use and meaning of the “hashtags.”
What is a hashtag? Is it necessary? What words should I hash-tag?
Everyone is aware that a lot of social media skills over the past few years have come through trial and error. If you scroll through your Twitter list, you see that some words are being hashed. The reason behind this is simple, yet complex.
Once you hashtag a word all account users can see it even those who aren’t following you & can see your tweets and content that you put out on various social media sites. It goes into the hashtag universe. In short, people are only one hashtagged word away from possibly being seen by thousands, if not millions of people through social media.
Having said this, it is generally suggested that one only uses hashtags for 1-3 words per tweet. You don’t want to flood your tweets with hashed words that make your brand or company look like spam thereby decreasing its popularity & business.
Simple & Smart Mode of Communication
Another advantage of using Twitter is that it is a very quick & easy way of transmitting the information. The news you read in the newspaper or watch on T.V. has already been tweeted & retweeted approx a hundred times before you even saw it. Information on Twitter travels at lightning speed. So this makes everyone be up to date.
Twitter allows one to communicate directly with the target market audience & it can be done almost instantaneously thereby saving time.
- Twitter Cards
With Twitter Cards, you can attach rich photos, videos and media experience to Tweets that drive traffic to your website. Simply add a few lines of HTML to your webpage, and users who Tweet links to your content will have a “Card” added to the Tweet that’s visible to all of their followers
10 Ways Buying a Lamborghini Is an Investment in Your Business http://t.co/C1BMPSip6u
Entrepreneur (@Entrepreneur) June 20, 2015
They give you the following benefits:
Your posts would be looked at across platforms (anyone who shares content that has Twitter cards code in place will produce the same media-rich tweets).
More traffic to your site and increased the number of people followers.
Custom titles and descriptions for your photo or URL (a lot of extra room above and beyond the tweet’s standard 280!).
Now Twitter also gives one the option to share GIFs.
Starting today, you can share and view animated GIFs on http://t.co/wJD8Fp317i, Android and iPhone. pic.twitter.com/XBrAbOm4Ya
— Twitter Support (@Support) June 18, 2014
The number of people using Twitter has increased by more than 50 million in the past year. The network now has over 270 million active users.
Over 300 billion tweets have been shared since the network launched.
The average Twitter user follows five or more businesses. Over a third (37%) of Twitter users will buy from a brand they follow.
In 2013, Twitter generated $716 million in Auto Sales. The best returns were on luxury model cars. For every $1 invested in Twitter marketing, luxury car brands saw a return of $17.80. That’s a return of 1,780%.
Twitter, if used well, can generate quite a few leads for your business or brand. Time has come that people start promoting their business through Twitter. Many brands and businesses already have a Twitter handle and have already started running the race, where are you?
