8 Essentials of a Twitter Marketing Plan for 2012
Just like any other area of business, we need to make a plan for how we are going to go about something. Sometimes we have these in our head when we are running a small business, but there is nothing like getting it down on paper to have a second look at what we are really thinking. So what is a Twitter marketing plan? How do we go about it, and what are the important points of how to do it well. Like all online marketing and SEO (search engine optimisation) strategies, we need to make a plan. Here are the essential steps to good Twitter strategies and social media combinations.
- Goals. Goals are our reasons for doing anything. Writing them down will allow us to see a lot more than just our goals. We can analyse our own motivations, and look at what we are really trying to do. Planning is more than just making a plan; it is a process of analysis. Sometimes when we find out more about our motives, we might actually change what we thought we were going to do. Your goals should be very specific, for example, increasing numbers of visitors to a blog by 10% within 6 weeks.
- Goal Management and Optimisation. Now that you have started writing down your goals, you may have found you are working on more than one project. You might have to set up a number of projects because you have discovered you had a number of goals, and so managing them will become important. When you have discovered you have more than one goal, work through them separately, and look at where elements of the workloads are overlapping. Optimisation of your work load just makes sense.
- Targeting. It is important we know which segments of our clients we are targeting. Our goals, management of them, will highlight a lot about each segment. Know the segments of your market. Know the difference between whom you have included already in your following, and look at how to get more of the types you are looking for.
- Hashtags. Analysis of which hashtags are going to be important for your Tweets is your next step. Again, all above will influence these. Hashtagging correctly will focus your messages, and those hashtags may be different depending on your targets, goals, and optimisation.
- Keywords. Keywords and key phrases are essential to finding your Tweets in search. Your should know a lot about your keywords, key phrases, Meta tags, Meta descriptions, and they should all match. This way you keep all of your Twitter marketing and your website marketing optimised. Key phrases can also relate to your brand and your image. Get your readers used to the way you communicate.
- Time and Tweet Management. How many accounts do you want to use? Do you want to approach as a user, or as someone from your company? Too many Tweets and you will become irrelevant. Multiple accounts may be the better option. There are many software programs to help you manage the timing.
- Keep it Simple. As a final note, the best strategies are simple. We can implement our strategies and let those procedures become habitual. Only then is it advised to add newer elements to your goals and plans. Building up credibility of time is better than running out of steam because we tried too hard too fast.
- Account Linking. While we want to makes sure we are linking to the right accounts, we don’t want to be linking too many social media accounts because we might be getting the same message out too many times to the same people. Overkill will kill.
The business of online marketing with content is certainly a tricky business and it might turn out to be a lot more work than you thought. Step-by-step strategies work the best.