At Twilert, we love talking to other brands who rode the wave with us when Twitter was first created, back when the social channel was mainly a hangout for celebrities and their fans. Twitter has since evolved, to prove itself as an established social media platform for SMEs and the biggest challenge Marketing Managers now face, is how to be seen and heard above the competition.

New Twitter Features

If you’re looking for some new ways to freshen up your brand’s feed, check out our 9 new things to try on Twitter this year:

1. Start a debate

Twitter is the perfect place to create a debate on a subject you are passionate about. Decide on the theme of the topic, a related hashtag and reach out to four or five key influencers who you think might be interested in taking part. Once you’ve set your time and date, publicise the debate hashtag and let twitter search do the rest.

2. Join a Twitterchat

A Twitterchat is an interactive conversation where users meet on Twitter at a predetermined time to discuss a specific topic or area. Twitterchats are tracked through a specific hashtag which, as the moderator, you can choose. Twitterchats have been happening for a while now and are a great way to network with new contacts, share expertise and divulge the people behind your brand. Some examples of twitter chats to get you started can be found through this link.

3. Go behind the scenes

What better way to help your followers feel an affinity with your brand than to take them behind the scenes into the heart of your business? Don’t be afraid to tweet office pics, an insight into your team’s latest charity initiative or a short video . Users are more likely to buy from brands they feel a personal affiliation with, and taking them behind the scenes of your twitter account is a great way to make this connection.

4. Organise a Tweetup

If you’re a regular Twitter user it’s likely that there are people you converse with regularly but who you haven’t yet met in person. There’s not much that can beat the power of a face-to-face meetup so work out when you’ll next be in the same area and organise to go for a coffee. Chances are, if you like the advice and content they provide on Twitter, this will translate in person.

5. Tell a story

The best social media managers know how to combine different channels to enhance their overall social media storytelling. Use sites such as Storify which allow you to easily pull in tweets and mentions to create a story of your product launch or your company’s development over the past 6 months. It will give you a nice memoir to look back on, while also creating an engaging story about your brand.

6. Bring your offline, online

So many companies miss out on the great opportunities that occur when a brand knows how to engage the offline world on its online channels. Try some newsjacking by asking your followers what they think of a breaking story affecting your industry. Hold a round table discussion and double the number of attendees by asking followers to tweet in their questions or opinions, then record and tweet a short video in response.

7. Pay it forward

Twitter users are some of your biggest brand advocates and you should always reward these followers where you can. Make it your aim to connect at least three times a week by either sharing content you think is particularly interesting, telling someone how much you loved their article or simply by doing a shout out to help an account you like to get discovered.

8. Have an account takeover

An account takeover doesn’t necessarily have to involve a celebrity. It can be just as fun to hand over the reins to someone in your organisation who may be more “behind the scenes” than your usual social media manager. Predefine the time the takeover will happen and allow them to tweet insights into their working day as well as answering questions from your customers about their role.

9. Organise a charity effort

There’s nothing that brings the twitter community together quite like a charity effort and Twitter is the perfect channel where clients can feel involved without a huge commitment of time or resource. Why not organise a “Christmas Jumper” or fancy dress day and tell clients you will donate £1 for every picture they tweet in, or have a charity bake sale and ask your followers to vote on photos of the best entries.

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