How to Attract Customers With Twitter An Introductory Guide For The Property Sector

PR Marketing Search Social Author Page: Gerald Heneghan

Gerald Heneghan is a content marketing specialist, who combines a background in journalism with a genuine passion for technology and SEO.

Follow him on Twitter @GeraldHeneghan

PR Marketing Search Social Table of Contents

Using Twitter for Marketing ……………4

Optimising Twitter for Search…………..10

Twitter Etiquette…………....14

Kick Starting Your Lead Generation……….….21

Measuring the ROI of Twitter……….….27

Conclusion……….….32

PR Marketing Search Social Chapter 1 Using Twitter for Marketing

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 1: Using Twitter for Marketing “36% of all We live in a marketing world of 100 million active Twitter accounts. marketers have found a customer So what does that mean? Just because Twitter is omnipresent doesn’t mean it’s automatically via Twitter.” going to help your property company when you Source: Hubspot State of Inbound Marketing start tweeting.

While it can certainly help with your brand image - that’s just for starters. It can also have a direct impact on sales.

In this guide you’ll learn how to turn fans of your business into leads, which can then be qualified and passed on to your sales team.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 1: Optimising your Twitter Profile “Approximately 46% In a world limited to 140 characters, it’s not hard of online users to go unnoticed. So any chance you can get to set yourself apart, to make yourself unique and count on social visible, you should grab it. media when making For over a year now, Twitter has made it a purchase possible for companies to create their own official brand pages. Let’s take a look at how decision.” these pages can be set up to help your business. Source: Nielsen As companies in the property sector can be highly diverse in terms of the products and/or services they offer - we'll try and keep our advice as general as possible throughout.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 1: Set The Right Measurements Optimising your Twitter Profile Once you open up your design software, the Custom Background first thing you want to do is create a new You can start by creating a custom background background with the right measurements: using any design software, or adapting your existing logo. Width: 2048 pixels Height: 1900 pixels Read the step-by-step instructions below and Resolution: 72 pixels inch follow along during this video tutorial so you can create a terrific Twitter background. By the way, Twitter backgrounds are static and don’t scroll down as users scroll down a profile page.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 1: Add Your Text Optimising your Twitter Profile Now let’s focus on that “safe spot” - the Choose A Background Color/Image 300-pixel wide, left-hand column space.

You can either make your entire canvas one color or you can insert an image that takes up What you choose to place there should the entire background. If it is an image, here reflect your company’s brand identity. are two things to think about. Elements to consider are your logo, • First, make sure you own the rights to company name, brief bio, and website and that image. Social media URLs. • Second, remember that the majority of that image is going to be covered by the Twitter feed. It may not look so great when the As for your company description it’s best if central part of the image is hidden. it’s simple and brief. After all, your audience likes 140 character updates for a For starters, we usually recommend a solid color, it’s safe and usually easy on the eyes. reason.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 1: Upload Your Background To Twitter Optimising your Twitter Profile With your image files ready to go, head over Save Your File Correctly to the “settings” on your companyTwitter

Of course you will save your file in a place profile. where you can find it. What you may not know is in what format to save it. You can find it on the drop-down menu under

Twitter accepts three file types: JPG, PNG, or your Twitter username on the upper right- GIF. Also make sure that the image size does hand side. From “settings,” click the “design” not exceed 800K. Anything bigger and tab and select “change background image.” Twitter won’t accept it.

Most design programs give you ways to Upload your background, save changes, and reduce your file size if you need to. For in an instant your awesome background will example, in PhotoShop you are given the option of adjusting image quality when appear. saving a file, which brings down the size without deteriorating the quality.

PR Marketing Search Social Chapter 2 Optimising Twitter for Search

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 2: Optimising Twitter for Search

With your new brand page you are all dressed up for the Twitter world. Now let’s make sure people can find you in search engine results. After all, what you want is to have your Twitter handle and updates impact your entire marketing program by helping your business rank in search for industry keywords.

We’re not talking about ranking higher than your website or key landing pages. We’re talking about being a bit greedy – having your Twitter posts rank a few links below your key pages. It’s a way that you can dominate the first one or two pages of the search engines.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 2: Build Your Reach Optimising Twitter for Search You want to build a following, and Include Keywords In Bio increasing your numbers is good. But even

When it comes to your bio, Twitter is better from a search perspective is gaining most generous. It gives you an additional quality followers. 20 characters. That’s right, 160 characters worth of information can be used in your bio. The algorithms for both Google and Bing check the authority of every user tweeting But that’s still not a lot and it has to be content. “We do compute and use author readable. So don’t riddle this ‘about’ section with industry keywords. Think quality,” said a Google representative. “We about one that’s key to your business and don’t know who anyone is in real life.” will help you improve search visibility. Then write your bio in a way that is attention grabbing, because if someone finds you through your Twitter bio, you want to make the right impression.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 2: Create Your Own Inbound Links Optimising Twitter for Search A bland tweet will not gain you much Keep Tweet Lengths In RT Safe Zone traction. Google and Bing have said they

So you think Twitter is all about 140 register the value of Twitter authority characters? Well, actually, in the world of figures and correlate it with the value of re-tweets, you should be thinking about the link posted. tweets that are 120 characters.

The reason for this is that when someone What this means is that if your tweet is shares your tweet via “rt @username”, they eat up about 20 characters, and if retweeted by someone who has a large your SEO-friendly keywords are at the following, the search engines will give end of your tweet, they might get lost in your retweeted link its proper value of the re-tweet. importance-- the Twitter equivalent of an Another reason to keep it shorter is that inbound link. So if you want to boost your data shows that 120-130 character tweets also have the highest click optimisation efforts, post something that through rates appeals to influencers.

PR Marketing Search Social Chapter 3 Twitter Etiquette

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 3: Twitter Etiquette

Time is a valuable commodity for all property companies – and social media monitoring can be a huge time sink.

Here are some tips that will help you monitor Twitter in a way that optimises your results, without having to reply to every tweet.

PR Marketing Search Social “64% of users are more CHAPTER 3: likely to purchase from Twitter Etiquiette businesses that answer “@Reply” In Front Of Tweet their questions on If you want to make sure your reply tweet is Twitter.” registered as a reply, you need to place the Twitter Source: InboxQ handle at the beginning of your update (e.g, “@RDPRTweets I read your...”). So before you respond, decide whether you want that tweet to be seen by everyone or not. Placing the Twitter handle elsewhere would make If you are just saying thanks, no need to make it a mention. This would mean that your reply your reply visible. would only appear on your profile page and the feeds of people who follow you both. You may If on the other hand you want others who are notice users dodging this by including a period in following you to see a positive comment about front of their tweet (.@RDPRTweets). your company, you can respond with “Hey @RDPRTweets.”

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 3: By scheduling multiple tweets at one time you can think of clever ways to promote your Twitter Etiquiette content ahead of time. Schedule, Then Monitor Furthermore, it gives you more time to follow where that content is going, how it’s being It’s always good to know what you want to tweet for the discussed, and what leads its generating for day. And we have found that allocating time in the you. morning to compose your batch of tweets for the day helps you in a number of ways. You should look at social media publisher software like HubSpot’s and Hootsuite’s that • First, it lets you see how you want to schedule your allow you to schedule multiple tweets at once. tweets – some may play better in the midday and others This automation will allow you to check in later, for example. occasionally and respond when necessary - much easier than worrying, or forgetting that • Second, it actually minimizes the time you spend you have to tweet. writing your tweets.

• Third, it’s critical if you want to schedule your tweets to be automatically published throughout the day.

PR Marketing Search Social Chapter 4 Twitter Myths

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 4: Twitter Myths

Following Industry Leaders vs. Following Customers

It is great if you follow industry leaders to learn from their insights and keep track of your competitors’ messaging. But don’t forget your customers and evangelists.

Make sure you give love to those who are willing to publicly show they follow your company and talk about you.

After all, social media is about two-way communication. And it’s also fast moving. Ignore your fans and watch how fast they unfollow you.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 4: Tweeting Every Second vs. 15-25 Tweets Per Day Twitter Myths No one is disputing the short shelf life of a tweet. But that should not give you license to tweet Longer Membership vs. Shorter Membership constantly.

So what if you were Twitter before it became Not only will tweeting too often cause your other “mainstream.” The fact is Twitter presence is tweets to move down a user’s feed almost measured by value, not by longevity. instantly, but it will also ramp up the odds of you annoying your followers. So just because your company has been tweeting HubSpot’s data shows that the sweet spot for for years doesn’t give you license to spam about increasing following is between 15-25 tweets a your product or service. People on Twitter follow day. Keep in mind, this is an average. You can those whose information helps/educates/amuses fluctuate above and below. them. So let’s change the variables – value trumps longevity.

PR Marketing Search Social Chapter 5 Kick Starting Your Lead Generation

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 5: Kick Starting Your Lead Generation

Why would you invest a lot of time and energy on marketing that did not have a return on investment (ROI)?

Many who market with Twitter don’t realise it can help you make money. Not only is it an effective communication channel, it’s also a great place to generate leads.

So how can you make Twitter work for your lead generation? This really depends on the kind of business you are in. The following are a list of ideas we’ve experienced success with. Try a few of them and test to see which works best for you.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 5: Kick Starting Your Connect your blog to your Twitter feed Lead Generation Blogging and social are two sides of the same coin and there's no better way to quickly market your content to Tweet Offers the people you want to read it.

Start with the simplest one – Share your offers. This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many businesses fail to tweet links to all their Depending on your business and the amount of posts (which should themselves have call-to-action other tweets you do in a day, make sure you featured in them). control the number of offers so you don’t appear too spammy. Make sure that your post gets tweeted the second it’s published. Many software programs, like HubSpot’s, For example, it’s okay for a recruiter to can do this automatically. repeatedly share offers to job openings because users will naturally be vested in that opportunity. However, constantly offering the same whitepaper about improving heating systems might turn people off.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 5: Kick Starting Your If you see a trending hashtag that is relevant to your tweet, include it in your updates. If you see a user Lead Generation tweeting with a particular hashtag, include it in your Hashtags retweet.

The truth about hashtags is that just adding The advantage of doing this is that your tweets can one to a tweet isn’t going to give you any reach anyone who is looking at tweets for that results. For them to be effective, you need to particular hashtag. integrate them to a marketing campaign. Don't be tempted to tag your post with irrelevant or For example, when hosting an event, create a tenuously-linked hashtags in an attempt to get more hashtag so users can chime in and you can views, however. As well as being a gross breach of aggregate a list of tweets from potential Twitter etiquette, this is highly ineffective as a leads. The hashtag will allow you interact marketing strategy. with commentary about the event and help you measure how many people are paying attention.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 5: Kick Starting Your Respond With Landing Pages Lead Generation There is absolutely nothing wrong with replying to Build Reach questions on Twitter with a helpful landing page link. In fact, answering the question with a few For any of the above ideas to work, you need words and pointing them to a solution often gives to build up your following. The more people your company greater credibility and authority. that follow and read your tweets, the higher your chance of generating leads. Of course, this step assumes you have the capability and resources to quickly whip up and publish a web The majority of social media publishing and page. analytics programs will allow you to track down relevant followers and influencers While this is relatively simple for most modern (prominent individuals that actively websites using a Content Management System, participate on social channels and have a time-strapped companies might seek to repurpose relatively large reach themselves). existing content or outsource their efforts to an individual or agency. These tools allow you to search by geographical location, the content of Twitter bios and usernames.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 5: Kick Starting Your To maximize the lead generation efforts, each chat should come paired with a certain offer – an eBook or a Lead Generation free trial of software that supports the topic. Twitter Chat Twitter chats may not work for every business, but if Have you ever been to a Twitter chat? This is your company conducts webinars or wants to be where someone or a company hosts a known as an industry leader, you should at least give discussion on Twitter. The host or expert them a try. But don’t just host one event, and if it gives followers a chance to ask questions in doesn’t work, quit. Test a few different topics and a half hour or hour period, and these formats. questions are answered in real-time.

These chats all have their own hashtags. The host (@hostname) RTs what users are saying and takes care to answer the follow-up questions that the expert was unable to get to.

PR Marketing Search Social Chapter 6 Measuring the ROI of Twitter

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 6: Measuring the ROI of Twitter

Everything stated in this eBook is absolutely useless unless you’re measuring your efforts along the way.

Unfortunately, Twitter doesn’t offer a seamless way to check your analytics.

To analyse your Twitter efforts, you need to have closed-loop marketing. Track the path of a user that clicks a link in a tweet and then visits a landing page where he or she fills out a call-to-action form and eventually converts into a customer.

To measure the true ROI of Twitter, you need to know exactly how it’s making you money.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 4: Measuring the Twitter Visitor-To-Lead Rate ROI of Twitter Pull the number of Twitter visitors and Twitter leads, and with following formula, you can determine your Use The Right Metrics lead growth via Twitter:

We recommend that companies look at their Twitter Visitors / Twitter Leads = Visitor To Lead Rate analytics constantly. Data-driven marketers should follow their progress monthly, if not Tracking your Twitter visitor-to-lead growth rate weekly. Here are the metrics we recommend keeps you honest. The number will tell your how your you to keep track of: social tactics are translating into leads for your sales team. Twitter Follower Month-To-Month Growth To track this growth more closely create daily goals. Pull the number of Twitter followers and net First determine the number of leads you want to new followers. This gives you a picture of your generate monthly. Then divide that number by the monthly Twitter growth. number of business days in that month, and that will give you your daily goal. By tracking this percentage monthly, you learn which of your tweeting strategies and campaigns work best.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 6: Measuring In addition to the analytics, this establishes two-way communication between your marketing activities and the ROI of Twitter sales results. Start Using An Analytics Tool You’ll be able to see the connection between your To find out the number of visitors that come to inbound marketing activities, the increase in the your site from Twitter, you’ll need an analytics number of visitors to your site, and the level of tool, such as Google analytics or HubSpot. conversions into leads and sales.

While Google Analytics is free, the benefit of With this closed-loop in place you can take your using HubSpot is that it does a lot of the closed- Twitter marketing and compare it to your other loop marketing for you since it lets you see how marketing tactics. many leads are generated through Twitter.

The next step is to tie in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution, like Salesforce and SugarCRM, to your marketing software, like Hubspot. This will let you close the loop between your Twitter marketing efforts and sales.

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 6: Measuring Further Qualify Leads the ROI of Twitter There is an age-old question that always comes up – when is the right time to pass the leads to sales? In order to determine realistic monthly goals, analyse your past history. That A Twitter lead, fresh off the tweet, is probably not means don’t set a goal for 2,000 leads qualified enough for a hand off to sales. But it is when you only had 50 the month certainly ripe for lead nurturing. before. Your can nurture this new lead by offering them more And you don’t have to limit this resources and further education about your product or analysis to Twitter. Do the same for all service. of your social media channels. You can nurture these leads either through drip Marketing software keeps track of that marketing or, if you have the software, more social media visitor-to-lead rate, so sophisticated behavior-based communication. you don’t have to maintain various Whatever you do, each step should try to get them excel spreadsheets to get these further down the sales funnel. insights.

PR Marketing Search Social Chapter 7 Conclusion

PR Marketing Search Social CHAPTER 7: Conclusion

In celebration of the 140-character limit, here are the lessons we hope you’ve learned from this eBook (all 140 characters or less):

• Twitter is more than a network for engaging conversation and promoting positive brand image.

• Don’t just update on-the-go tweets. Analyze your efforts to decide if it’s in your company’s best interest to invest time on Twitter.

• Only invest time and effort in marketing on Twitter if you can measure the results and ROI through a closed-loop marketing process.

• Test the waters on other social media channels and find the ones which provide your business with the best ROI.

So be smart about the way you prioritise your marketing initiatives and be ever watchful of how Twitter can truly help your business.

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