Twitter is Changing!

Twitter announced yesterday that users can send tweets with as many as 280 characters, double the current limit.

“We saw when people needed to use more than 140 characters, they tweeted more easily and more often,” Aliza Rosen, a company product manager, wrote in a blog. “More space makes it easier for people to fit thoughts in a tweet, so they could say what they want to say, and send tweets faster than before.”

This latest roll-out includes all languages except Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Twitter said, “those Asian languages can convey about double the amount of information in one character compared with many other languages.”

Twitter started tests with a group of users in September and found that those with the extended character limit spent less time editing their tweets.   It was also found that those people got more followers, spent more time on the platform and interacted more with other users.  If you would like more detailed information about this research please click here.

What does this mean for your business?

Founded on that what we already know about this major update, here’s my thoughts on what it means for you:

• The most obvious benefit of having twice as many characters is that it allows for twice as much information to be shared. This could potentially reduce the number of tweets brands push out.
• A Twitter profile is nothing without good, relevant content, and creating good content takes time – even within the limit of 140 characters. Therefore, doubling the size actually doubles the workload, and this is something businesses need to consider carefully before getting too excited about how to fill 280 characters.
• Being able to express ourselves through a tweet with twice as many characters is all well and good but there could be a danger in less engagement as users scroll past more wordy tweets in favour or more digestible content.

Going forward our tip would be to try tweets with different character sizes see how it works for your brand.

Twitter hopes to attract more users, which means more engagement plus more potential for advertising.  Will it encourage those who defected to return?  In reality, no one really knows what this increased character limit might mean for Twitter and whether users truly want these changes!

I hope that you’ve found this update useful.  However, if you would like to discuss your future social media and general marketing plans, please contact me.

By Ann Davies, Director

Tell Your Story Through Video

Nothing tells a story quite like video and as demand for video marketing continues to rise there is no doubt that companies are looking to use video.  Video should be part of a marketing strategy and companies know it and are starting to adopt this technology.

To quote NY Times, and USA Today Bestselling author, Lewis Howes,“Video can seem like just another challenge to overcome, but I see a major increase in my business and brand awareness, all from the power of video.”

Digital marketing is forever evolving and looking at new features such as YouTube cards and Facebook video, these have the ability to make your brand more engaging and accessible than ever before.  But, understanding the strategy is essential for your business.

Even LinkedIn has just started rolling out a native video feature for its timeline.  What does that mean? You can create video on the move from your mobile app (and soon desktop) and share it as an update.

So, you have clients and you have products, or services right?  Why not use video to get your message across:

Top tips

• Interviews – with either clients or staff; your audience is interested in hearing your story
• Customer testimonials – they are your raving fans, use video to prove it
• Demos and tutorials – showcase a new product or service and why not use the opportunity to link to a free trial
• Top tips – demonstrate your area of expertise by giving away free useful information whilst positioning yourself as an industry leader
• Animation – a fun and engaging way to promote a new product or service
• Staff video – “a day in the life of…” – always a great idea to humanise your brand and to help attract the right recruit

Look at available platforms to ensure that your content is on the right channels.  Not forgetting to optimise your video for SEO using keyword descriptions and tags and consider a landing page on your site where your video will sit.

The quality must be spot on.

More top tips

• Use a professional: a video of poor quality will not communicate your message well and risks putting off your target audience
• Be transparent and authentic: need we say any more?
• Don’t make your video too long or include jargon that your audience won’t understand
• Use social media: link your videos to Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn etc
• Create a script (but try not to read from it): considering the product or service you are providing. How can this help your audience?
• Include a clear call to action: for example, close with a question that can encourage a comment or question or let your audience know what step they should take after watching your video

Don’t think that just because your video is on YouTube views will magically appear.  You now need to create a marketing plan to determine the best possible reach.

We encourage our clients to experiment to find a fit that works for them.  Make no mistake, video marketing is one of the most powerful technologies that exist right now.  The fact that you can leverage visual storytelling to engage and connect with your audience is key.

We recommend Capture 1, experts in all aspects of video and animation production.  They can help you create a professional video to showcase your company.  Please contact me by email or by telephone on 0161 826 7181 and I will be happy to discuss your future marketing requirements.

By Ann Davies, Director

Great Digital Marketing Campaigns

In the growing space of digital marketing, meeting your organisation’s objectives and moving your prospect through the journey to ultimately becoming a raving fan requires time and many actions; we call this sequence of actions ‘campaigns’.

You will have many goals that you will want to achieve and will find that you will meet these objectives through the following campaigns:

Awareness

In order to bring in new leads you will need to reach out to ice cold prospects.  Structure your campaigns to reach these prospects who are completely unaware of your products or services.

Engage

Making the move from awareness to engagement is often achieved by providing value to the prospect.  This can be achieved with consistently focussed video, case studies, blogging, educational how-to content or testimonials, referred to as content and video marketing.

Subscribe

Has your prospect subscribed?  Have they given you their permission for you to market your products or services to them?  They may have engaged with you via social media or may have become an email subscriber.  Subscribe is a very important stage in the relationship because you are now offered the opportunity to continue the conversation.

Convert

Transform the prospect into a client, from merely being interested to buying your products or services.  From this point on, your client has placed trust in your organisation which you must continue to build upon throughout the duration of your working relationship.

To run a sustainable and healthy business you need to have well thought out and strategic marketing campaigns taking into account each of the elements listed above. Due to a lack of inhouse expertise, when it comes to marketing campaigns many SME’s struggle to see the bigger picture leaving them feeling frustrated. This is where we can help; from crafting the right content to designing seamless email and social media campaigns, each following a bespoke and detailed strategy developed for your business.

Please contact us on 0161 826 7181 or via our website to discuss ways in which we can support your future marketing efforts.