Using Twitter in the Marketing Triad

Cerulean Warbler

By Laurie Epps

Happy St. Patricks Day everyone!

Last week, we started talking about Twitter, but how does it fit into the Marketing Triad of Facebook, Twitter, and your blog? Here to guide our way is my mentor, Edie Melson.

We're still working from Edie's book, Connections: Social Media and Networking Techniques for Writers. In this book, Edie teaches us set-by-step how to reach our captive audience through the Internet.

We're starting today with a Superbowl analogy. We all love the ads during the Superbowl, but what can advertisers do to encourage us to take the next step? That's what we're talking about today, our readers being prompted to take the next step with us.

Black-throated Blue Warbler

What is a hashtag? Hashtags or the # sign in front of a keyword, denotes a subject found on Twitter. People can search by subject like #socialmedia or #writers. So if people want to find writers like me, they'll search this by the hashtag, #writers. To make my work come up in their search, I'm going to want to try to create a few "Tweets" a week with the hashtag #writers in it.

A word of caution: Be careful not to overuse the hashtags in a post. Not only do you have a limit of 140 characters, but proper Twitter etiquette unofficially states that you'll never want to use more than three hashtags in a Tweet.

Lazuli Bunting

As a Twitter user, these are divided into lists by Twitter under the Follow icon. These lists appear under your hashtag search. For example, if you'd like some interesting quotes to re-tweet on your Twitter, you'd start with the Follow tab, and type in #quote. When you find a quote of interest to you, you'll have the option to follow that person or organization, or you can simply re-tweet it.

Whereas @designates a person or company. So if I were to compose a tweet about parenting, I could include @ParentsMagazine to post it to Parents Magazines wall. Or if I'm going to talk about Edie, I could tweet something like:
@EdieMelson's the best #socialmedia expert! Which would appear on her wall, and in a #socialmedia search under the Follow icon. The @ sign also acts as a cross referencing system for a website called http://mashable.com/.

Dark eyed Junco

Twitter is a versatile medium, but due to its condensed content, it's easy to include Tweets about me, me, me. That can get kinda old for your readers. In the long run, it'll pay off to also include links to relevant information.

Another helpful tool is lists. Create a list of relevant information, and Twitter even makes it easy to share your lists. Twitter will walk you through how to do this. This is an area I need to work on, so let's keep each other accountable.

Connect Activity: Play around with Hashtags, and retweet your favorite links or quotes from Twitter on your page. To have a look at my page, click this link:
https://twitter.com/LaurieEpps2.

What are your favorite Hashtags, and why? Please share them with me below.

Can't get enough about social media? Check out Edie's Social Media Mondays column at:
http://thewriteconversation.blogspot.com

Join me next week, and we'll talk about how to make every Tweet count.

Laurie Epps is a senior at Anderson University majoring in Creative Writing. Already Laurie is most published as a feature article writer, essayist, and poet. A seeker of beauty and world traveler, Laurie hopes to grow into a career in travel writing illuminating the many stories that make us human despite our differences. Currently, Laurie also has a Thoughtful Thursday column dedicated to the fine art of poetry.