Social Media is absolutely changing the scope of e-commerce. To be able to integrate updates on oneself or one’s business into the visible newsfeeds of millions, and more, has altered the digital playing field. However, while many entrust most of their efforts solely into the Facebook social media platform, diversification of an online business strategy is an important notion to grasp and execute, same as with any other aspect of your business. With that being said, the discussion at hand is regarding the utility of the Twitter platform, what it gives us that could work in tandem with the all-powerful Facebook, and what features or abilities it offers that Facebook does not.
Per-Tweet Efficiency
A lot of the social media that we use is centered around the idea of a simple, single update, and those are accrued to create what we see when we look through our feeds. Facebook has the status update, Instagram has posted images, Twitter has the Tweet. With the creation of the Tweet, not only has a new form of quick social updates entered the ring, but quite possibly the most efficient one. The Tweet is comprised of 140 characters in total, no more, but less if desired or required. Using these allotted digits, you can include your basic thoughts, links, reference to friends by their handles, and hashtags (#) for sake of lumping topics, ideas, or keywords. Use this space sparingly to get your brand’s point across most directly and efficiently.
This may seem restricting to some, but to have such character limitations actually has its benefits. For instance, think of it like this. Have you ever been reading a book, read through an entire dense paragraph, and realized after the fact that you may have blanked or not processed what was read? Well, this operates the same way in the text of social media postings, and quite possibly more so. We can already have a tough time computing the information before us, but consider how change in attention span is taking place and you will find it to be even more magnified. Studies have shown attention spans have decreased between the years 2000 and 2016 from 12 seconds to 8 seconds (AdWeek). With shorter standard word counts per update, or tweet for that matter, more people will have their attention held. As we have discussed in prior blogs, to lose the attention of a potential customer is to risk losing their business, period.
Concerning efficiency, let us consider another scenario. Say you are buying a new wallet for everyday use. You buy one with lots of pockets, bells, whistles, and just a general ton of space. You fill it with your standard cards, IDs, cash…but then there is extra space you need to fill. So you take those extra cards, coupons, photos, etc that you will quite possibly never use and stuff them to fill the void. Now, your wallet is messy and bogged down with things that it doesn’t need, simply because it had the additional space available. The compact and confined parameters that you are given in a Tweet alleviate the issue of over-stuffing. Studies have once again supported the formatting of Twitter’s system of personal updates, showing that Tweets shorter than 100 characters get a 17% increase in engagement, meaning that Twitter gives you the perfect amount of characters to work with for pushing your ideas; the ideal length, with some wiggle room (Fast Company). With this optimal update character density in mind, you can properly gain the attention of current brand followers or ones that have not found their way to you just yet, but soon will.
Brand Relevance Recognition
Speaking of potential followers finding their way to your brand…how does that happen, exactly? At Rave Retailer, we stress the importance of SEO and being able to be seen amidst the sea of other brands online. Well the same hope goes for your performance specifically within social media, as there is a lot happening on these platforms, even specifically to Twitter. As of 1/24/2017, daily Tweets reached 500 million (Omnicore Agency). This may seem like reason for concern with adopting Twitter, but after close examination of Twitter functions, you will see how useful these large numbers can be.
You see, while Facebook is useful in its ability to keep one in touch with people, or clients in our context, of close personal proximity, Twitter aids in connecting those who are proximal in their wants, needs, and characteristics. Although Facebook is great for maintaining a certain type of content, its search capabilities could very much be equated to only being able to have success in a Google search return by typing in the exact name of a brand, instead of a broad keyword or topic search. Twitter appeals to the ‘keyword search’ approach. Using Twitter Search, you can explore hashtag (trending) topics, topics related specifically to your market, and anything else that could lend contribution to your marketing efforts and bring attention to your brand when you are exactly what someone seeks.
Focused and Not Convoluted
The key consideration based on the previous thought is the fact that someone has to seek you or seek a relevant topic to your brand. One problem that has been found with certain forms of social media is the oversaturation of ads that has shown to take place in recent years, showing advertisements for brands or visibility of brands in tasteless, invasive ways. Athough the platform is a useful tool, to many people’s profile, Facebook ads have gotten to be a bit much, where timelines can exist as anything but representative of one’s self or friends, being comprised almost wholly by advertisements, and while shoppers may the actively shopping population may find value in the advertised insight all around them, others may see it as imposing, as conveyed by Forbes. With Twitter, your advertisements do not obstruct the viewing of one’s standard personal feed, bogging it down with solicitations. This ultimately make for an optimized user experience as well as a renewed acceptance of relevant advertising, as it is not longer all they see. So when users see your advertisements, they will possess an inclination to give you due consideration as something of interest to them.
Along with advertisements, Twitter has a general best practice for consolidating what is important and discarding the rest. On the main Twitter platform, you do not find additional solicitation of various games, features, and the like. You get updates, and furthermore news, regarding the topics, people, or brands you care to see and improve your follower base as people find your information share-worthy by means of Retweets and display it to those who follow them and may find your brand’s mission to be ideal, making for a simplified system of maximizing your customer base in the social media realm.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as social media becomes ever-increasingly more prominent in the e-commerce world, specialization of platforms or integration of different mediums becomes more crucial. Although Facebook is useful in fulfilling its purpose, supplementing this with Twitter will only strengthen your reach and diversify your marketing efforts, all with the utmost in efficiency. To learn more about this tool, or how to integrate it into your digital business strategy, contact Rave Retailer today.