INTRODUCTION
With the variety of social media outlets available, it is a good idea for businesses to reassess their presence on those platforms from time to time.
While Statista estimates that Twitter has more than 435 million monthly active users, its future is somewhat uncertain. If your business was already seeing some mixed results from Twitter, its recent changes may leave you asking if it still makes sense for your business to be active on the platform.
Following are some things to consider when deciding whether to continue using Twitter for your retail or hospitality business.
REVIEW YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES
When deciding Twitter’s fate, the first thing you should do is revisit your social media strategies. Ask yourself if Twitter is still a good platform for reaching your target audience. For example, the majority of Twitter users identify as male and most users are ages 25-34. In addition, more than 75% of Twitter users reside in the United States. If that fits your audience profile, Twitter could still work for you.
You should also reexamine your business’s purpose for using Twitter. Did you start using Twitter to engage in conversations with existing and potential customers? Are you sharing content that’s unique to the platform (vs. what you post on other channels)? Does your current practice match your strategies? These are important questions to ask, as every social media platform should have a specific purpose for your business.
If you find yourself struggling to post content that is unique to Twitter or keep up with a frequent monitoring and response schedule, you may want to consider allocating your efforts to another platform.
EXAMINE AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
Measure your success (or failures) by monitoring your Tweet activity dashboard or third-party social media management software. To start, look at your engagement statistics, like the number of times people have seen, retweeted, liked and replied to each tweet. You should also track your audience growth and how often your customers or prospective customers are contacting you on Twitter.
Next, compare your Twitter analytics to your company’s objectives, such as sales, bookings or customer service, to see if Twitter is contributing to them.
If you have good engagement or are seeing results, it may be worth continuing on Twitter. Conversely, if you have low engagement or the platform isn’t meeting its KPIs, you may want to rethink using Twitter.
If you’re unsure, look at your other active social media accounts to see how they’re performing. If you are having greater success on other platforms, it may be time to shift your focus to those outlets.
TIPS FOR FUTURE TWITTER PRESENCE
If you find that Twitter no longer aligns with your company’s social media goals, or if you’re not getting the engagement you want, you may want to consider abandoning the platform. Instead of going dark, post and pin a tweet that explains your brand will no longer be active on the platform.
You also should include information about where your followers can find you. For instance, you can include links to your website or other social media accounts in the tweet. In addition, update your bio to mention that the account is no longer active.
In some cases, you may want to pivot your approach. For example, some retail and hospitality businesses use Twitter as a message board to post announcements like upcoming offers or updated pool hours. Others use the platform to monitor conversations and trends. These are some potential routes to take if you’re not ready to give up on Twitter yet.
Should you continue with Twitter, make sure to keep up with company updates and new Twitter features to make sure the platform is still appropriate for your business. You also should continue to monitor your performance on Twitter and your other social channels to make sure you are spending your time and money on the right social media platform(s).