Are you using Twitter marketing for business? The world’s fourth most popular social network has announced a number of added features that will impact the way we use Twitter marketing for business, and also how marketers should leverage the network. Twitter will open a few new doors to advertisers, and has announced some new tools and features that will make Twitter more useful as both a real-time tool and a micro-blogging platform.

When leveraged correctly, Twitter marketing for business can be a powerful tool. Here we’ll discuss some of the changes coming to Twitter in 2015, and how best to adapt social strategies to take full advantage of some of these new features.

Some Changes You’ll See for Twitter in 2015:

  1. Better Options for Video

Like most of the other popular social media networks, Twitter will increasingly gravitate towards video content. In fact, the company announced recently that users will soon be able to nativelyrecord and edit video on Twitter, opening up a whole new medium for tweeting. Video from outside sources will also be easier to view on Twitter in 2015.

  1. More Media-Centric

In 2015, photos, GIFs, Vines, videos, and even emojis will all help to populate users’ home timelines, allowing for a visually pleasing, media-rich social experience useful for Twitter marketing for business.  With the ability to post multiple photos and tag people in them already available on Twitter, the network has lost none of its power as a social-sharing machine.

  1. Promoted Video Opportunities

Part of the Twitter Amplify program, Promoted Video will be an easy way for brands usingTwitter marketing for business to upload and distribute video. Promoted Video will work on a CPV (cost per view) model, which is generally preferable over a CPI (cost per impression) model. Insights such as reach and effectiveness of content will also be available.

  1. Advanced Private Messaging

Another new element of Twitter that will likely emerge in 2015 is an easier, more advanced form of private messaging. This will facilitate even more types of conversations on Twitter – Instead of being an entirely public network, with only direct messages remaining private, users will be able to actually tweet private messages, visible only to themselves and specific users.  This is a valuable tool for providing customer service when using Twitter marketing for business.

  1. New “While You Were Away” Section

You may have noticed by now that when you first pull up your home timeline on Twitter, the first tweets to appear are hours or even days old. This is because Twitter has introduced a “While you were away” section, designed to show you relevant content you might have missed since last logging on. Immediately following this section are real-time tweets from users you follow, as per usual.

Best Practices for Using Twitter Marketing for Business:

  • Monitor conversations and tweet about events and happenings in real-time.
  • Strive to create content that is simple, visual, conversational, and unique.
  • Include video content in your marketing strategies.
  • Hone in and use trending hashtags that are relevant to your business.
  • Optimize for mobile – “80% of Twitteractive users are on mobile.”

Despite the changes listed here, Twitter will remain the same public micro-blogging network, focusing on conversational, real-time, widely distributed information in a 140-character tweet format.

Best of luck, and happy tweeting in 2015!

WORD OF THE DAY:

Twitterpated (twit·ter·pat·ed, /ˈtwidərˌpādəd/, adjective); infatuated or obsessed; in a state of nervous