Today's Social Media Insider column, originally published in MediaPost
Marketers, if you're looking for tips on how to make the most of
Twitter's new ad platform, skip this and harass your favorite Twitter guru.
Heck, my cohort Cathy Taylor already gave a good taste of what's
new about the ad model. There's enough sound
advice out there.
Instead, here are six simple steps you can take to fail miserably
with Promoted Tweets:
1) Treat it like any other media buy. If
Twitter's calling it an ad platform, then just hand it over to your media
buyers and they'll take care of everything. So what if Twitter's own executives
glossed over all of the basic elements of what goes into a media buy? They
barely discussed what Promoted Tweets costs, how you'll determine the reach of
the keywords, and what targeting options will be available beyond the keyword
itself. It's still an ad platform, so how hard can it be? Your media buyer will
find a way to spend your money.
2) Write ad copy to run as promoted tweets. If
you want to make sure to alienate as many Twitter users as possible in a short
amount of time, make sure every tweet is talking at consumers, even yelling at
them, ordering them to do your bidding. You have only 140 characters, so why
beat around the bush with this fluffy relationship building and conversation
stuff? Why respond to your customers when you know more than they do, anyway?
This is your chance to promote, so don't blow it.
3) Invest as little time and energy as possible in the actual
tweeting. One of the problems with Twitter is that it's a lot of work coming
up with something interesting every single day, or even multiple times a day.
Real marketers come up with one tagline and say it over and over again -- it's
so easy, even a caveman can do it. Stop worrying about manning your Twitter
account and turn all of your attention to promoting tweets. That's how you'll
get rich off of Twitter.
4) Join Twitter just to use Promoted Tweets. You
need to run your ads everywhere that'll accept them, and you can't possibly
miss a social marketing opportunity. By running Promoted Tweets, you'll be able
to cross another site off your checklist and show your boss how
forward-thinking you are. It doesn't matter if you know anything about Twitter.
If you've forgotten to do the Twitter thing already, now's the perfect time to
jump on the bandwagon.
5) Stay laser-focused on the one account you manage. Sure,
there may be other people tweeting across your organization, and even across
your office. Ignore every single one of them. You've got a job to do, and it's
not about following them when you have the chance to promote your tweets above
everyone else's. That may mean you'll be bidding against others within your
company. It may also mean you'll miss opportunities to cross-promote each other
and gain visibility for multiple accounts at once. Your own blissful ignorance
is worth it.
6) Plan the owned media and paid media elements separately. Hypothetically,
say you acknowledge that multiple disciplines are at work with Promoted Tweets,
where someone (or a whole team) manages the Twitter account or accounts, and
then someone with media buying expertise manages the promotion. Don't let those
groups talk to each other. They might start figuring out how to best include
the kind of content that would work well as a promotion. Or they might learn
from the resonance scores of the ads to make the day-to-day content more
engaging. You'll be much better off keeping everyone totally separate to ensure
no learning and optimization take place.
Be sure to let me know if you follow all of my advice, as you
could earn a feature in a future column so thousands of marketers can learn
from you. You'll undoubtedly be an #epic sensation.
