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How To Get A Verified Twitter Account, And Why It Matters

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Verified

Twitter is one of the most influential and helpful social media platforms to be active on with your brand. Chances are if you’re a brand that wants to make an impact on your customers, and connect with them on a more personal level, you already using Twitter.

But have you ever noticed how some brands have that little blue check mark beside their name, while others don’t?

This is what’s known as a Verified account, and it distinguishes the influencers, brands, and famous people from every other user.

In the past, Twitter’s verification process has been a bit ambiguous, with the brand having almost no say on whether or not they could get a verified badge on their profile. Twitter would decide on its own whether or not an account needed a verified badge.

However, recently Twitter has opened up the verification process to everyone, allowing people to submit an application to Twitter in order to be verified! Of course, this doesn’t mean that everyone who applies will be automatically recognized by Twitter as an account that deserves verification, but it’s definitely a good place to start for many brands who’ve been waiting anxiously for that little blue check mark.

In a statement released by Twitter, they explained their reasoning behind opening up the verification process:

We want to make it even easier for people to find creators and influencers on Twitter, so it makes sense for us to let people apply for verification.

– Twitter’s Vice President of User Services, Tina Bhatnagar

The full press release can be found here.

So, I’ve explained what Twitter verification is, but why does it matter for your business or your brand? Here are a few reasons why you should be taking steps to verify your account.

It Lets People Know You’re The Real Deal

People like to know that the person they’re following, interacting with, and trusting is the real deal. The internet, and especially Twitter, is full of spam and parody accounts that exist as a way to satirize actual celebrities and brands. The Twitter verification badge allows users to know which accounts are real, and which ones are fake. All they have to do is spot your badge, and they know that they are following a credible account instead of one of the many “troll” accounts.

It Gives Your Brand Credibility

It also lets your followers know that your brand is established enough to qualify for a badge. There are some businesses out there who have yet to receive a blue verification badge, which can make them seem like they aren’t a credible account, and can’t be trusted. There’s nothing more important than giving off a sense of credibility to your customers.

Exclusivity

Before this new verification, verified Twitter accounts used to be a lot more exclusive. Although this is now changing, verified accounts are still a pretty exclusive club, consisting of well-known brands and celebrities such as Kanye West, NASA, President Barack Obama, Target, Rolling Stone Magazine, etc. Getting verified puts you in the same category of influence as other verified accounts, and, again, makes you seem more trustworthy to consumers.

Great For Connecting With Customers

Think about this for a second: say you’re on Twitter looking through your timeline when all of a sudden you get a notification saying that such-and-such business has sent you a direct message (or DM). You look at their profile and notice they don’t have a verification check mark. Do you respond to them? Would you trust them, knowing that they might be trying to hack and steal sensitive info?

This is how most customers would approach the situation if they see you’re not verified. This makes it even harder to connect with your consumers, and interact with them the way social media was intended. A blue verification badge gives your customers the peace of mind they need to trust you if you ever need to reach out to them personally.

Twitter verification is now easier than ever, and as you can see, can be greatly influential on the success of your business.

If you’re ready to get your Twitter account verified, just click here to fill out the application form!

Twitter Lists: What They Are And How To Use Them

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Twitter Lists

If you have a Twitter account, then you know how impossible it is to see every tweet from every person you follow, even more so if you’re a larger business who “follows back” thousands of customers.

Although Twitter recently rolled out a new stream algorithm intended to make those tweets you might have missed show up first when you open the app, it’s still not a perfect solution. Thankfully, there’s a better way.

Twitter Lists were created to curate groups of Twitter accounts together, so instead of having to scroll through a massive stream to view all the tweets from the accounts you follow, they can be grouped into nice little bite-sized streams for easy viewing.

To get started with creating Lists, you first need to decide which type of device you want to create them on. There are different ways to create a list, depending on if you have an IOS device, an Android device, or if you’re using a web browser.

iOS

On iOS, first, open up the Twitter app, and then click on the Me tab. Then, click the gear icon. Select View Lists, next, and then tap the Plus icon to create a new list. You can give your list a name and short description, and then decide whether you want your list to be public or private. I’d recommend using the Private setting if you’re using it to keep up with what your competitors are posting because the person you add to a Public list will get a notification whenever they are added to a list. After you’ve finished this, click Save.

Android

The Android app works in much the same way that the iOS app does, except for a few small changes. Open your Twitter app, and then click the overflow icon (the 3 vertical dots). Then select View Lists. Next, tap the Plus icon to create a new list. Follow the same steps as the iOS version, and then click Save.

Web

In order to create a list from your web browser, you’ll first need to login to your Twitter account. Then, click on your profile icon. A drop down menu will appear, and you’ll need to click Lists. Next, click Create New List. Give your list a name and descriptions, and set the privacy settings to either Public or Private. Click Save List and you’re done!

Adding/Removing Accounts From Lists

After you’ve created your list, the obvious next step is to add people to that list. To add someone to your list, you’ll need to go to their profile page and click on the gear icon next to their Follow button. This works on all three versions mentioned above: iOS, Android, and Web Browser. After you click on the gear icon, you’ll need to click Add or Remove Lists, and then select the list you’d like to place the account in. If you placed someone in a list that you’d like to remove them from, uncheck the box beside the list you’d like to remove them from.

Viewing Lists

Once you’ve gotten your lists set and organized, the next step is to view those lists. To view a list you’ve created on a mobile app, you’ll first need to go to your profile page (the Me option) and click the gear icon. You’ll see View Lists, and once you click on that, you’ll see all of the Lists you’ve created. Click on the one you’d like to view, and your Tweet stream will turn into a perfectly curated list of the accounts you want to see. Pretty simple!

Twitter Lists are a great way to organize all of the accounts you follow into easy-to-view streams that guarantee you’ll never miss important tweets by customers, competitors, influencers, and more!

For more on Twitter Lists, check out Twitter’s official Support page! 

Marketing Tip of the Week: 4 Fantastic Twitter Tips

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Is Twitter a medium that you’re still trying to master? Maybe you’re a Facebook guru, and that always seemed good enough. There’s no doubt that Facebook has long been the king of social media, but Twitter is proving itself a contender for the crown on a daily basis. If you haven’t familiarized yourself just yet, you are just one of a large number of business owners.

But the time to wait is over, and delaying any longer is only going to hurt your marketing future. It’s time to learn the Twitter ropes so that you too can make an impact in this rapidly growing social media platform.

#1 – Pictures and Moving Pictures

I’ve said it many times, but I’m going to go ahead and say it again: media makes your post. According to Twitter, tweets that contain an image are retweeted up to 35% more, and those containing videos see a boost of up to 28% more retweets than the standard text post. Make sure you are tweeting with attached media!

#2 – How to Search

The key to increasing your Twitter footprint is in talking to the right audiences. In order to find groups that share your interests, you can use the Twitter search function, but unlike modern search engines, it will not search for each word you type individually. Instead, it searches for the group as a whole, and that can be limiting your search results greatly.

How do you combat this problem? Simply type ‘the/or’ in between words to get full and partial results!

#3 – ‘Group’ Your Followers

Twitter allows you to place your followers in groups your create. Why is this important? Because it gives you the power to sort your followers by whatever method you choose which then makes it easier for you to talk to each group’s interests. In essence, you can personalize your tweets!

You can also set up those who promote your products in a group which customers and potential customers can search for and view as well as place your competitors in a private group so that you can monitor their activities, but no one can get to their feed from you.

#4 – Don’t Forget Communication

And this holds true for all social media. It’s easy to fall into the trap of turning your feed into one big advertisement for your business. The problem is, people don’t want to see or follow that. Social media is about engagement with your audience. Real connection breeds real brand loyalty.

Find things your audience will find interesting and retweet it. Ask open-ended questions (preferably about your industry, but don’t feel restricted), let your followers answer and then give them your actual opinion. This kind of engagement makes you approachable, and when your opinion pans out, it makes it validates you as an expert.

C’mon, folks. The Twitter train is pulling out of the station. Are you on board?

Marketing Tip of the Week: Social Media (Twitter)

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We’ve talked about websites and we’ve talked about Facebook, that’s enough isn’t it? The short answer? No. Your website and your Facebook page are great, and you will see positive growth from them, but there is one more social media service you need to be using, Twitter!

Is Marketing with Twitter Possible?

Twitter is an odd form of social media in that it is restricted in ways that most of the others are not. On Twitter, you only have the opportunity to phrase whatever you want to say in 140 characters. The only way to exceed that number is to break your tweet into more than one post.

You also can’t post an entire memory stick full of photos at once like you can on Facebook. In fact, if you post more than one or two at one time, your followers may become annoyed and stop following you! Twitter is its own animal, and it’s important to understand what it is and how to use it in order to be effective.

However, in spite of its limitations, or perhaps because of them, twitter is an excellent source for marketing. Finding success there can be challenging, but your influence has the potential to be more broad more quickly than with Facebook. So what do you need to know? Lets dig in!

Marketing with #Hashtags
Marketing Tips

The best way to communicate with people who aren’t actively following you is through the use of #hashtags. A #hashtag is when you place this symbol “#” in front of a word or short phrase. You can have no spaces between the # and the word or words you are using. For example, instead of #FG Market, I would have to use #FGmarket. If I typed #FG Market, only the FG is tagged, and Market is left off.

Why is this important? Twitter is set up so that you can search it’s entire network for everyone tweeting under a specific #hashtag, and you can read all the posts associated with it. Therefore if you post and use a #hashtag, anyone searching under that #hashtag will be able to see and read your post. Anyone. Anywhere. Now that’s reach! When multiple people are using the same #hashtag, that’s referred to as trending.

Of course, the secret here is not to make up your own #hashtags, or at least not always, but rather to piggyback on one that is already in use. It’s also important that your post be relevant to whatever tag you are using, as an errant post will be ignored and not garner you additional followers or the attention you want. In fact, it could result in some negative backlash. This is where my mantra once again comes into play:  Continue reading “Marketing Tip of the Week: Social Media (Twitter)” »