Millions of people and brands turn to Twitter to tweet whatever is top of mind, interact with what’s trending and tap into topics everybody’s talking about. It’s that “stream of consciousness” that makes the platform great, says Zoe McArthur, social media manager at period tracker Clue.
But growing a Twitter following organically takes time. It’s about crafting a unique voice, building community and making everything into a meme (yes, really). In our Startup Life newsletter, we chatted to Zoe to get her top tips on how to do these things and more.
Establish your brand’s personality
Usually, the personality you have as a brand on Twitter comes from your social media team, who are actually writing the tweets. Make sure you’re all aligned on how you’d like to speak to your audience — whether that’s in a fun and cheeky way or a professional and informative way, or both — and what kinds of content you want to post. At Clue, we do a mixture of scientific content related to menstruation and female health, as well as some funnier posts on the same themes.
If you’re just starting out and want to grow your audience quickly, follow Twitter accounts that are similar to your brand. They’ll be tweeting things that you can interact with, which will help you get the attention of their followers too.
Tap into what everyone’s chatting about
On Twitter, the quickest way to garner a following is by identifying what is trending, and finding ways to spin it to connect it to your brand. In other words, find what people are talking about and make it about you.
When British prime minister Liz Truss stepped down after 45 days in office, we posted a tweet with the words, “things that have lasted longer than Liz Truss”, with a link to a picture of a 46-day cycle on the Clue app. People loved it. Timing is everything, so you have to be quick at jumping on what’s hot in the moment.
Design a content calendar
This doesn’t have to be rigid, but blocking out certain pieces of content in advance can ensure you have enough ideas for posts as the weeks roll on. At Clue, we tend to do 50% educational content — where we direct readers to blogs on our website on everything from pregnancy to vaginal dryness — and 50% more humorous, in the moment content. We also plan ahead for certain events we can post content on — for example, cervical cancer awareness month in January — as this is a great way to tap into our community and gain followers. Block out key things, but leave room for flexibility so you can jump on events or discussion points when they happen.
Build up a community
This is critical for brand love. In addition to having great content and posting consistently — you can post as frequently as you like as long as you actually have something to say — you need to interact with individual followers and brands and respond to every tweet you get on Twitter. Again, it’s a way of getting your personality across. I’ve found the biggest spikes in engagement have been when Clue comments on someone else’s post that already has lots of people commenting, and people are like: ‘why is Clue here?’ or ‘you know it’s bad when a period app gets at you.’
Also, responding to followers’ tweets can be a nice way to show them you care, which will in turn encourage further interaction. If someone posts saying they’re having a bad day, for example, send them a friendly GIF.
If you can make it into a meme, you should
Find opportunities to create visual content that is eye catching and easily digestible. People love memes, full stop. Here’s an example of one we did recently that looped back to the central theme of our brand: periods.
On the subject of... growing your business Twitter
📣 Create engaging tweets. People will only follow you if they think you have something interesting or useful to say. Here are some tips for creating attention-grabbing tweets.
🤑 Make B2B fun. Don’t tweet sales pitches; instead, focus on providing content that actually adds value to your audience.
🤝🏽 Be friends with the algorithm. If you want to get more eyeballs on your posts, you need to understand and leverage Twitter’s algorithms. Social media management platform Hootsuite has a guide detailing all you need to know.
🚀 Use Twitter for marketing. There are huge benefits to making Twitter part of your overall marketing strategy, but first you need to understand how the platform works and what its key marketing features are.
🆙 Expand your followership. This blog has some good strategies, including interacting with followers, building community and creating user-generated content.
