Why Twitter marketing is as important as Facebook marketing
By Jeanette Miller, Principal, Limelite PR
As Harriet’s last post outlined, it’s obvious that companies need a Facebook presence if they want to reach moms. But the question many companies are still pondering is “Do we really have to be on Twitter”? When I caught the post Why Facebook Marketing is More Important Than Twitter Marketing on PR Squared, I felt the need to clarify that having a Twitter strategy is as integral as a Facebook strategy if you plan on reaching the mom market.
Why you need a Twitter Strategy
PR Squared’s post includes the results of a study that points out that content shared via Twitter is down from 12 percent to 8 percent. Looking at these numbers alone, you could assume, as PR Square did, that Facebook Marketing is more important than Twitter. But what they did not consider is that 75% of mom bloggers are on Twitter . Note: From personal experience I believe this number to be much higher as it’s rare for us to come across a mom blogger without a Twitter presence.
I agree that there is a limited number of the general mom consumer population on Twitter (our own research indicates that 25% of Canadian moms are on Twitter); however, to effectively penetrate the mom market, you need to identify and reach out to those with the greatest influence: mom bloggers.
Twitter is the water cooler for mom bloggers. It’s the place they go to chat with others like them – mom bloggers and mom entrepreneurs.
Mom bloggers publish links to their own posts, read and share links produced by other bloggers, leverage their participation in brand campaigns, and network with brands and businesses. In other words, they tweet like crazy in a participatory, open dialogue manner. Of course, it’s this latter point about networking with brands/businesses that needs the most emphasis when we consider the reasons why you need to be on Twitter.
If you want to work with mom bloggers, leverage their influence, ask them to promote and recommend your brand or company; then yes, you need to build and maintain a relationship with them on Twitter. You need to be part of their water cooler experience.
The best part of having this narrow, bullseye approach is that it provides you with a clear focus on who to follow, what to tweet, and when to be most active.
As you will quickly discover, moms on Twitter use the channel constantly. In addition to using Twitter to talk among themselves, they also use the channel to talk openly about brand experiences – whether or not said brands have a Twitter presence or not. So, in order to gain opportunities that will protect as well as enhance your brand’s reputation, you must interact with this strong and influential community. And the best place to start this relationship is on Twitter.
Are you interacting with moms on Twitter?
