If you’ve had the pleasure of listening to our recent podcast episode you know that twitter can be a difficult landscape for B2B marketers to navigate. Best practices are widely documented and discussed, but there’s a constant need to push boundaries, go the extra mile, and take risks to engage your social audiences and hold their attention.
With that in mind, I set out to analyse my own twitter use and find out exactly what makes me click. I use a variety of social platforms every day to digest news related to my hobbies, all the while never really taking stock of exactly what I click on and why. So, for one hour on a September evening, I browsed my twitter feed and took the time to think critically about every click and retweet I made.
So without further ado, here is a small example of the (unashamedly geeky) tweets that caught my eye:
Tweet 1: The mystery
Why did I click it? This tweet simply works. Even before we consider the eye-catching artwork, we have a concise and mysterious bit of copy. As a big fan and regular player of popular card game Magic: The Gathering, my immediate reaction was probably identical to that of someone uninitiated into the game; what the hell is “Fate Reforged” and why do I care?
The company didn’t need to ask me a question, I asked it myself. I created my own need to know, just by the mere implication that this was a new product that will influence my hobby. That was enough to make me want to click and learn more.
What can we learn from it? If you have something to announce that your audience will want to know, there’s no need to beat around the bush. If the subject is important enough to your target audience, all you need to do is find a short and creative way of letting them know that new information is now available.
Also, making your audience ask themselves a simple question can be even more effective than directly asking them a question yourself, given the right context of course.
Tweet 2: The specialist digest
Why did I click it? Well, I certainly wasn’t getting ready for #GPNJ, but the prospect of seeing some winning decklists from a previous tournament interested me. Legacy refers to a specialist way of playing Magic: The Gathering that receives far less coverage than more popular formats. I was eager to catch up with what’s going on in an under documented, under discussed, but widely enjoyed area of my hobby.
What can we learn from it? If your content has niche appeal, or addresses a very specific audience, make sure that audience knows it’s for them immediately. The scarcity of relevant content that meets their needs should be reason enough for them to want to engage with what you’re offering—it’s just up to you to make sure they can see it.
Tweet 3: The popular perspective
Why did I click it? Video gaming becoming a spectator sport is certainly not news to me – it’s something I’ve been following closely for around 6 years now. Instead, what interested me about this was seeing what a mainstream publication like The New York Times had to say on what is often a controversial and seldom-understood concept.
What can we learn? If you’re perceived as a legitimate source, and you are discussing topics that your audience is interested in, your opinions, insights, and perspectives should be reason enough for people to click through. Presenting your perspective, opinion, or the topic itself as a single, bold statement as The New York Times has done here can be very high impact.
Again, an eye-catching image really helped this tweet grab my attention, and it’s something more B2B marketers should be making use of now that twitter has added image preview functionality.
Tweet 4: The funny topical one
Why did I click it? Clicking tweets from company pages that I don’t follow is rare for me. In this case, Coral won me over with basic topical humour. I laughed, and I immediately showed someone else. Mission accomplished for them.
What can we learn from it? If you make me laugh, I’m going to click on your tweet. Unfortunately, Humour is a concept frequently avoided in the B2B arena. It’s important to remember that regardless of the product you’re trying to sell, the market you’re operating in, or your corporate culture, your social media posts are always being read by humans—and humans hunger for laughter.
Interestingly, this example doesn’t actually go anywhere, but if it did I’m sure I would have happily visited.
Why I’ll be reflecting on my own social media use more often
As we can see, there’s a lot we can learn from our personal social media habits—or at the very least, a lot we can refresh ourselves on. Looking critically at your own habits can remind you of the distinctly human nature of good social media, and prevents you from falling into routines with the B2B social media copy that you present to your audience.
Doing this was a spur of the moment idea after the discussion I had with John and Emily on our podcast, and it’s certainly something I’d like to repeat. But, rather than look at this as a distinct task, I think it’s going to be hugely beneficial to start engraining this process into my mind and constantly remaining aware of what I click on and why.
