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How to engage with media and consumers on Twitter

Guest post by: Kirsty Shaw

Article Overview: This week it was revealed, as part of a new social media policy, Sky News has banned reporters from retweeting or sharing content from other journalists and people on Twitter, who are not employed by the broadcaster. This could have an effect on brands, with the opportunity for tweets to be spread by highly visible journalists minimised. Although this is currently an isolated incident with only one media house adopting this policy, it is possible more will follow, meaning there is likely to be ramifications for Twitter users and brands looking to heighten their presence on the social platform.

How to engage with media and consumers on Twitter

This week it was revealed, as part of a new social media policy, Sky News has banned reporters from retweeting or sharing content from other journalists and people on Twitter, who are not employed by the broadcaster. This could have an effect on brands, with the opportunity for tweets to be spread by highly visible journalists minimised. Although this is currently an isolated incident with only one media house adopting this policy, it is possible more will follow, meaning there is likely to be ramifications for Twitter users and brands looking to heighten their presence on the social platform. Below I have outlined how brands can still engage with media and consumers on Twitter.

Listen to your target audience- with over 200million users, Twitter is a fantastic opportunity to listen to what consumers are saying about you and your competitors. By conducting keyword searches it gives you a fantastic insight, enabling brands to either take part in the conversation or merely be spectators, finding out more information about their target audience.

Act as a credible and relevant information source- ensure that the information you are broadcasting on your Twitter feed is relevant to the audience you are targeting, followers and the media alike will appreciate original and reliable content.

Don't use corporate speak- if your target audience wanted to hear the corporate line, they would visit the company website, therefore give social media managers the opportunity to use a more human style. Use guidelines to shape the content and make the tweets are on message but ensure tweeters are aware there is a human at the end responding to tweets.

Use Twitter as an opportunity to speak directly to your consumers- as a rare opportunity to gauge consumer thoughts and opinions, both positive and negative, crowd sourcing via Twitter is too good an opportunity to pass on.

The most important thing to remember it to update regularly, without swamping your followers news feeds Regular timely updates will ensure engagement in your brand without smothering your loyal fans.

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Article Tags: brands, opportunity, Sky News, social media, target audience, tweets
Referred by: http://www.punchcomms.com



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