Now, the continuation of the big social media networks shows signs that Twitter is a key player. Twitter can work wonders again, but there are some tricks you need to follow. For a start, you are limited to 140 characters. Now that is not a lot when it comes to sending out a message, so what you have to do is you manipulate the functions and the tools available to you to help broadcast that message. I thing , and I'm no expert, but tweeting is an art. If you get it right then you can hit the right mark. As stated before there is the famous hashtag, which was started at Twitter (even though there are rumours that this will soon be discontinued), can be a great factor in the campaign promotion. The best thing to do, as stated with Facebook, is spend some time before a campaign developing a hashtag trend. Every time you do a tweet from the Twitter account based on the campaign, then hashtag it. For example the Creative Pet Project hashtag is #creatpetproj at every stage of doing anything with Creative Pet Project I use that tag. This helps get it in listings, raises the awareness, etc. The more people using the tag, the more it will go up in the ranking, and the more your page, profile and campaign will get noticed.
In addition to your hashtag, you can add additional hashtags, and this will work by combining the tweet and gluing it to other tweets with the second hashtag. So, it's good to seek out trending hashtags related to your area of interest for the campaign, then you can simply apply them. During the campaign I also used the hashtag #crowdfunding and #indiegogo, these are set in trend forms and I gained a great deal of retweets and mentions due to it. In later posts I will mention some other sites that can help with the hashtag situation.
With regard to @ and Tweets, then this is called a mention. Again this is direct and even sits on their news feed even if you don't post directly to them. This again can get more attention than hashtags as it's actually directed to a specific person. However, unlike hashtags the ampersand is not a trending device and one get ranking up or position or audience.
Instagram is fast becoming a useful advertising tool. There was a recent story of a NY photographer who, having $90 in his bank account, used Instagram to send out a birthday request to buy his prints at a low cost via his Instagram post. He made $15,000 via selling these images through a Paypal account. Read the story here! So, you see, if you use the tool correctly then the tool can work for you. Now, the nice thing about Instagram now, is it has a internet page of your images which can be used, it also allows tagging and it incorporates the hashtag now too.
Just on simple tests of my own images on Instagram, I have noticed increased likes when I have added hashtags to the images. Again look at trending or common tags that may draw people to the images. But basically there is nothing stopping you making advert images on Instagram to share a link, an image of the product, etc.
Now Tumblr may not seem like a possible candidate for developing a strategy for campaigning, however, Tumblr has some nice aspects that can help you gain extra audience viewers. Look at this little infographic of Tumblr:
Now, points 3,4 and 6 are worth looking at. 18 Billion page views a month!! That's a big audience if you can get noticed in there. Again, start a page early, and build up some following. Tumblr is more popular to a certain age group that the mighty Facebook. Now I think mainly it's because they can repost very easily and it appears on their wall without much effort. And finally, users spend on average 23mins on Tumblr. That in internet terms is a lot of time. So, if you can make attractive and captivating posts people will be drawn to your site and you can then pull them in. Here is what I am achieving on my Tumblr page. Simple elegant design, and always append each post with a statement about where to find the campaign.
So as you can see, there a multiple tags and hashtags as well as a link to the main campaign site. I did this on every post I did to help circulate the info.
Finally Google+. Now I created a special page for Creative Pet Project as well as a Community space. I personally don't believe its as effective as Facebook, but am slowly adding content and will do before the next campaign. Now, the nice thing here is its real easy to get followers. And the process of liking is a lot simpler than Facebook and is more visual. So if you design captivating material to post then you can get followers and reactions toward the campaign.
The next post will be about the additional sites that can help and become useful for campaigning. Don't forget to follow us at the following sites, linked below.
First posted on my blog on 7th April 2014
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