7 tips for better tweets

No question social media channels can be a powerful, cost-effective way for restaurant operators to get their marketing message out. Among restaurants that rely on them, Twitter, used by 77 percent of operators, trails only Facebook (94 percent) as the social media platform of choice. The only problem with this strategy: No matter which way you send them, almost all these messages are being ignored.

Software firm SocialFlow’s just-released research on social media activity pinpoints the issue.

“A new study has revealed that 99 percent of organic, unpaid social media posts generate little to no engagement, with that remaining one percent soaking up almost all of the ‘Likes,’ retweets, shares and comments across the top platforms,” the report finds. Which is to say, only a tiny fraction of the customers you’re trying to reach ever see your marketing messages.

What can you do to make sure your target audience pays more attention to your company’s Twitter marketing posts? Social media marketing company HipLogiq offers seven techniques restaurants can use to make sure their tweets stand out:

1. Find your brand voice. Your tweets should reflect a professional voice. Be positive, engaging and conversational. Offer perspective or insight, even when retweeting to make your post stand out.

2. Include multimedia to encourage interaction. Tweets should contain pictures, links or hashtags to catch the reader’s attention and trigger involvement.

3. Pin a tweet to highlight what’s important. Businesses can pin a specific tweet to the top of their profile to showcase their special offers so that their followers don’t miss out.

4. Avoid starting a tweet with @username. Starting with @username makes that tweet only visible to the sender and receiver. For greater visibility, try “Hey, @username!...” or insert a period before the username, “.@username....”

5. Create exclusive and custom offers. Tweets with exclusive offers can spur interest to try your company’s products or services, can build customer loyalty, and make your Twitter community feel special. HipLogiq’s clients have the most response with 20 percent or more off and buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO) offers.

6. Tweet fewer than six times per day. Followers become annoyed with accounts tweeting more than five times per day or more than one Tweet per hour.

7. Increase tweet visibility. Request a retweet in the tweet. Tweet 4-5x per day to increase retweets. Join trends by linking a tweet to a hashtag and a trending word or phrase (#HipLogiq).

“An effective tweet can boost business by creating the highest engagement with followers, while building a devoted fan base,” says Bernard Perrine, Hiplogiq c.e.o. If your restaurant’s Twitter efforts aren’t giving you the results you want, give these best-practice techniques a try.