With just 140 characters to play with, learning how to promote your swimming club on Twitter is a completely different challenge to one you would traditionally face, pushing your ability to clearly and concisely get points across to the very limit.
As the platform of choice for people looking to keep up-to-date with news from their favourite businesses, celebrities and news sources, however, Twitter is a central pillar of any social media marketing plan.
This blog will teach you the basics of starting to promote your swimming club on Twitter, helping you to build a solid foundation of knowledge and grow your club with the power of social media.
Step one: Getting your first followers
So you’ve started your Twitter page, worked out the perfect ‘About Me’, picked some brilliant images for your profile and header images, and you’re ready to start tweeting. There’s one problem, though, your Twitter world is empty. No followers – and you’re following nobody, making it a pretty lonely place.
Your first step should be to start following people. Remember that this is an account used for business, not pleasure, so follow people and businesses in the swimming world is an excellent start. Local clubs already on Twitter can also provide a good source of inspiration when you’re establishing what you would like to tweet.
Following this, you’ll need to get some followers. Fortunately, this will be quite simple for you. Simply ask the people who attend your classes and the parents of children in your classes to follow your page if they have Twitter. This will give your account the perfect platform to grow. You should also put a link to your Twitter page on your existing website and any leaflets or marketing materials you create.
Step two: Never be afraid to ask for advice
When you initially start using Twitter you will naturally be posting a wide range of content as you look to establish what works best for you. Quick tips, pictures of your lessons and links to relevant articles amongst other ideas will typically work well, but every page’s audience wants to see slightly different things.
Usually, establishing what your audience wants to see and interacts with is a long process of trial and error. As you will be in regular contact with your followers, however, you can just ask them if they see your posts, what they think of them, and what they’d like to see more.
Step three: Stay up-to-date
Twitter is an incredibly fast-moving platform, with the average tweet having a lifespan of just 20 minutes before it is lost to the ether. Because of this, it’s vital for you to update your Twitter on a regular basis, posting multiple times per day where possible.
If you typically don’t have the time to post tweets during the day you can always use a piece of scheduling software. You can typically get an account on this type of software for free and it will allow you to queue up tweets to go out on a regular basis, allowing you take a break from the internet whilst knowing your Twitter is still active.
Step four: Embrace the hashtag
Although seemingly ever-present in today’s world, the humble # was once a generally ignored symbol. This all changed with the popularity of Twitter.
The hashtag is used to mark the topic of your update, allowing other users to discover content from their areas of interest quickly and easily. Twitter popularised the hashtag and made it a central component of the platform, something which it remains to be to this day. Using hashtags correctly in your posts will allow other people interested in the topics you’re posting about to find you, whilst searching hashtags will help you to discover new content and potentially learn some new tricks. Local hashtags will help raise the profile of your account.
Twitter can be a powerful way to promote your swimming club and build a relationship with your students outside of lessons if used correctly. Following these four steps will allow you to build a solid foundation on the platform and use it to its maximum potential.
So, what are you waiting for? Go out and get tweeting!