Blog post by: Sam Haucke, BPM marketing intern
It’s official. “Tweet” is now considered a word within the English language according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary, which revises and adds new words quarterly, officially made “tweet” a word this month when it released the June 2013 update of the Oxford English Dictionary. “Tweet” according to the Oxford English Dictionary is both a noun meaning “to make a posting on the social networking service Twitter” and a verb meaning “to post on Twitter”.
Now you probably are wondering why this is such a big deal since just about everyone already knows that “tweet” isn’t just a sound a bird makes. The big deal is that by allowing “tweet” to become an official word, the Oxford English Dictionary broke at least one of its own rules. The broken rule states “… a new word needs to be current for ten years before consideration for inclusion”. Twitter was launched in March of 2006 which makes the word ‘tweet’ only seven years old. According to John Simpson, the Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, “tweet” was included because “It seems to be catching on.”
While the concept of Twitter seems easy: messages that are 140 characters or less. The amount of power behind those 140 characters is unbelievable. Here are three tips that all businesses should know:
1. Conduct Competitive Research
One of the best parts of social media sites (including Twiter) is that they provide an easy way to keep an eye on the competition. Knowing what sales, new products, and brand messaging your competition is promoting will help you better position your business within the market and develop a unique brand.
2. Don’t be afraid of being creative.
It’s okay to add a little personality to your tweets. Creative tweets are going to engage your adueince. The purpose of Twitter is to have two-way conversations, and adding some creativity into a tweet is a great way to start conversations.
3. Find your posting sweet spot.
Twitter is a fast-paced social media site. Posting too little will result in your followers not seeing your tweets. On the flip side, posting too much will result in annoying your followers. There is no exact science to finding you business’ sweet spot. Finding the correct amount of tweets to post and when to post them will happen through trial and error. In order to find your sweet spot, tweet at various times of day and at different frequencies until you find a schedule that best fits with your target audience’s behavior.
