Why Twitter Is The Most Underrated Social Media 

By Aimee Meester
January 23, 2023

Social media marketing is a core component of any successful strategy in the modern digital age. With its ability to adapt to market needs, provide real-time analytics, and reach numerous online users, social media marketing enables companies to create agile campaigns and cohesive strategies that deliver impressive results.

When building a social media strategy, most companies create marketing channels through Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. However, there’s another, often underestimated, social media site that companies should use to create an impactful marketing strategy: Twitter.

Twitter: A Powerful Tool for Social Media Marketing

Frequently overlooked as a social media marketing channel, Twitter can be a powerful tool for gaining consumer insights, building brand awareness, and creating a brand community. In 2022, Twitter reported having around 450 million global monthly active users, and it is projected to reach almost 500 million by 2025. Moreover, Twitter receives an estimated 7.1 billion monthly visits.

While Twitter may not be as highly-trafficked as Facebook or Instagram, the site reaches 237.8 million daily monetizable customers, with 41.5 million living in the United States. More importantly, there’s a high level of audience overlap between Twitter and other major social media sites, such as Facebook (48.8%), Instagram (54.2%), and TikTok (56.6%). Given the massive number of potential customers and the high level of audience overlap, Twitter offers companies a unique opportunity to develop a robust and integrated social media marketing strategy.

Value Adds for Twitter-Based Marketing Strategies

When creating social media marketing opportunities, Twitter is a powerhouse of possibility. Whether it’s through building brand engagement, tracking campaign analytics, or responding to customer needs and current events in real-time, Twitter offers lucrative marketing channel capabilities. Here are three marketing value-adds that companies can experience when they use Twitter as part of their social media strategy.

1. Customer Engagement and Market Segmentation

To build an effective social media marketing strategy, companies must focus on developing channels that cultivate, reinforce, and capitalize on high levels of user engagement. A study from Pew Research Center found that 58% of high-volume Twitter users (users who tweeted more than 20 times per month) were likely to visit the site daily, with many visiting multiple times per day. The high volume of repeat users makes Twitter an effective platform for engaging and interacting with potential customers.

In addition to offering a high volume of online users, Twitter also gives companies an avenue for cultivating community and promoting targeted customer touchpoints. The site centers around organic, reciprocal online interactions, and its design features offer numerous benefits in terms of brand awareness and engagement. Not only does Twitter enable brands to engage in real-time discussions about current events, but it also features hashtags, discussion threads, and targeted advertising. By utilizing these features, brands can reap impressive benefits, including a 62% increase in ad recall, a 13% increase in brand awareness, and a 3% increase in purchase intent.

When it comes to capturing the attention of specific market segments, Twitter has a unique demographic and psychographic user group that is typically not represented on other channels. Most of Twitter’s users are well-educated Millennials and GenZers with higher incomes, so demographic segmentation can be quite strategic for identifying and reaching target audiences. Furthermore, Twitter users are usually values-driven, so they interact with hashtags and discussion threads associated with their values and beliefs. Therefore, using Twitter to aid in psychographic segmentation can also be an effective strategy.

2. Branding and Content Opportunities

Because Twitter is a profile-based social media site, it enables companies to establish an online presence that embodies brand identity. A Twitter profile is a virtual representation of a brand, symbolizing its characteristics and values to an online community. Companies can thoughtfully establish their brand’s online identity by creating a Twitter handle, drafting a bio statement, and selecting a profile and header photo. Moreover, when brands ensure that these profile design elements align with brand standards, they will also reap the benefits of having a more consistent and authentic brand identity.

In addition, establishing a Twitter presence also creates new ways for companies to publish marketing content. Moreover, Twitter threads allow brands to build a channel for short, bite-sized content that brands can repurpose or adapt from other marketing channels, enabling them to create a cohesive, integrated content strategy. For example, B2B companies may publish a link to a LinkedIn blog post on Twitter or a white paper for industry professionals to read. B2C businesses, on the other hand, may create tweets about contests and discounts that drive traffic to the brand’s website. Either way, companies can leverage Twitter to disseminate content in a way that represents the brand while effectively reaching key audiences through an integrated content strategy.

3. Real-Time Data and Analytics

Another benefit of using Twitter as a social media marketing channel is the platform’s use of real-time data and analytics. Twitter enables all users to track the performance of their profiles, including hashtags, individual tweet interactions, profile visits, followers, mentions, and other engagement statistics. Additionally, companies can monitor user traffic to the site to identify peak user times. Twitter also enables users to schedule when Tweets are published, so companies can ensure they publish content during peak windows. Once the content is published, brands can utilize the site’s data and analytics to track the effectiveness of their campaigns and make adjustments that maximize future success.

The Power of Twitter Shouldn’t Be Underestimated

For brands looking to implement a successful marketing strategy in today’s digital age, Twitter offers a wide range of benefits. With its vast user base and ability to cultivate high levels of engagement, Twitter enables brands to identify and engage key audiences. Moreover, the platform gives companies a new avenue for developing branding and content strategies, and it allows brands to track real-time data and analytics to promote agile and effective campaigns.

Simply put, Twitter is one of the most underrated social media channels. Despite being frequently underestimated, it offers extensive strategic advantages for brands everywhere. Therefore, when it comes to developing effective social media marketing channels, the power of Twitter simply cannot – and should not – be underestimated.