twitter trends – Nicole Munoz Consulting

For someone who’s new to Twitter, understanding all the different types of posts you can make can be quite confusing. There’s not only a lot of different kinds of posts, but a lot of different kinds of terminology.

In order to use Twitter well, you need to be able to navigate the Twitter world and all its complexities. Being able to make all the different kinds of posts that Twitter users make is an essential part of that.

Here are all the different kinds of posts you can make on Twitter, along with descriptions of the different kinds of terminologies that apply to those posts.

STEP 1: REPLIES

When someone posts something that you want to respond to, you can do so with a reply. This is also known as an @reply.

@replies are visible not only to the person you’re replying to, but anyone who’s following you and anyone who looks at your Twitter feed. In other words, @replies are public.

The easiest way to reply to a tweet is to hit the “reply” button.

You can also reply to someone by typing @theirname and replying to their message.

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STEP 2: MENTIONS AND @MENTIONS

A mention, also known as an @mention, is any text that has someone’s name followed by an @ sign in the tweet. An @reply is a type of mention. However, a mention doesn’t have to be in response to a tweet.

Twitter (and other Twitter tools) has a special tab where you can view all your mentions. This makes it easy to see all the messages people are directing at you.

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STEP 3: RETWEETS

A retweet, also known as an RT is when you take someone else’s tweet and re-message it out to your own network.

Retweeting is seen as a form of appreciation on Twitter. Retweeting someone’s message is a good way to show you like their content and to begin building a relationship with them.

To retweet a post, click the “Retweet” button below the post.

Note that you can’t change any of the text on a retweet. It has to be retweeted as is. You’ll get to see a preview of a retweet before you send it out.

Alternatively, people often choose to do a retweet manually. Doing this allows you to change the text of the retweet. Just copy and paste the retweet text into your tweet box and hit “Tweet.”

Another common tactic is to add “RT @name” to the beginning of the retweet. That way, the retweet also becomes a mention and will show up in the author’s mentions tab. If you want to retweet a message and make sure the author knows that you retweeted their message, this is a good way to do it.

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STEP 4: UPLOADING PHOTOS

Uploading photos on Twitter is simple. Just click the photo icon under the tweet box.

Any images you add to Twitter will automatically be converted into a link. People who want to view the photo need to click on the link to view the photo.

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STEP 5: HASHTAGS

Hashtags are the standard way of using Twitter to discuss a specific topic. For example, if you were talking about the SXSW convention, you’d use hashtags like #SXSW. Users who’re interested in the same topic can search for that hashtag and see what others are saying about the topic.

Often time’s hashtags are used to create live chats. For example, if you’re at a live concert that has a hashtag (say #concert2012,) you can use that hashtag to see what everyone else around you is saying in real time. These hashtag based chats are often called hashchats.

Posting a response to popular hashtags is a great way to get traffic to your website. A lot of people will be searching for those hashtags, so you’re guaranteed to get a lot of exposure.

Twitter by default gives you the top 10 hashtags that are trending worldwide. To get more detailed information on what tags are trending, use “What the Trend”

What the trend allows you to see a lot more than just the top ten trending tweets. You can also sort trends by country. If you’re just targeting the United States or Canada for example, you can see only the trending hashtags in those countries.

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STEP 6: DIRECT MESSAGES

Direct messages are private messages sent to someone who’s following you. Unlike @replies, direct messages cannot be viewed by anyone but the recipient. You can’t send messages to people you follow unless they’re also following you.

Direct messages are known as “DMs” or “DM” for short.

To send a DM, click on “Direct Messages” on your profile settings.

Click on “New Message”.

Now type the name of the person you want to send a DM to (or copy it from the Twitter profile) and type the message (140 characters), then hit “Send message”.

These are all the different types of messages on Twitter. You now know how to use @replies, @mentions, retweets, photos, hashtags and direct messages.

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Promoted Trends is one of Twitter’s methods of advertising that allows you to advertise directly to twitter users’ homepages. Your ad will appear in the “Trending” area, with a “Promoted” box next to it to indicate that your trend is an ad, not an organic listing.

Unlike Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends allow you to get your advertising message in front of your users without them having to type in a specific search message.

This can result in a massive infusion of impressions, user activity and engagement.

Here we’ll talk about how trends work, how Promoted Trends work, who initial advertisers are and what their results were and finally how much it costs to use Promoted Trends.

HOW TWITTER TRENDS (UNPAID) NORMALLY WORK

Twitter has developed a proprietary algorithm that ranks the most talked about topics and displays them on the front page of all its users.

The algorithm takes into account impressions, retweets and general activity and looks for tweets that are getting more popular at a rapid pace. It also filters out topics that people are likely not to be interested in. For example, if the teenage population suddenly got interested in Justin Beiber’s new album, you may not necessarily hear about it because Twitter will filter it out.

Here’s how the Twitter trending topics normally looks like:

The trending topics are located just below the “Who to follow” on the right hand side.

HOW PROMOTED TRENDS WORKS

Promoted Trends allows you to pay for a placement where the trending topics appear. Your ad will also appear as a Promoted Tweet along the top of the results.

Here’s an example of how your Promoted Trend might look:

Courtesy of Twitter Business

WHO HAS USED PROMOTED TRENDS AND WHAT WERE THEIR RESULTS

Pixar was the first company to use Promoted Trends to advertise on Twitter. They used it to promote their Toys Story 3 movie release.

Coca Cola was the second company. During the World Cup, Coca Cola advertised #WC2010 as their Promoted Trend.

They got 86 million impressions within that one day. Their estimated ad spend was in the high tens of thousands. For Coca Cola, spending a few tens of thousands to get 86 million impressions was a very successful outcome.

THEMING ADVERTISING TO TOPICS

One of the most powerful things about Promoted Trends is that your advertising is being tied to a current event or a topic that people are interested in.

For example, Coca Cola would have never gotten as much of a response as it did if they hadn’t picked the World Cup as the time to advertise. Twitter users flooded to the site to tweet about the World Cup and Coca Cola took advantage of that brilliantly.

What could you hitch your business on to? What are current events or events happening in the near future that your business could hightail on to with a Promoted Trend?

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST AND HOW TO GET STARTED

In 2010, a day of Promoted Trends was estimated to cost around $70,000 to $80,000. Today the cost is estimated at around $200,000, according to CNET (report here).

While the price is steep for small advertisers, it’s important to remember that your ad will be shown to almost Twitter’s entire database. This kind of exposure is extremely difficult to get anywhere, especially with a brand as trusted as Twitter.

To apply to become a Promoted Trend advertiser, visit:

http://business.twitter.com/advertise/start