Are you following your insurance agent on social media? Don’t worry if the answer is no, most people don’t. However, when I started working with an Allstate agent to boost his social media presence to create new leads. I had to figure out how to persuade people to do just that. Isn’t that really what running a business social media account is all about? It’s about getting into your customer’s mind and trying to get them to follow an account that they may not otherwise do on their own.

I started to look at other businesses that were popular on social media. Like, Domino’s, Wendy’s, and JetBlue. They all have unique ways of running their social media and all are correct. The most import thing with twitter is deciding your brand personality and staying true to it. Take Wendy’s for instance, their brand voice is always sarcastic and throwing shade at other fast food companies by responding first when people complain about their food. People love that, why? Because it’s REAL! Everyone knows that if they tweet @wendys they will tweet back. It’s important to keep your personality consistent and not start anything you don’t want to continue. I decided the personality of my clients profile and then started posting content that matched that.

I noticed that most accounts keep it to at least an 70/30 ratio. That means that 70% of their content is personal and only about 30% promotion. I saw this to be apparent in almost all leading brands on Twitter.

Within that 70% content that is personal, I had to decide what would be the most interesting to the followers. This content is what convinced your customers to continue to follow you even if you are posting promotional content.  I decided the best content for Allstate was humor and insurance tips and tricks. That’s when the magic happened. I found the clients brand voice and got this gem. A VIRAL TWEET. Now, of course, it takes work to create a viral tweet. So here’s the rundown!

“You live. You learn.” #4WordStoryOfMyLife pic.twitter.com/dulTt2jBQd

— Blake Hancock (@AllstateBlake) June 7, 2018

1. Trending Hashtags – use trending hashtags in tweet and jump on the trend early. You can keep up on Trending Hashtags by going to the search icon on your twitter app and then swipe over to “Trending”. You can also find it on https://trends24.in/united-states/. The key to having a trending hashtag work for you is to look at the top performing posts for that hashtag or trend and make yours unique but, something that fits in and is true to your brand. Had I posted a gif or text that had nothing to do with the insurance I wouldn’t have gotten such a great response.
2. Envoke a Chain Reaction of Emotion – you want to envoke lots of emotion with your tweet. You need them to stop, take action, think about it, and then take action again for a tweet to really go viral. For instance, this GIF gets your attention because it’s funny. Next, you’ll read the caption and then you’ll either engage by retweeting or clicking favorite or if I’m lucky both. But, the key is if you can hold them for just one more second and get them to visit your profile because your tweet was just that golden! That is exactly what people did here! We went from having 0 profile visits a week to averaging 10 a day for a few weeks! That’s a 6% increase and definitely shows progress. Keep their attention for more than 1 second and you’ll see more conversions.
3. Short and Simple Caption – You may be thinking? “Doesn’t Twitter already have a really restricted character limit?” Well, yes, and no! You can fit 280 characters. The most viral tweets according to Buffer, are between 41-100 characters. This leaves the user just enough room to add their own text when retweeting. Which is ideal because you want them to customize your tweet to their audience for even more engagement. To write a key caption you’re going to have to write it more than once. Have you ever heard of Sally Hogshead? I wouldn’t go that far, but write at least 15 different tweet captions before you settle. The caption is everything in getting engagement on Twitter.
4. Timing – If you aren’t tweeting during prime times, then why are you even tweeting at all? You can determine for your target audience when those prime times are but generally, it is between 6 AM – 7 AM, 12 – 1 PM, 6 – 9 PM. The morning before work to get the latest news, during lunch break, and before going to bed. As a rule of thumb, think about when you are on social media the most and chances are others are as well.
5. Social Listening – You have to stay true to your brand and your brand voice. Make sure that your listening and following topics that are closely related to your brand. For instance, JetBlue has been known to reply to tweets about travel or flying not related to their brand. Wendy’s responding to peoples tweets about food at McDonald’s and at their own restaurant. This reminds people you are an option at one of their most crucial times. For example, with Allstate. I followed hashtags that surrounded car wrecks or car problems, so that as soon as I found someone complaining I could respond to keep them interested.