How to Promote Your Tweets for Free

Your Twitter is chock-full of your great branding and ideas. Of course, you want to reach as many of an audience as you can. You will have to rely on your own self-promotion to get yourself noticed and ensure that your brand is seen.

You can always pay to have promotional tweets show up in the timelines of various followers, but if you are looking to do this and not put out any money, it will take some effort and patience.

You are up against a lot. Other social media sites (Facebook) use algorithms to ensure that you are only seeing content that you have reacted to or things you have previously shown an interest in. No matter the time the posts are made, you see them in your timeline.

Twitter posts each tweet in real-time - so users are bombarded with posts all at once when checking their timeline. You are going to have to figure out some unique ways to have your content seen.

And...you want it to be free. So, how do we get this ball rolling? Follow along and we will show you how to promote your tweets for free so that your amazing content reaches as far as it can.

Schedule your tweets

You have probably done some research into your target audience, which means you know a thing or two about them. What time do they normally check social media? Once you have this information, you can begin to schedule tweets.

Twitter provides each user with an engagement tracker on their Twitter dashboard. For free. Use the tracker to decide when to post to ensure that your audience has enough time to engage with your account.

Use hashtags

Social media, of all forms, uses trending hashtags to get people talking. Most hashtags are related to some type of current event or pop culture. You can borrow these hashtags and get yourself into the conversation.

Your content could possibly be seen by a huge audience if you use the correct hashtag in a witty or brilliant way. Even if your brand has nothing to do with it, if you are clever, you can craft a way to have the hashtag fit.

Beware though, some hashtags are not what they seem. Make sure you research the meaning of a hashtag before posting it for your audience (and thus having it associated with your brand).

Use influencers

Don’t really use them use them, but create a relationship with one or two that can become reciprocal.

If you are just trying to start your branding on Twitter, find influencers with medium-sized followings. Offer a giveaway if someone follows you and follows the influencer. Maybe you have some free passes to give away or some type of giveaway that involves following both accounts.

These kinds of partnerships are essentially free ads. You are connecting with the influencer and potentially setting up further collaborations down the road, but you are also creating engagement with your audience and the audience of your new influencer friend.

Make ‘em pretty

If you carefully craft your tweets by choosing impeccable wording, you are halfway there. Add some great photos or videos, and you will catch the eye of the audience.

Videos and photos on Twitter are bigger than regular tweets in the timeline, so you are bound to capture some new followers. For free!

How promoting tweets works

Promoted or sponsored tweets are a paid way to have your tweets show up in the Twitter search engine. So, a user will search a term, and if your promoted tweet includes that term, your tweet will show up in their search results.

If you are looking to share a big announcement on social media, like a sale or new collaboration, sponsored tweets will open up your audience to this new content. It is kind of like running a big ad campaign without the ads. Instead, you are forcing people to see your brand through search results.

Promoted accounts fare similar to promoted tweets, but instead display suggested Twitter accounts the user does not currently follow. Promoted accounts will have content similar to the accounts the user is currently following.

Promoted accounts and tweets are used to generate engagement with an audience you may not have been hitting prior to paying for promoted accounts. Additionally, you can always use the Twitter business page to help with lead generation and other promotions.

You can easily (and pretty cheaply) engage your followers with a Twitter poll. This will create conversation and will generate likes, replies, and retweets.

How effective promoted tweets are for growing your following

When you pay to have your tweets promoted, you are able to show your best content to anyone getting search results. That means that your audience is not just your followers, but you are now exposed to followers who simply searched for whatever you are promoting.

Maybe you would like to draw attention to your blog posts, or your brand new website. You are able to promote your tweets so that anyone who has searched your hashtags or keywords will now be able to clink on your links.

If you look at social media sites, you can see influencers and brand ambassadors alike using promoted accounts trying to get followers.

Influencers have the social media game down pat. They are able to leverage audience engagement into followers and links to whatever they may be peddling that day.

Influencers are not the only ones using Twitter to reach an audience. Large companies have seen their Twitter accounts becoming vehicles for getting to know their CEOs. These CEOs don’t even seem to be selling anything.

What are they doing then? They are becoming likable, known, and trustworthy. So, even though they aren’t selling anything, per se, they are actually convincing you to be loyal to them, and that is probably going to generate sales.

How much tweet promotion usually costs

You have decided you are going to pay for some sponsored tweets, or chosen to be one of Twitter’s promoted accounts. You will have to visit Twitter’s business page to buy any type of promotion.

What is the primary purpose of your social media campaign? Are you wanting to just get your brand name out there? Or, are you going further and looking for traffic to your website or blog posts, sales, lead generation, and brand awareness?

You will have to pay Twitter for whatever your goal is.

For a ‘Cost per Click’ (CPC) on Twitter, the average is $0.53. Twitter charges only for clicks that generate a click on your site, so your money is not frivolously spent. An ‘Impression’ on Twitter costs an average of $5.76.

If the average for CPC is too high, you can try to win bids on the Twitter business page for less.

How to effectively advertise on Twitter for free

If you have read about the costs of running an ad campaign on social media, and want to forgo sponsored tweets, we get it. You can still run an ad campaign on Twitter without paying for marketing from Twitter.

Now that you have decided that you would like to try your hand at free advertising, rest assured there are ways to be successful.

Be social

Use your contacts, virtual and real life. Do you have any friends in photography or graphic design? Trade photos or graphics in turn for advertising on your Twitter or site. You will grow your own audience, but also that of your friend!

Read, reply, retweet, repeat!

There is no better way to market yourself than to be available to your audience. They will come to expect responses from you. They will be excited about your retweets. They will be engaged.

Engage with your followers. Tag them in posts and let them know that you notice them

Figure out the timing

Use free tools to help you best determine when you should be tweeting. Make sure you stick to those times and allow for your followers to have extra time to read and respond.

Keywords, hashtags, and tagging

Find out how to use keywords and hashtags and get really good at it. Not only are you going to find alike accounts to follow, but you will also open yourself to a new audience that you can begin marketing to.

Make it exclusive to Twitter

You can run a Twitter-only contest, or have a daily countdown for something exciting. If your followers feel like they are special because they are part of an exclusive club, they will become more engaged in the process.

You can definitely create an engaging account by organically advertising.

It may take some time and a bit more energy than paying Twitter for services, but, in the end, you will have a connection with your target audience that you would not have had with a different ad campaign.