The platform formerly known as Twitter—where to even begin? The platform has undergone countless changes over the last 15+ years. And the shake-ups only intensified when new owner Elon Musk took the helm last year.
Now known as X, it remains to be seen what the future holds for one of the world’s most popular sounding boards. But for now, the platform is still as influential as it ever was, meaning it deserves a place at the influencer marketing table.
So, let’s talk about how you can create your own Twitter influencer marketing strategy and start taking advantage of everything X has to offer.
X trends and statistics to be aware of
X has 556 million monthly active users.
That’s a lot of sets of eyes. However, it’s still only good enough for the 14th most-used platform worldwide. For perspective, Facebook has nearly 3 billion active monthly users, while the second most-used platform, YouTube, has about 2.5 billion.
Millennials are the most active age group on X.
All ages are active on the platform formerly known as Twitter, but Millennials have the largest share of active users, with more than 38%.
- 13-17: 6.6% of users
- 18-24: 17.1% of users
- 25-34: 38.5% of users
- 35-49: 20.7% of users
- 50+: 17.1% of users
X is the sixth-leading social media platform in time spent on the app among users in the United States.
X users spend an average of 1.1 hours per week on the platform. Here’s the full breakdown of leading social media platforms.
- TikTok: 9.5 weekly hours
- YouTube: 5.3 weekly hours
- Facebook: 3.8 weekly hours
- Instagram: 3.4 weekly hours
- Snapchat: 2.4 weekly hours
- X: 1.1 weekly hours
X is the fifth-leading platform preferred by marketers.
Though marketers like having X in their toolbelt, it’s still not used as much as other major social media platforms. A closer look:
- Facebook: 89%
- Instagram: 80%
- LinkedIn: 64%
- YouTube: 54%
- Twitter: 44%
- TikTok: 26%
A step-by-step guide to influencer marketing on X
Ready to start your influencer marketing strategy on the platform formerly known as Twitter? Let’s start from the top.
Set your goals.
The first thing you need to do to formulate any influencer marketing strategy is establish the mission for your program. Think broadly at first. Are you looking to increase brand awareness? Get more conversions? More web traffic?
Once you’ve set your primary objectives, you can start thinking about key performance indicators (KPIs). You’ll need to meet these shorter-term benchmarks to accomplish your main goals.
For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you might set a KPI of increasing your follower count by X% in a given month. If you aim to get more conversions, you might measure your monthly sales, newsletter signups, etc.
Identify your ideal creator profile (ICP).
Once you set your goals and KPIs, you can start looking for creators who can help you get to your final destination. This will require a deep understanding of your target audience, as the creators you choose for your program should be a direct reflection of them.
Consider the following:
- Demographics
- Hobbies and interests
- Location
- Family status
- Desired follower count and engagement rate
- Content quality
- Platforms of choice
How do I find Twitter influencers?
Once you have set your goals, select the type of influencers you want. Every influencer has a specific interest area or specialization.
Here are a few types of influencers that you might come across:
- Thought leaders: Thought leaders are new thinkers with new perspectives and are, of course, knowledgeable. People turn to them for new ideas and follow their advice. CEOs and founders of companies, at times, become thought leaders.
- Celebrities: There are plenty of celebrities on Twitter who have fans offline and followers online. They normally become brand ambassadors for brands or use tactics like brand mentions when they collaborate with a brand.
- Experts: Experts are highly knowledgeable in their fields. They could be doctors, nutritionists, fitness specialists, or even artists. These influencers are perfect for a brand collaboration to build trust and boost brand image. If an expert recommends your brand, people will trust you more.
- Networkers: They may not be experts in any one field, but they are super social and have a great network. They are passionate about certain niches and may lead conversations on relevant topics. Since these influencers have a massive reach, they are the perfect ones to partner with if you want to build brand awareness.
- Your most loyal customers: You can also search through your own CRM. You may find influencers in your customer list. Some of them may already be talking about you. These are the best types of influencers for any brand as they eventually become brand advocates. And since they are already your customers, they are the best people to recommend your brand to others.
Select your influencer type depending on your campaign objectives.
Search hashtags
If you want to find X influencers, the first place you need to search is X.
40% of X users say that their purchase decisions are a direct result of a tweet from an influencer. Therefore, start your search on Twitter for influential people on the platform.
Keep a few points in mind while searching. One is, of course, the type of influencer you are looking for. Second is the relevance to your brand and your values. You can get a fair idea of their relevance from their profiles and content as well as their follower profiles.
Reach and engagement are two major pillars of influencer marketing. Therefore, keep these two factors in mind as well.
One effective way to find X influencers in your niche is to search using popular hashtags in your industry. The hashtags should be relevant to your brand. Do some keyword research if needed. In the search results, you will get to see the tweets that used the hashtag and got the most engagement.
You can go to the search bar and use min_retweet: [a number] or min_faves: [a number] to filter search results. This will help you find tweets that got above a certain number of retweets of favs.
Visit chat rooms
TweetChat is a fantastic platform to network with and find X influencers. If you already know the chat schedule and relevant hashtags, just search using the search bar. If you need more inspiration, different sites can tell you about various chat hashtags and schedules, like TweetReports, TWUBS, etc.
Twitter chats are typically hour-long sessions and normally happen once a week simultaneously. If you attend a chat regularly, you will see familiar accounts with similar interests, and that’s how networking happens.
You may also host your own Twitter chat around a topic related to your niche. This can help you find Twitter influencers and have casual discussions with them before approaching them for your campaign.
Here is a Twitter chat example organized by Hootsuite.
Read the #Digitalin2019 report from @hootsuite and @wearesocial!
In this report, you’ll find data about the changing landscape in social, mobile, and e-commerce from every country in the world ? https://t.co/B4VPj0tNTB pic.twitter.com/EQJeoOOb6E
— Hootsuite ? (@hootsuite) February 22, 2019
Host or attend events
You can also attend or arrange events and invite potential influencers. You could invite them to your product launch, for example. You can even ask an influencer to host your product launch. However, that will only work if you have already decided on your influencer.
Here is an example of the New York launch of Armani Box, their beauty pop-up, where Camila Coelho was invited as a celebrity guest.
Make your event visually appealing so influencers automatically get inspired to take pictures and post them on their Twitter accounts. The engagement their posts get could give you an idea of which influencers and audiences are right for your brand.
You can even go one step further and arrange a competition for influencers. The influencer with the most engagement will get the campaign contract. The engagement you will get in this process is a bonus.
You can also attend different influencer marketing events to help build your influencer network and find Twitter influencers to collaborate with BeautyCon Festivals, Playlist Live, The Social Shake-up, Influence This, and VidCon are among the popular influencer events. Plan in advance for this kind of event, as seats are always limited.
Reach out to the top prospects.
When you’ve identified your ideal influencers, it’s time to reach out. Ideally, you’ll want to find a creator with a valid email address. But if not, a DM works, too.
Start by complimenting the creator’s work. Tell them why you like their content and why you think they would be a good fit for a partnership.
It’s important to keep your initial outreach short and to the point. Be warm and conversational, but don’t overload the creator with information. Give them a clear CTA so they are more likely to follow up with you for more information about the opportunity.
Provide detailed campaign briefs.
When you’ve secured the partnership, it’s time to pen a campaign brief for your new creator. A brief should detail what success looks like for the program and give any content or guidelines that can help your creator add the most value to your program. You’ll also want to use this as an opportunity to secure any content rights you’ll need to repurpose your creators’ posts across your marketing mix.
While you should give your creator some direction in the brief, it’s critical not to micromanage. Without sufficient creative freedom, the content your influencer produces on behalf of your brand will seem forced and inauthentic. Remember, your creator knows their audience better than you do, so just let them cook.
Monitor performance.
Track everything your creators produce! Doing so is the only way to get a feel for what’s working and what isn’t.
You might find that your creator content isn’t performing as well as you expected. If that’s the case, it might be time to go back to the drawing board and select a different creator type.
Identifying when creator content is working better than expected is equally important. If it is, you’ve struck gold and will want to iterate that approach as much as possible.
If you’re new to influencer marketing, you can probably get away with tracking performance on a spreadsheet. But as your program grows, spreadsheets become too time-consuming, and you’ll need to search for a tool or platform to help you manage things more efficiently.
Build long-term relationships.
So you’re seeing great ROI with some of your creators? Great! Do whatever you can to lock them in long-term.
Some ideas for building long-term relationships with your Twitter influencers:
- Offer payment tiers. Start your creators out on a trial basis. As they hit performance goals, increase their flat rate or commission rate.
- Promote creators to ambassadors. Brand ambassadors have more active involvement than a typical creator. If you have a high-performing creator that genuinely loves your brand and products, consider giving them a more official title.
- Offer perks and incentives. Offer your creators free products, special discount codes, experiences, or something similar to show your appreciation.
- Collaborate on product releases. Ask your most trusted creators to work with you on creating new products or services. Consider giving them a cut of the total sales to prove your commitment to them.
Best practices for successful influencer marketing campaigns
Let’s talk about a few creative ways you can get the most out of your influencer partnerships. These best practices are by no means prescriptive, but they should provide some good thought starters for generating content your audience will love.
Run contests and giveaways.
Collaborate with influencers to host contests or giveaways on Twitter. This can drive engagement, increase brand visibility, and attract new followers to your brand’s account.
Micro influencers matter.
Consider working with micro-influencers (influencers with smaller but highly engaged followings), as they often have a more targeted and loyal audience. Micro-influencers can be more cost-effective and authentic in their recommendations.
Create Twitter Spaces.
Creating Twitter Spaces can amplify your brand’s presence by fostering real-time, interactive conversations with your audience. It’s an avenue to showcase expertise, engage with followers authentically, and gather instant feedback. Spaces humanize your brand, nurturing deeper connections and driving engagement through timely discussions on trending topics.
Optimize posting times.
Work with influencers to identify the best posting times for maximum reach and engagement with their audience. Timing can significantly impact the visibility of your content on X.
Retweet and engage.
Amplify the impact of your influencer’s content by retweeting and engaging with their posts. This shows appreciation and helps extend the content’s reach to your brand’s audience.
Monitor competitors.
Keep an eye on your competitors’ influencer marketing efforts on Twitter. Analyze their successful campaigns and identify opportunities to differentiate your approach.
Test different content formats.
Experiment with various types of content, such as images, videos, polls, and Twitter threads, to see what resonates best with the audience and drives higher engagement.
Share success stories.
Highlight the positive impact of your influencer marketing campaigns through case studies or testimonials. This can attract more influencers and reassure potential partners about your brand’s commitment to collaborations.
Use Twitter Ads strategically.
Complement your influencer marketing efforts with Twitter ads to reach a broader audience and reinforce campaign messaging. Leverage influencer-generated content in your ads for consistency.
Collaborate with Twitter moments.
Work with influencers to create Twitter Moments around significant events, product launches, or brand milestones. Twitter Moments can capture the essence of a campaign and make it easily shareable.
From Twitter to X: a timeline
Like most social media platforms, X is nearly unrecognizable from its original form. From the early days of “Twttr” to the recent facelift at the hands of its new ownership, here’s a look at how the platform has changed over the last 17 years.
2006
March: Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams start a project that would eventually become Twitter.
July: X is officially launched under the name “Twttr.”
just setting up my twttr
— jack (@jack) March 21, 2006
2007
May: “Twttr” becomes its own company and changes its name to Twitter.
August: Twitter explodes in popularity during the South by Southwest (SXSW) interactive conference.
2008
March: Twitter solidifies itself as a major social media platform.
July: Twitter introduces hashtags.
October: Dorsey steps down as Twitter CEO.
2009
April: Twitter launches “Verified Accounts,” allowing public figures to confirm their identity.
June: Retweets are born.
September: Twitter introduces “Trending Topics” on its homepage.
2010
April: Twitter reaches 100 million users.
September: Twitter introduces a new design, featuring multimedia integration.
2011
December: Twitter unveils the “Discover” feature.
2012
April: Twitter acquires Vine.
2013
October: Twitter goes public on the New York Stock Exchange.
2014
November: “Twitter Polls” goes live.
2015
October: Twitter unveils a plan to increase its character limit from 140 to 280 characters. Later that month, Dorsey would return to Twitter as CEO.
2016
Twitter comes under fire for allowing public figures to spread misinformation on its platform.
2018
February: Twitter reports its first profitable quarter since going public.
July: Twitter takes action to combat fake accounts and suspicious activity, leading to a decline in user growth.
2020
May: Twitter starts fact-checking and labeling misleading tweets, including those from political figures.
2021
January: Twitter permanently suspends then-US President Donald Trump’s account due to violations of its policies.
2022
October: Elon Musk acquires Twitter for $44 billion and becomes CEO.
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
December: Musk overhauls Twitter’s verification program and gives blue checks and opens the invite-only policy to anyone who signs up for an $8 per month Twitter Blue subscription.
2023
May: Musk steps down as CEO and names Linda Yaccarino as his successor.
July: Twitter becomes X.
So what’s the difference between Twitter and X?
In the next few years, we’ll likely look back and note numerous differences between Twitter and X. From the second he stepped into Twitter’s HQ, Musk has shaken things up, and plenty of changes have been executed or in the works even before the rebrand.
But for now, the transition from Twitter to X is nothing more than a name change and a fond farewell to the little blue bird. Tweets are now “Xs,” and the homepage has undergone a facelift. However, no major changes occurred in the overnight rebrand. Time will tell how X’s evolution will shake out, but for now, stay tuned.
Key takeaway: Despite recent changes, keep X in your back pocket to diversify your influencer marketing mix.
There are a lot of questions surrounding X right now and for good reason. Seeing as the platform could drastically change from one day to the next, it’s easy to see why some marketers might have doubts about putting too much stock into the platform formerly known as Twitter.
But the truth is X is still a major player and a massive launchpad for ideas and trends. That means it’s still a viable option for your influencer marketing program. And by following the steps above, you should be able to design a strategy that gives you the most possible ROI from your efforts.
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