Using Twitter CARDS to empower your brand
It’s funny to think that over 5 years ago Twitter had hit the stage and no matter who I talked to in business or education they had no interest in learning how to use it, because they just didn’t get it. After years of being highlighted in our media and through out every bit of marketing we absorb everyone engages with Twitter (on one level or another).
The product has evolved dramatically, if your using Twitter to engage with any audience, it’s worth knowing how to have customers interact using TWITTER CARDS.
Twitter Cards publish media rich content that users can interact directly with instead of jumping them to your website.
- SUMMARY CARDS
- LARGE PHOTO SUMMARY CARD
- PRODUCT CARD
- PLAYER CARD
- AUDIO CARD
- PHOTO CARD
- GALLERY CARD
- APP CARD
- LEAD GENERATION CARD
- WEBSITE CARD
Each card is slightly different, depending on what you want to promote, but none the less provide real time interaction and highlight something specific. Create one of these and pin it to the top of your Twitter Profile, it become an excellent way to give fresh content to your audience.
To create one, you can use two basic routes
THE TWITTER ADS DASHBOARD: Twitter Ads Dashboard Is an interface online that allows you to create a budget, create your card, and then target a specific audience for a certain amount of time. This will give you the most flexibility and didn’t seem too overly complicated to use.
WORDPRESS PLUG IN: You can also integrate your WordPress site with Twitter Cards: I used the Twitter Cards Meta Plugin as a start. I always seek the plugin with a good review an most recently updated (means the developers and creators are staying ahead by ensuring their products work).
Once the plug-in is installed you’ll notice an option on your wordpress draft page that you can click what type of card you want sent out. The default is merely a Summary Card right now, but more are in development.
No matter what plug in you use, you will have to run it through the TWITTER CARD VALIDATOR, basically you take the web address of the post that is live (not the main domain) drop it in and cross your fingers for validation.
I of course was rejected when I tried this, but after about 15 minutes it accepted my post as a real one.
All in all I really like this feature in Twitter and am amazed at how I even interact as a Twitter user when I see some of my favorite TWITTER Cards get sent. I follow America’s Test Kitchen, and when they send out a new and fabulous recipe and doll it up with great media, I actually stop what I’m doing for my 2 minute mental break and watch it.
So here’s a question I would be asking myself as a small business owner or someone with a message that was promoting something … How easy is it to create a Twitter Card? Well, let’s see, I have a bit of “street cred” when it comes to social media and websites. It took me 3 minutes to research within general blog posts and articles, about 40 minutes to test and implement, and a good 20 minutes to troubleshoot. So there is a bit of time consumption that is well worth it, especially if you have an audience that is engaging with you and you are fluid with technology. But don’t forget that’s just the “sharing part” bottom line – you have to have good content for your audience to click on and see.
Just my thoughts from the office of THE DIGITAL PIXIE !
