Summary

The article provides a comprehensive guide on creating and enhancing a personal brand on Twitter in 2020, emphasizing its effectiveness over other social media platforms.

Abstract

The article "How to Create a Successful Brand on Twitter in 2020" serves as an ultimate guide for individuals and companies looking to establish a strong personal brand. It defines a personal brand as a unique combination of visual elements and self-positioning in the market. The author advocates for Twitter as the ideal platform to start building an online presence due to its simplicity, consistent results, and the ability to reach a wide audience without the need for daily posting or high-quality visual content. The article also covers practical aspects of branding on Twitter, such as the importance of a unique visual identity, the use of tools like Adobe Photoshop and Canva for creating brand assets, and the strategic use of hashtags for better visibility. Additionally, it suggests following successful competitors on Twitter to understand their strategies and engage with them, as well as maintaining a consistent tweeting schedule to grow and retain followers.

Opinions

The author believes that Twitter is a more effective platform for building a brand compared to Facebook and Instagram due to its simplicity and consistent results.
Visual branding on Twitter is crucial as it captures user attention within seconds, and should be consistent with the brand's color scheme and style.
Instagram is criticized for its requirement of frequent, high-quality visual content and the rapid decline of follower engagement when not posting regularly.
Facebook is noted to be complex, especially concerning ad management, and may not be ideal for those who prefer not to spend money on advertising without guaranteed results.
The article suggests that being unique and providing value are key to standing out on Twitter, rather than copying others.
Tools like Adobe Photoshop and Canva are recommended for creating brand identity elements, with Canva being praised for its simplicity and speed, and Photoshop for its creative control.
The author emphasizes the importance of researching and using relevant hashtags to improve SEO and increase the discoverability of tweets.
Engaging with competitors and industry leaders on Twitter is encouraged to gain insights into successful strategies and to foster networking opportunities.
Consistent tweeting and the use of Twitter Analytics are highlighted as important practices for maintaining and monitoring follower growth and engagement.

How to Create a Successful Brand on Twitter in 2020

Ultimate guide

What is a Brand

If you own a company or you provide services as a solo professional, you definitely have your own logo, business card, and other print materials. But was you considering to use more than this only? Saying that I mean the term “personal brand”. What is a personal brand?

Personal brand — it is a scope of colors used in your identity, typography, illustrations, style of writing, product or anything related to your company that is visually presented only on your platform.

Zulie Rane, Ayodeji Awosika , Thomas Oppong— these TOP Medium writers have built their name as a personal brand.

In other words, this is your personal style and self-position on the market. I am not talking about generic Wordpress templates or non-stylish websites, which were coded without any personal details. Of course no. I talk about people and companies who introduce their own style to the audience already.

Reasons to Select Twitter in 2020

If you have a brand, this is a perfect time to enhance it. There are multiple ways how you can do that. You can start a YouTube channel, Instagram, Facebook groups, Slack channel… I personally would recommend starting with Twitter.

There are a lot social networks. Why should I select Twitter?

That is a good question. Sure, everyone who wants to be present on social media should select one source only in the beginning. Once you reach a decent followers amount, you can increase your presence to other networks as well. But why companies and solo-professionals need to concentrate on Twitter as a first priority?

Credit: Most popular social media apps in the U.S. 2019, by reach by Statista

If you check the most popular statistics on Statista, you see all networks that you can consider. And you might have a question: “Facebook and Instagram are the top leaders, so why I need to start with Twitter?”. That is true, but let`s assume that the amount does not mean the quality.

I will explain it from my experience. I tried to use Facebook and here are my results:

Then I tried to use Instagram and it went really well. But it took me long 2 years and multiple tries to figure out what content works and doesn`t. While I tried to figure out this, a lot of time was spent without profit.

And then I started my Twitter in recent months. The main difference between Twitter and top platforms? Consistent result and simplicity.

When you just start your journey to social media presence there are 2 major factors to consider — time and usage simplicity.

When I started with Facebook, this tool was too complicated for me, especially ads. It takes a long time to manage them and I didn`t want actually to spend money upfront not knowing the results.

With Instagram, it was a much better experience. It is simple to use, it is possible to promote yourself quickly. But there is a big downside. That is unpredictable results.

If you are not active on Instagram for a long period of time, 7 days or longer, your Instagram followers will quickly become 0. To keep them engaged and increase their amount, you need to post regularly, preferably daily.

Another big downside is Instagram is a perfect for visual content, so you need to craft great pictures every time, which is not a good fit for everyone.

And where Twitter stands in all this chaos? It stands in a perfect position! Twitter as huge as Instagram and as powerful as Facebook. It is simple to use and has a solid consistent result. Your followers won`t disappear in 0 as on Instagram and you can use text with pictures or links as on Facebook.

Twitter is a perfect solution for people looking for simple generic tool to grow their following.

Here are my analytics from Twitter:

I got 3.3k impressions per month for just a few posts! And that with 46 followers only. I have Twitter from 2016 but didn`t use it until last month. When I started my Medium, I realized that Facebook and Instagram aren`t good feet for my articles. So I started to use Twitter.

Then I saw that people use Twitter for very different things — for Medium, company, events promotion, selling their services and products… Basically you can find everything there.

How to Design Your Brand on Twitter

It is important to remember that Twitter's success accounts (and other media as well) want you to be unique. If you are similar to X person, no one will follow you(unless you are an official star twin). If you will copy success twits from other people — you are not so great to be followed.

That`s why you need to consider a value that you want to bring for your followers. Once you have it in your mind, it is time to think about how you can present yourself.

Visual appereance drives user attention in under 7sec. Be sure to use your branding accurate.

Here is an example of the Twitter brand that I use:

My brand color is deep blue. I used it to highlight my picture and banner. Once you start your Twitter account you need to think about the photo and cover image. It seems that these are minor things and you can do it later, but the truth is not like that.

Once people visit your Twitter they will remember your account visually. That`s why it is important to prepare it well before promotion.

Also, consider changing your name according to your niche or brand name. I use my real name because it is my personal brand as a solo professional. F.e I use “olba.design” on Instagram. Those are two letters from both my name and surname with my niche in the end. You can also think about such a mix for better self-positioning.

Tools for Brand Identity

There are plenty of tools awaiting for you. You can also hire a designer who will prepare these assets of you to need extra help. But if you would like to manage it on your own, take a look at Adobe Photoshop and Canva.

The difference between Canva and Adobe Photoshop is the level of creativity and control that you require.

Canva will give you simple and fast options, while Adobe Photoshop will give you full control of all your needs. It is up to you. I would recommend trying both of these tools and then you can decide which tool is more convenient for you.

Find Your Competitors

Try to find similar accounts on Twitter that are already successful. Connect with these people and try to understand what steps made them successful. Do not copy their tweets, but try to find their strategy and replicate it in your own perception.

Find these people by the industry you work in. Use the search and switch to the people tab.

Read their new tweets, try to connect with them, maybe find even friends in your niche. The more activity you do the better.

Hashtags are Everything

Once you have established your visual content, it is time to think about Hashtags.

Hashtags are words used with # symbol to attach your tweet to a topic that you want to connect with

You need to consider using hashtags for SEO needs. This will help people find you easier and faster. It is important to research them before you are going to use them. Try to find the most popular tags that are re-tweeted frequently.

Your Followers

As I have mentioned before, Twitter is the only platform that has consistent followers amount from my experience. But to keep its growth you need to write tweets a few times per day ideally.

Once you publish your first tweet — use Analytics to track your results. It shows the data about tweet amount per month, impression, mentions, profile visits, and followers dynamics.

Even a short tweet can go virally. In comparison with Facebook and Instagram, writing a text is as fast as you write a message to your friends. That`s why it is so simple to grow your Twitter if you have consistency and strategy in advance.

Conclusion

Creating an online presence is an important step for your brand. Twitter has all capabilities to start using it immediately for all industry types and content. It is easy to use and provide decent results. Once you have your strategy for Twitter it is time to take action and create your follower's community.

Grab my free Telegram app design here — Telegram Redesign Challenge.

Olha Bahaieva is a UX/UI Designer with more than 7 years of experience. She is a 6-times winner of the international design contests, public speaker. The author of design courses with 800k+ views worldwide.

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