Its real-time functionality allows for a range of features to boost your business. The system is so easy that your staff may not have to go on marketing courses to use them.

Here are a three Twitter features to help your company stand out from the rest.

1. Branded emojis

Love them or hate them, emojis are here to stay. The little colourful images aren’t just a way for Millennials to replace whole words but also offer a new way for users to express themselves as well. For brands, using emojis is a great way to not only increase your visibility but add more to your current campaign.

When Samsung launched the Samsung Galaxy S7, the company created a custom emoji of a face with a VR headset on it. Each time a user used the #TheNextGalaxy hashtag, the new emoji would show up next to it. This added a lot more visibility to the brand’s tweets throughout the campaign.

Another recent example is Microsoft’s 2017 E3 conference. The company included an Xbox One Controller emoji each time a user tweeted out #XboxE3. The image has since been used by a number of users in their profiles and names to designate that they are gamers.

At present, the feature is only available to select marketers with a managed account on Twitter.

2. Free merchandise on Twitter

This won’t work for each and every company but is particularly useful for those who sell consumer products. Often, brands such as KFC (South Africa) will give away meal vouchers to people who mention the brand and how much they love the food. It shows that the company cares about the customer, and is an excellent way of marketing on the cheap – just think of the brand awareness for the price of a Streetwise Two.

What started out as a joke for United States fast-food chain Wendy’s, soon turned into a massive marketing campaign. Twitter user, Carter Wilkerson, asked the company how many retweets he needed for a year’s worth of free nuggets.

The account responded that he needed 18 million, to which Wilkerson replied, 'consider it done'. Even though he didn’t manage to reach the astronomical number, the Twitter user manager to break the all-time record for most retweets with over 3.4 million retweets. Wendy’s also donated $100 000 to non-profit foundation Dave Thomas Foundation, which finds homes for children in foster care.

That’s not to say that every brand should look at the trend. As HuffPost points out, it started an unhealthy trend between brands and influencers.

During flu season, several medical brands have sent care packages to random users, which usually consists of a DVD, some snacks, and a few joke items. While they aren’t legally allowed to give prescription medication away for free, the gesture creates brand awareness.

3. Twitter polls

One of the easiest ways to stand out from the rest of the Twitterverse is to have running polls. The platform allows anyone to create polls with different answers, which, in turn, any user can answer.

This can be used to gauge interest in a product, test the waters with a new range, or even keep relevant in the eyes of your customers. Once completed, Twitter will supply you with an analytical breakdown of the results.

Brands, such as Marvel Entertainment, have weekly polls to keep customer engagement. It helps to keep the company in the consumer’s mind, as well as encouraging engagement with the audience.

Those are just a few ways in which your business can use Twitter as a powerful marketing tool. Even so, you may want to think about sending your staff on a marketing course as well in order to bolster their knowledge.

For more information, visit www.rogerwilco.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.