How many times do you tweet? Is it 3-4 times a day? It means that you are very active on Twitter.
Would you like to try the new feature Twitter has launched recently? Here’s what you need to know about it.
After the successful launch and triumph of Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, Snapchat, and LinkedIn Stories, Twitter too stepped forward by launching its momentary content feature.
Twitter had made an announcement in March about it being testing a new Instagram Stories-like feature called as “fleets” which is known as “fleeting tweets” in Brazil.
What are Exactly Twitter Fleets?
Basically, fleets are temporary tweets that appear similar to vertical Instagram Stories. This content will last only for 24 hours and you won’t be able to retweet, reply to publicly or embed on to other pages.
If you use Instagram Stories, you will find Fleets similar to that. Resembling the layout of Instagram, Fleets appear as a bar with circular Story icons from each account above your Twitter feed.
You can tap on tiny circular photo-icons of the people you follow from your home page, to see what they have posted in their Fleets.
The text, photo, or video published on Fleets will appear in a vertical format similar to that seen in Instagram Stories. Swiping from right to left will show you the Fleets of all those who have shared them recently.
To view the Fleets of a particular person, click on his photo-icon and scroll upwards to check more Fleets from his account, if he has shared multiple thoughts in a particular day.
The below screenshot displays the appearance of Twitter feed and Fleets feature:
How to Post a Twitter Fleet?
- Log in to your Twitter account and tap on your avatar (photo-icon) and write down your thought.
- Add a photo or GIF, if you want to the Fleet.
- After that, click on Fleet and your thought will get posted.
- You can check your Fleet by tapping on your avatar and swiping down.
It is possible to add multiple Fleets with the same process.
How to Delete a Fleet You Posted?
- Tap on your avatar and swipe upwards to see your old Fleets.
- Click on ‘…’ after the Fleet text.
- Then select the Delete Fleet option from the pop-up menu.
How to Engage with Your Followers on Fleets?
- You will find the buttons to reply and react when you open Direct Messages (DM).
- Followers can reply to a Fleet privately via DM or quickly react using emojis and continue the conversation privately in DM.
- Reactions and replies will be seen in DMs along with the Fleet they are giving a response.
Currently, the feature is under testing and is available only to some users for iOS and Android.
Twitter is experimenting to check, if Fleets can be used to promote deeper and more personal conversations on the platform.
Other users can’t retweet on your Fleet or share the link to them and this is what makes Fleets more “personal”.
At the start of the testing phase of Fleets, Twitter did a survey with some of the first beta testers. It was clear from the survey that users were much comfortable to publish more personal thoughts or opinions as compared to the standard tweets. This was because the content disappears in 24 hours.
Mo Al Adham, a Twitter product manager said that they hope people that aren’t comfortable with Tweeting will use Fleet to share their thoughts.
Though Fleets are in the testing phase, it is a significant move by Twitter towards holding temporary content and social media Story formats.
The disappearing text, video, and Stories might have sounded as something tricky in earlier days of social media, but today, temporary content features are becoming common.
Despite the fact that Twitter is just testing the Fleets feature, you might want to note and search for ways to implement temporary social content in your social media strategy.
Below are the temporary content strategies that are commonly used and potentially promote brand awareness on Twitter:
Using Twitter Fleets for Brand Promotion
1. Posting Limited-Time Offers
Having one product but want to sell out a lot instantly? Or want to offer some discount to your potential Twitter followers?
Both of these things can be achieved using Fleets as it will help promote temporary offers, coupon codes, or temporary sales.
Because Fleets just last for 24 hours, the codes or promotions will disappear forever. Due to this, the audiences might feel a sense of urgency for purchasing, using a given coupon code, or just visiting your website for learning more about your product.
The above is an example of limited time offer run by Amazon Fashion.
2. Organizing Daily Giveaways
In addition to short-term sales and coupon codes, Fleets and other Story platforms can be best for promoting giveaways. This platform allows you to include more text, photo, and video about your products and explain your giveaway rules within multiple pages.
If you were to announce a giveaway in standard tweets format, you might have needed to publish all this information in multiple posts of the thread due to the character count limitations of Twitter. Moreover, Twitter’s feed is speedy and you would have needed to post it more than once for getting a vast number of contest entries in a particular time limit.
Fleets will allow you to post multiple pages of tweets in the same Fleet story as well as it will display your content in the Fleets area above a user’s feed. This will ensure that your content announcement isn’t buried due to tweets from other accounts.
Also, since Fleets and Stories are simply viewable for 24 hours, viewers might feel a sense of emergency. Similar to sales or coupons, audiences might want to see your complete story, audiences, might want to enter your contest, or visit your website prior to the Fleet disappears.
The below example of a contest that few brands including ours once ran on Instagram Stories will give you an added inspiration:
3. Holding Live Events on Social Media
Planning to include live events or short-term news in your social media marketing strategy, but don’t want it to choke up your Twitter profile? Cover the event with momentary content. In this way, when the event ends, users can focus back on your brand and business.
In this example below, the Instagram Influencer Dave Tallas features a video about Instagram marketing consultancy where he explains what will be offered to you in the video:
4. Interacting With Loyal Fans
No doubt brands get several opportunities to find and interact with their fans directly on Twitter, Fleets can be a useful tool for the same.
You might have regularly seen the content where brands enable users to DM them questions or content on Facebook and Instagram Stories. Then a brand may create a Story with user-generated quotes, videos, or images. Due to this tactic, users that participate, feel that the brand is more concerned about their thoughts. For the time being, this type of interactive Story enables other audiences to view that the brand values its most engaged followers.
Apart from question-and-answer interactions, you can also take a step further by posting the user-generated content from customers or fans via Fleets. This is frequently done by a brand on Instagram Stories and Facebook and that is Parle-G. In the story below, they highlight the love for their brand with the photos sent to them by their actual customers:
This Story allows loyal Parle-G fans to contribute to the brand’s social media content as well as allows prospects to see the way real people love their biscuits.
6. Displaying Behind-the-Scenes Content
Who doesn’t love to follow and see the backstage content from athletes, celebrities, and influencers on Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, Snapchat. But as per the research, customers also enjoy behind-the-scenes material from brands.
Tweets offer brands a platform for creating quickly appealing posts or publishing heavy-lifting content but Fleets can help brands to display audiences backstage content or insights that allow them to appear relatable and authentic.
Brands are seen doing this frequently on their Instagram Stories.
In the Story below, the popular cafe CCD highlights the ways they brew coffee. The Story shows an authentic piece of the cafe’s company culture that many customers won’t know about.
7. Informing Audiences About Complex Industry Topics
While creating a tweet, it is required to fit your message in 280 characters or start a thread. But Fleets or other social media Stories enable you to add more information or insight with photos, videos or multiple pages of text. With this, Twitter users can get a stronger variation of content that is valuable and easy-to-create, isn’t limited to tiny tweets, expensive marketing videos, or lengthy live streams.
Below is an example of the way HubSpot shares the more complex industry topics via its Instagram Stories. A similar level of imagery can’t be added to Fleets content but you can add multiple pages of text in that way.
Should You Opt for This Momentary Platform?
What do you think – content that disappears can really leave an impression? Certainly, the answer is, “Yes!” as per the observance of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Though momentary platforms are a new and exciting opportunity, you need to be creative and brainstorm for creating content that will engage your audience in an outstanding way.
