Ideas, information and industry news for collegiate retailers

Live streaming is an addiction. It provides glimpses into the lives of others that evoke feelings of sameness between strangers. Last’s year’s top viewed live video was the lady sitting in her car wearing a Chewbacca mask while she laughed. Her video alone had over 160 million views, and she didn’t do anything but share her joy over a child’s toy. Businesses, big and small, have used live videos to give companies a human voice. Nearly every major social media platform now has a way connect with your customers live, but which one is the best?

As an author, social media is a passion for me. It is the most direct connection I have to my readers. Because of that, I am widely available across many of the platforms and often wax poetic about the good old days of many of the sites. Remember when throwing a sheep at someone on Facebook was a gesture of friendship? Remember when people used to talk on Twitter?

Twitter is one of the easiest platforms to fall into complacency. The breakneck pace of a Twitter feed makes it harder for your message to be read by a significant portion of your followers. Therefore, using Twitter often feels like no one sees your posts because tweets don’t get as much attention as statuses do on Facebook or pictures Instagram. Many businesses quickly wear out on trying to be creative and fall into the pattern of posting periodic links back to websites and reply only to direct messages. They stop engaging in the real manner that Twitter users want, which lead to their message becoming white noise. Revitalize your Twitter account with these five ideas that you can start implementing today.