How Twitter Fleets Will Boost Your Brand

YES — FLEETS ARE HERE (aka Twitter Stories). First I’d like to congratulate Twitter for the amount of innovation within the app this year. Audio notes, improved algorithms, and now the integration of a Stories-like product has personally made me happy & encouraged to use Twitter and connect with people around the world.

In this article, I’ll be discussing why “Stories” and the concept of ephemeral content is so popular, the importance of using new features within platforms, and how this new Twitter feature can help build your brand, business & help you sell shit.

“Stories” have been around since the 1920's

Yup… believe it or not, ephemeral content or “stories” have been around for quite some time, tracing all the way back to the 20th century.

Ephemeral Content is basically content that broadcasts momentarily, and then eventually goes away, kind of like how our grandparents would listen to live performances on their favorite radio cassette during the roaring 20’s, or how their favorite television show would come on once (before reruns) before they had to wait for the next episode. The whole point is, we LIKE this type of content, and we’ve been consuming this type for a while, it’s now just been transformed into a mobile world through Snapchat, Instagram & now Twitter.

So next time you see a boomer on Twitter saying “tWitTEr sToRIEs aRe sTUpiD “, just remind them that they’re grandparents have been watching them before we were even born ;)

Don’t Debate New Features, Use Them.

This kills me, whenever a social platform introduces a new product feature, everyone immediately rushes to social media to share their distasteful opinions. Some people waited weeks, even MONTHS to get on TikTok, Twitter Audio, Instagram Reels, etc. for what? What’s all the debating and politics about?

Look — if you’re a CEO, and entrepreneur, a Social Media Manager, you’re entitled to your opinion, but at the end of the day, we’ve got one simple job — and that’s to communicate to the end user our brands, products or services in a creative, cost effective & relevant way on the social media channels. That’s it.

We’ve got to become completely agnostic towards these platforms & features, and not let our subjective opinions about them stand in the way of innovating our brands.

Let’s take Instagram for example. When a new feature comes out, Instagram adjusts its algorithm & pushes the content using that new feature in front of other content in order to drive more traffic towards it. This is why when you post content with new stickers, Reels, etc. you see your reach & engagement sky rocket.

This extra, FREE organic reach is CRUCIAL for social media managers & brands to take advantage of, and incorporated to their social strategies. The game rewards the quick, and punishes the tardy, so the longer you wait and debate on whether or not your internal team should integrate Fleets into your strategy or not, more and more of the organic reach it initially held begins to decline rapidly.

How to Integrate Fleets into Your Social Strategy

The good thing about new features on social media is that most of them are exact replicas of something else, so we already know the gist of how they work. Video / Story content is a great way to become closer to your audience or consumers, and expose to more than they would’ve been if they had not been there. Instagram, Snapchat, & now even LinkedIn, give us the ability to share with each other our current vocal thoughts, behind the scenes footage of project we’re working on, tell a joke, or simply just a quick good morning message to your followers.

When you think of stories, remember ephemeral content and how it works best: Documented, intimate but entertaining. If you’re a brand, influencer, lawyer, a music artist, this is moment to get closer to your audience, talk to them, ask questions & really become part of the Twitter community like never before. If you’re not a great caption writer or copyrighter, and struggle with written content all together, but let’s say you have an amazing personality — Fleets are your golden opportunity connect like never before on Twitter.

One thing to understand is that written content, ephemeral content, feed posts, videos, it’s all the SAME exact thing, just transcribed in a different format and platform. That’s what makes social media so amazing, that one Instagram post of a screenshotted tweet can outperforms the real tweet itself on a different platform — same exact content, told the same way, just means more on a different platform, and knowing & mastering the interchangeable nuances between platforms will work wonders for your brand & business in the long term.

So please don’t overthink Fleets, or get overemotional about their longevity to the platform, it’s irrelevant & unproductive. Use the platforms, use the features, don’t debate them ;)

Thanks so much for reading!! If you liked this article, please lmk on Twitter ❤ & Fleet it for me !