Increasing Engagement Series: Twitter
Time for our next post in the Increasing Engagement Series: Twitter!Twitter was one of those platforms that I was slightly reluctant to use. I remember my senior year of college in my Emerging Technologies class that we had to create our own Twitter account.I thought it was dumb at the time. "What the heck am I going to tweet about? Nobody cares about what I eat for lunch!"Turns out, people still don't care what I eat for lunch but they do care about what I tweet about.I've made so many connections on Twitter that have brought me legitimate clients so I am totally pro-Twitter now.It may seem like a struggle to increase engagement in 140 characters, but it's easier than you think! Let's get to the good stuff.Related posts:Increasing Engagement Series: FacebookIncreasing Engagement Series: Instagram
Increasing Engagement Series: Twitter
Tag journalists/products/businesses
When you're sharing an article or product that could be helpful to your business, take that extra step and tag the journalist or product's Twitter account.Many times, especially if they are small businesses themselves, they will take the time to check out your profile and give you a shoutout back. That could lead to their followers checking you out and getting you new followers.
Retweet like a pro
When you retweet someone, go the extra mile and give some sort of feedback on the tweet instead of just hitting the retweet button.I don't do this every time, but the times I do I see so much more engagement on my tweets than the run-of-the-mill retweets you see.
Participate in a Twitter chat
Twitter chats are a great way to communicate to a specific audience. Find Twitter chats that are related to your industry (here's a great place to look for Twitter chats). If you can't find any on there, just search "your industry + twitter chats" on Google and you'll most likely find several.Participating in a Twitter chat can help grow your followers as well as a great way to show yourself as a thought leader in your industry.Come prepared, Twitter chats move fast!
Tweet like you're talking to your BFF
Ditch the robot sounding chit chat and tweet like you're human. When you're scheduling your tweets, imagine that you're talking to a friend of yours. Thinking about it from this conversational mindset will help you come across as relatable and someone easy to talk to on Twitter.Your followers shouldn't feel scared or intimidated to talk to you, so be open, honest, and friendly while tweeting.
Tweet consistently
People like to follow and engage with other people who are consistent. Consistent with their values, business, and yes, even social media platforms.If you are only tweeting when you feel like it, you won't see as much engagement as you would if you consistently tweeted.The great thing about Twitter is, even if you've been out of the game for a while, you can easily jump back in, no one the wiser.
Find your best times to tweet
The best times for me to tweet aren't necessarily the best times for you to tweet. And what you think might be the best times for you to tweet might end up being the worst!Use tools such as Tweriod (free) or FollowerWonk (free) to measure your tweets and your followers tweets to determine the best times for you to post, maximizing the engagement on your tweets.
Relevant hashtags
Twitter brought us the world of hashtags and they are still a powerful way to interact with your community.Hashtags are a way to communicate with a specific community, whether it be for Twitter chat, or discussing the latest episode of The Walking Dead, hashtags can expose your brand to a group that may not know of your business.Don't go hashtag crazy, keep it to one or two per tweet.
Tweet shorter than 140 characters
According to research, tweets that are around 110 characters have a 17% higher engagement rate than those over 110 characters.Why?Because there is enough room for people to add their own commentary when retweeting your tweets!People are lazy and if they have to take the time to re-configure your tweet to add commentary they won't do it. Having your tweet short enough for them to retweet and add commentary is ideal for increasing engagement.
Check your analytics
Did you know that Twitter has a free way for your to view your analytics? All you have to do is log into your Twitter account, go to this link, and boom: analytics!It gives you all kinds of information:
All of the information above, plus your top tweets, followers, and media you've shared. Over time, take a look at your top tweets. Those are the types of tweets you should be sharing with your audience, since those are the ones that resonate with your audience the most.
Use photos
Research has shown that tweets with photos get 313% more engagement than tweets without photos. Say whaaat?!It becomes more and more apparent that we're living in a visual world (and I am a visual girl --> sang to the tune of Material Girl, of course :-)).Using photos also helps you get around the 140 character limit by including text within your image, like Caitlin Bacher did with a recent tweet:
She doesn't have to waste space in her 140 character explaining the date and time because it's included on the photo. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
