Twitter has been my main social media channel for a few years now.
I’ve kind of dabbled with different social channels.
I think I even had a MySpace account way back in the day. I still have Facebook and Instagram accounts. I’ve got accounts for most social sites although I’ve been a holdout on Snapchat, but that’s been an interesting social app.
There are a lot of social sites and apps out there. Probably a handful of big ones. And you never know what will come out in the future.
But let’s focus on Twitter for a blog post.
Do you use Twitter?
Are you looking for more engagement? More likes and retweets?
Let’s get into some of the best ways to get more engagement on Twitter.
Twitter’s Own Study
Twitter did a study on this a couple years ago and found some great insights. Here are some things they found and how much it increased engagement:
- Photos average a 35% boost in Retweets
- Videos get a 28% boost
- Quotes get a 19% boost in Retweets
- Including a number receives a 17% bump in Retweets
- Hashtags receive a 16% boost
Those are all great ways to get more engagement and I would definitely recommend them as well. They’ve worked for me and I’ve seen them really work for others.
But there’s more…
Quit Other Social Channels
This is one I’ve mentioned in other posts about success on social media. Twitter has really become the channel I use the most for social media marketing and really even for subscribing to other Twitter accounts for business and personal information.
Back when I worked in the corporate world, social media was pretty new. I think it still is in many ways. One of the things with social media was that business owners and managers wanted to test out social media. So usually one person would spend part of their time working on social media. And they would work on multiple social channels.
That’s fine for testing. In fact, it’s a good way to see what has the most potential.
But let’s say that Twitter has shown the most potential.
Quit the other channels and dedicate to Twitter.
Hire A Dedicated Twitter Manager
You might have seen this one coming…
Once you’re past the testing and experimenting stage with social media then it’s time to get a full-time person dedicated to Twitter.
Think that sounds crazy?
You’re probably not ready for big time success on Twitter.
It seems weird because social media is still relatively new, but there is a lot of effort that goes into really getting incredible engagement on the channel.
You can probably do just fine with a person that isn’t full dedicated. Other tips in this post will still help, but look at how serious you are about Twitter success and look to hire a full-time person to really dive in and build the audience you have to something that can bring not only engagement, but sales.
Tweet More
This builds on the last one. I’m seeing a theme here…
Anyway, I’m a fan of quantity in life. The more you do something the better you get. I’m a golfer. The more golf I play the better I get. Just about every pro would tell you the same. They may mention practicing on the range, but most will say that they improve the most and play the best the more they play.
Tweeting more helps engagement in two ways:
- You learn what type of content gets more engagement with your followers
- You have more content that followers can engage with
Reply More
This one is related to the previous one. I’m guilty of not doing this enough. Every time I’ve made the effort to reply more to others on Twitter it’s usually led to more engagement.
First, it’s just a good way to make more connections on Twitter. I’m not talking about getting belligerent and leaving negative replies everywhere. I’m talking about sticking with positive things and adding to conversations.
Let’s say a complementary business shares a great tweet. You could reply to their tweet with something like, “Nice!”.
That makes the other company feel good. You get noticed. I would do some of that.
But you can alway do more with replies. You can ask questions. You can add more information to a topic. Those replies can really spark conversation and engagement and bring more people to your Twitter audience.
Mix Twitter-Only & Outside Content Posts
Twitter-only posts would be ones that don’t have links or anything that takes a person off the site or app. I’ve been guilty of not doing this enough, but I think it’s good to have a mix of both types of content.
Some of the most popular Twitter accounts I’ve followed do rely heavily on Twitter-only posts. I think you can get some great benefit with both types. People don’t always like leaving Twitter (or any social site) and they like engaging with Twitter-only content like photos, videos, quotes, etc. (see above).
Plan for a good mix of both. Twitter-only with a pinch of things like links to blog posts, ebooks, guides and other content that you have on your site.
Use Hashtags*
This one is obviously from the list that Twitter found in their study. I’m sharing it again here because it’s been great for me getting more engagement on Twitter.
I’ve been using as many as five hashtags in some tweets. I really haven’t seen a negative to that. I kind of group them together at the end or even a line below the main tweeter.
The point of hashtags is to broaden your audience. People see relevant hashtags and they click on them to find more content around those topics.
Say you’re a startup business. You see a tweet that’s got a great tip and that it has the hashtag #startup. You click on that hashtag because you want to get more advice relevant to startups.
Conclusion
Twitter is a great social network for business owners, managers and marketers. But you can’t just get a Twitter account and share a few things once in awhile. Many businesses have done that and it’s really never worked. You have to be willing to make the commitment and to use a few of the right techniques to really get the engagement (and traffic and sales) that you want.
Hopefully the tips above can help you think about your Twitter effort and get moving forward to the success you’re looking for on the channel.