Twitter, although seemingly straightforward with it’s 140 character limit, can be frustrating for businesses if they are not seeing much response to their tweets.
Unlike other social media networks where businesses have the opportunity to hold competitions, create events or run promotions to engage their audience, Twitter engagement hinges on these brief, abbreviated, and frequent posts. So how can you make this microblogging service work to increase your audience engagement, grow your followers and start turning these followers into leads or customers? Just like any marketing activity it’s important to first identify the benefits of using this social media tool, and how your business plans to use it. Once you have a strategic approach in mind it’s a case of trialing and refining your communication, and evolving it as your engagement grows. Below are some fundamental tips for increasing Twitter engagement between your business and followers.
Engage.
Reach out to people on a social, human level. Try not to use Twitter as a direct marketing channel, instead focus on creating engaging content that your audience finds valuable. Join in conversations and retweet with a your own comment or question.
Share & Retweet.
Share your own blog posts or website links, as well as a healthy mix of other links to news stories, events, photos or stats relevant to your industry via your twitter feed. Twitter is very much a ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ kind of place, so retweeting others posts shows them you are paying attention to what they are saying and will make them more likely to share your own content. Be careful to keep your goals in mind, and stick to sharing content that is relevant in some way your brand.
Ask Questions.
People like to share their thoughts and opinions, and this gives you the opportunity to learn more about your followers, start new conversations, and possibly grow your audience.
Don’t use 140 characters.
Studies have shown that tweets that use less than 100 characters have higher engagement rates. And using less than 140 characters allows room for people to add their own comment or hash tags when retweeting.
Keep Updating.
Try and post between 3 and 5 times a day, everyday of the week. And increase this if you are seeing more engagement on certain topics or conversations.
Use Hash tags.
These keywords that start with a # make it easier for people to find tweets about a specific subject and follow conversations. Use with caution though as too many hash tags in your post can make it difficult to read, thus annoying for your audience. One or two per post is plenty.
Follow Others.
Look to follow others in your industry, in your target audience or local area as a way of connecting and starting conversations, and in return they may follow you. What works, or doesn’t work for your business? Do you have a Twitter success story of your own? Share your thoughts in the comments below.