These are specifically written for business to increase followers and engagement. These are in no way exhaustive but will help companies or business of any jumpstart. Note: This is a long list of Twitter tips. If you don’t have time, save it for later.
A | Automate posts
Automating posts save you time. One thing that you can NEVER automate on Twitter, however, is building a relationship which begins when you interact with followers. Take the time to connect with other Tweeters.
B | Be consistent
Be consistent! Being consistent includes time and frequency when you are on Twitter. It also includes tweeting topics related to your business/industry.
Clear expectations. If you use Twitter for customer service, include office hours in your Twitter bio. That is, especially if your office hours are not 24/7 and if you are in a different timezone. The number of customers wanting to reach vendors on-demand is going up steadily each year. OR, depending on how big your company is, you may want to create a separate Twitter profile for customer service.
D | Define marketing goal
Define your Twitter marketing goal. Being on Twitter is not a marketing goal because Twitter is only a tool. Having a defined goal helps in determining your strategies, in identifying tools to use and figuring out what to measure. Examples of goals are referral traffic to your website or landing page, increase followers, increase leads, the number of downloads and more!
E | Encourage sharing
Encourage sharing of your post by including a call to action, like “Please retweet,” but please use it in moderation.
F | Follow back strategically
Follow back strategically. Read the bio and check the quality of Twitter posts of a follower before following back. Checking their bio will help you organize your followers using lists. Checking posts give you an idea if a Tweeter is an engaging or a virtual self-promoter. On the other hand, not everyone you follow will follow you back. That is a reality in Twitter. Also, Twitter provides a threshold for the number of people you can follow. Per Twitter.com:
Every account can follow 2,000 users total. Once you’ve followed 2,000 users, there are limits to the number of more users you can follow. This number is different for each account and is based on your ratio of followers to following; this ratio is not published. Follow limits cannot be lifted by Twitter and everyone is subject to limits, even high profile and API accounts.
G | Get to know terms
Get to know some of the most commonly used Twitter terms.
“RT” for retweet is re-posting of someone else’s tweet. Twitter’s Retweet feature helps you and others quickly share that Tweet to all of your followers
“@” sign is used to call out usernames in tweets
“FF” stands for “Follow Friday.” Twitter users often suggest who others should follow on Fridays by tweeting with the hashtag #FF
“MT”, similar to “RT,” an abbreviation for “Modified Tweet.” Placed before the retweeted text when users manually retweet a message with modifications, such as shortening a Tweet
Via Twitter.com
H | Hastag tweets
Hashtag tweets where hashtag is relevant and when necessary. Hashtag keywords not every word and do not string a bunch of words in a hashtag like this one: #donotstringabunchofwordsinahashtaglikethisone. That is very hard to read. You may create your hashtag for your business. Using a hashtag is a very helpful strategy when hosting a TweetChat or doing a promotion. If you are creating your own, check if it’s already in use and how it is being used.
What is a hashtag?
I | Images to grow engagement
Images can help increase engagement for your products and services. Research done by Twitter on over 2 million tweets of verified US accounts shows that adding photos to a tweet does just that. Share images that are relevant to your business niche.
Twitter.com’s study on what fuels engagement. (Image by twitter.com)
A few more Twitter tips about pictures:
Twitter’s auto expands will only work if the picture is directly uploaded to Twitter. It will have the URL pic.twitter.com/[rest of the link generated by Twitter]
Link to image uses up to 26 of the 140 characters per tweet.
Accepted file formats if uploading images directly to Twitter are GIF, JPG, and PNG.
File size: 5MB for photo and up to 3MB if uploading GIF.
J | Join Twitter chats
Join tweet chats! That is one way to increase your Twitter followers and to find quality tweeps. Find a tweet chat that is suitable for you at Twubs Twitter Chat Directory.
K | Keep lists
Keep a list of your primary source of contents in Twitter. Use the list feature which you can set up as either private or public. You will need their content to complement your own; that’s assuming you are creating your own. Outside of Twitter, some apps I use are Feedly, Flipboard, Google Alerts, and Pocket.
L | Like tweets
Like other’s tweets. You do not have to respond to all tweets, especially if you are pinched for time. People will see that you interacted.
M | Measure your sucess metrics
Measure your Twitter marketing efforts. Create benchmarks. Engagement is high but for what reason are you doing it?
N | Note my note 😉
Note that not every tweet is visible. “Visiting another user’s profile page on Twitter will not display Tweets that mention them. However, you can search for all Tweets mentioning their username in the search box. Search for ‘@username’ to view results,” according to Twitter. This is important if you are taking tabs of the competition, or lead.
O | Optimize Twitter profile
Optimize your Twitter profile. Use a high-quality photo or logo. Do not use Twitter’s default image (the egg). Also, include in your bio URL of your website or landing page and your contact information if you have room for that. Use link shortener app for links to save space. Read letter “T” below about link shorteners.
P | Pin content
Pin your blog, event or important announcements to your Twitter profile. A pinned post stays on top of your Twitter timeline and everyone checking your profile will see it. You can only pin one tweet at a time.
Q | Quality first
Quality over quantity of posts should be a key strategy. Think of what your niche market needs to keep them coming. Heard of the 80/20 rule? Not necessarily a “rule” but best practice in social media: post 80% contents that are helpful for your followers, and the remaining 20% for posts promoting your business.
R | Retweet what matters
Retweet sensibly. Retweeting a “hello” from a tweeter without responding is not being sensible or “social” unless you’re a bot. Read the 10 Retweet Best Practices for more information.
S | Search tool tips
search.twitter.com is a great tool to find potential customers and relevant conversations that you may want to take part. You can also use it to check your competitors.
One of best listening tools for Twitter is IN Twitter. List of different ways to use search.twitter.com (Image citation: twitter.com)
T | Track performance
Track clicks of your Twitter posts , particularly your visual or textual contents to measure your social success. Measuring clicks will help you determine if you are doing the right thing or if your followers like the posts/topics you’re sharing. Tools I often use are bit.ly and Google’s link shortener, goo.gl.
Clicks for a link I am tracking using Google’s link shortener tool (goo.gl)
U | Use bookmarks
Use bookmarks to save tweets. The Twitter newsfeed can go by so fast that at one moment you see a tweet, the next it is gone from your view. Bookmark it for you to review later.
V | Vary tweet posts
Vary your tweets by either using text, link or image and with or without a hashtag. Visual tweets make your tweet stand out.
Walk off from Twitter. Breathe. Re-energize. Experience real people and life. Don’t fall victim to FOMO (fear of missing out). Twitter will still be there when you return.
X | X-out shady activities
X out [yes, I found a verb for that :D] any plan to buy Twitter followers. A lot of these are fake. It is counterintuitive if you intend to get leads and engagement.
Y | Yield to your timer
Twitter can suck your time if you let it. Carve out time to do what you need to do as a business. Then, shut it down.
Z | Zero in on best strategies
Zero in on strategies that will help you attain your marketing goal/s. It is one thing to engage, but it is another to get people to do what you want them to do. For example, download eBook, give their email, visit a landing page, subscribe, buy from you, etc.
Your turn! What are your tips to grow engagement, traffic and leads?
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MANAGEMENT TOOLS, SYTEMS & PROCESSES
Ruby has decades of combined experience in B2B sales, customer service & social media marketing covering the fields of startup technologies for home & construction, food industry & manufacturing.
She loves dogs & hummingbirds and is a certified book nerd. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics & certificates in Advanced Social Media Marketing & Search Engine Marketing from the University of San Francisco.
