5 Steps to Supercharging Engagement on Twitter Follow this advice in order to go beyond basic marketing messages to really interacting with your followers and customers.
By John Rampton Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Twitter engagement is not an easy task. Instead of simply broadcasting news and other details about your company you need to engage your followers and give them reason to read every post you tweet.
Increasing engagement on Twitter requires constant care and great attention to detail. From your bio to the type of content that you tweet each day, the way to engage people is by constantly creating and sharing relevant, interesting and uplifting content that people will want to comment on and share.
In order to increase your company's engagement factor on Twitter, follow these five important steps:
1. Stop selling.
Have you ever been to a party and there is one person that talks about him or herself over and over? Nobody wants to be around that person. Don't be that guy. Be the brand that people want to interact with. Be the Twitter account that people can't help but interact with.
Nobody is going to mention you if all you do is talk about yourself the whole time. It gets old.
Related: Fake Twitter Followers: How Many Do You Have?
2. Be retweetable.
Because Twitter is all about virality, tweets should be composed with the retweet in mind. Write your tweets in a way that compels users to interact with it.
For example, @notebook has gained almost 5 million followers -- and a verified account -- simply by tweeting quotes and photos that its target audience will love. Branden Hampton who runs @notebook said, "By writing content from a consumer's perspective, you can increase engagement."
3. Be inspiring.
Social media is all about inspiring your community and building connections with people who have the same interests as you. This is part of the reason why sports teams do so well on Twitter. Besides providing up-to-the-minute information on players and games, accounts for professional sports give fans the positive experience that they crave from their favorite pastime or hobby. This is part of the reason why @FCBarcelona, Barcelona's official soccer club, has a Twitter account with more than 10 million followers and is the 62nd best Twitter username in the world according to TwitterCounter.
Even if you aren't a sports team, give your followers a reason to want to cheer for your successes and accomplishments. Lift up others by promoting their success and positivity and you can expect to feel the Twitter love in return.
Related: Promoting Your Business Through Personal Posts
4. Be newsworthy.
Although the majority of the top 100 accounts on Twitter are celebrities according to TwitterCounter, No. 36 is CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) and No. 58 is CNN's official Twitter feed (@CNN). Because Twitter is so reliant on providing the most current information, many people utilize Twitter as a way to get the most relevant news on current events and in their industry.
Have your Twitter account do the same by focusing on providing timely information with applicable hashtags and URLs for users to find out more.
5. Be interactive.
The most important aspect of growing engagement on Twitter is to be interactive with your followers. This is why the majority of the top 100 Twitter accounts are celebrities like Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. One of the reasons why Twitter is so popular with a wide variety of age groups is that it allows them the opportunity to interact with their favorite celebrity. Not only do they have the chance for the actual celebrities themselves to respond to their tweets, users also get to get a peek into their private lives. In response, popular Twitter accounts get a lot of shares and retweets:
Happy Birthday, @HillaryClinton. pic.twitter.com/RxE7JiNA0h
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 26, 2013Brands should think of their Twitter account in the same way. By offering the best ratio of answering and responding to others' tweets while also sharing interesting articles and information that the company itself identifies with.
Whether you are modeling your Twitter account after Katy Perry or the NBA, the key to higher engagement is better interaction, thoughtful content that users make a connection with, and becoming a resource for up to the minute news in your industry.
Related: Twitter Creates Custom Timelines
