The How and Why of Twitter Engagement

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The 3 Types of Interaction to Remember in Your Twitter Marketing Campaign

Twitter is the one social networking site that remains very simple on the outside but still has a lot of depth to it. Marketing with Twitter gives you a bit more leverage in ways other social networks can restrain you. For example, you can start chatting with anyone without being “friends” and you are able to see nearly anybody’s tweets (unless they are protected).

Many businesses have great success marketing with Twitter because, unlike Facebook, it highly encourages linking to other people’s accounts in each post, drastically increasing your potential for post impressions. Twitter has a magical way of connecting you with people from all over when other social media is mostly dependent on connecting with whom you already know.

What’s the Deal with Retweets?

Whenever you make a post on Twitter, you want to make it as “retweetable” as possible so that it has a better chance of reaching potential new followers that are interested in your topic. This is easily one of the pillars to a successful Twitter marketing strategy, so pay close attention.

How to Increase Your Chances of a Retweet

1.  Write Your Tweets Under 120 Characters: The reason this is so important is because when people retweet you, they need to be able to mention you in the post and still have some room to share their opinion.
2.  Share Great Content Relevant to Your Niche Often: People will only start to retweet you and click on your posts once they trust you. For that to happen, you need to be a consistently reliable source of information.
3.  Retweet Other People: You’ll quickly develop unspoken strategic alliances with people that you retweet that are returning the favor by retweeting your posts as well. Twitter kinds of follows the “you scratch my back, I scratch yours,” motto. Remember that you still need great content before people will consider a retweet.

@Mentions & @Replies

So you’ve been working your Twitter marketing strategy for a few weeks now and you’re starting to get some mentions and replies to your posts. What do you do now and how do you go about getting more?

Mentioning others is the most common form of engagement on Twitter and I encourage you to try and connect with as many people as possible through this method. It builds real connections and relationships with your followers.

How to Get More @Mentions / @Replies Easily

1. Reply to Other People’s Posts and Questions: Again, if you reply to other people’s posts, they are going to be more interested in what you’re posting. Don’t believe me? Try it out.
2. Connect With New Followers: Check out your new followers every couple days and connect with people you have something in common with. A simple message thanking them for following you can suffice but it’s good to provoke a reply to increase your engagement.
3. Ask Thought Provoking Questions: This works really well with the right questions. It doesn’t always have to be related to your topic or industry, sometimes its more effective to break out of your typical expert persona online and show a soft side with a thoughtful question.

Remember: Twitter Follows The Law of Reciprocity

As mentioned before, Twitter has a very noticeable “You scratch my back, I scratch yours” mentality and its up to you to use this to your advantage. Obviously your best bet is to engage with and help out users in your target market, but I encourage you to be active in the Twitterverse wherever you see a great opportunity to chime in with your opinion. If your business is primarily local then it’s a really good idea to simply interact with people within your community possible to increase visibility.

Your Twitter marketing plan will yield the greatest results when you engage with your audience and not when you constantly self promote and talk AT them.

When do YOU notice the highest levels of engagement on Twitter? Leave a comment below.