In my previous post I was revisiting some old tips designed to make our experience on Twitter more engaging and enjoyable. I sense that some of us have lost that loving feeling for Twitter, and I wonder if that is rooted in a real loss of value for Twitter, or if we’ve just never really figured out how it works.
Assuming the latter, I want to continue with a few more tips designed to help us bridge the gap between our efforts and our experience on the world’s most interesting social network.
- Hash Tags Matter. So choose them wisely. The whole idea behind the tag (#) is to group like topics together using a key word. Think “Google” and you get the idea… people search for topics so if you want yours to be found on Twitter, a hash tag will help people find your post.
- Promote your posts. Create a win-win and ask users to re-tweet (RT) your posts by offering them a small promotion as a way to thank them for sharing your info. This helps create a community… which is cool.
- Respond to your followers. This probably sounds obvious, but think about it. Are you checking your @ feed regularly to see if someone took the time to mention you? The more interaction with your followers the better your following will be, so get to it.
- Tie in your social media. Remember, not everyone is using the same social media, so make sure you give people a bridge once in a while. If you blog, make sure your posts get copied on Twitter. If you use LinkedIn, send any updates out to Twitter as well. Help your followers find a way to learn more about you and your brand.
The last tip is more of a warning, so I’ll offer this on its own… some people love to automate their tweets, using Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to force automated posts at set times. This has risks along with its obvious rewards. My advice is to remember that most of your followers chose to follow you because you are (or at least were) interesting. Automation works for some users, but just be careful… your goal is engagement, not broadcasting.
I hope this encourages you to take steps forward with Twitter. What tips have you tried that have worked?
Follow me @azregan
Coach Michael Regan 