Getting your Twitter presence right can make a massive difference when you are trying to promote your business or startup. Here are three of our top tips for doing this:
Start a Conversation
If content is King, conversation is Queen, so our first tip is simply to start conversations, or join them!
When starting conversations, why not try talking to people or businesses you want associated with your brand? This will get your name out in the world and make people aware of what you do. To kick off a conversation you of course need to mention the person you wish to talk to, by using their @handle with your question or topic of choice. If you’re unsure about making a start, try joining in a conversation by replying to someone else’s tweet instead. Simple!
Asking questions is a brilliant way to start conversations with your followers! Posing a generic question will spark responses from your audience. Then, once a conversation has started, it’s so important to keep it going; don’t let it die or get boring. To be successful, you need to have a fairly quick response time. This doesn’t have to be within seconds, but it’s best that you respond within a few hours (and definitely no more than 12 hours at a maximum!), so don’t schedule conversation tweets, make sure you are online.
If you want to keep the conversation going, take extra care not to end it by mistake! Try to reply with something the other person can respond to, such as by asking a question back in response, which avoids a blunt tone.
Share images and links
Did you know that tweets with images get at least twice the engagement of tweets without? So, our next tip is to post, share and retweet images and links whenever you can.
Why? Tweeting an image makes your post stand out on your followers’ newsfeeds. They will stop scrolling when they pass a picture to have a look, but are more likely to simply scroll past a text-only tweet. Remember what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words.
Similarly, tweets containing links receive an 86% higher retweet rate than tweets without. Sharing links is massively important as this is how you get that all-important website traffic and, hopefully, sales! But remember, when you post images and links it can be from a range of content and sources. This can include your own website, something newsworthy relevant to your brand and business, or just something you feel your followers would like – and having a mixture of all three is the ultimate combination to keep your followers engaged!
Use trending hashtags
Tweets with trending hashtags get twice the retweets than those without! Common trending hashtags can include #MondayMotivation, #ValentinesDay, #NationalHugDay, #GBBO (our personal favourite) etc., but can also involve something significant that is currently taking place. By including hashtags about current events you will be engaging with others that are interested in the topic at a prime time, creating more awareness for your account.
But be aware, Twitter is not Instagram and hashtags should be used sparingly. It’s been proven that using three or more hashtags on Twitter can actually cause a 17% drop in engagement. Try to stick to one or two hashtags per tweet within the sentence, and be selective to ensure they are relevant and popular. We wouldn’t want to see #toomanyhashtags on #Twitter.