engagement Archives - Nimble Quotes

Sep 18 2015

What is a Hashtag Contest and How do I Set One Up?

In previous posts, I’ve covered how Twitter hashtags help you reach more audiences and connect with them. But there’s another great method I haven’t yet mentioned: Twitter hashtag contests!

What is a hashtag contest?

A contest on Twitter is a lot like the contests you find anywhere else. Someone (a brand, an organization, or you) puts up a prize, sets up a condition for winning, and other people try to win. The biggest difference is that, on Twitter, you need set up a hashtag to announce the contest and keep track of the entries.

How does that work?

Well the first thing you do is decide on your hashtag. Let’s say you’re XYZ beauty salon, and you want followers to submit pictures of funny faces. Our hashtag will therefore be “#XYZFunnyFace”.

Note: Remember to check whether or not this hashtag is already being used! If it is, try to find something else.

Then send out your tweet announcing the contest, and showing the hashtag that people need to use to participate. Don’t forget to promote your hashtag contest in other social media platforms, too! Get the word out any way you can!

If people want to participate, they will then tweet pictures of their funny faces while including the hashtag #XYZFunnyFace. You can then keep track of all contest tweets using this hashtag and judge the winner!

What kind of hashtag contests can I run?

Anything you want! Creativity is one of the keys to an engaging hashtag contest. Either come up with your own creative idea, or ask followers to be as creative as possible with their own entries! You can also create very simple hashtag contests that don’t require much effort on the part of the user.

Here are some basic ideas to get you started:

Raffle.Any tweet that uses your hashtag is immediately entered into a raffle, and winners are picked randomly. Just remember to limit participants to one tweet per person!
Photo contest. Users submit photographs of themselves doing funny things, or use products in creative and funny ways.
Q&A. Pose a question to the Twitterverse, and the best answer wins!

Hashtag contests are really easy to set up and run. You just have to come up with a creative idea that will grab your followers’ interests, and maybe offer a prize that will appeal to a large number of people. But remember to keep it relevant to your business! Just offering cash or something may get people tweeting, but it won’t do anything to build your brand!

Post inspiring quotes in your Twitter feed as if you tweeted them yourself. Choose from 30+ categories. Try the Nimble Quotes 30-day trial today. No credit card required. Sign up for the Nimble Quotes newsletter to learn how to get Twitter working for you.

Aug 28 2015

How To Get More Interaction on Twitter

Tweeting can sometimes feel like talking into the wind. No matter how often you post fantastic sales, tweet web links, or choose quotes to attract new followers, you still don’t get very much engagement or interaction.

Getting interaction on Twitter isn’t impossible—other social media personalities do it all the time! Perhaps it’s time to review your approach. Here are a few best practices that some of the most popular Twitter personalities like Grammar Girl and Ann Handly follow:

Reach out to followers

Don’t just stay in your corner of the Internet! Step out of your cave and interact with people on Twitter (that’s what you’re there for, after all). And the first people you should talk to? Your followers!

Every time you get a new follower, reach out to them and give them a personal greeting. This creates a good first impression and will make them more open to interacting with you in the future. If you missed your chance to greet them, respond to one of their own tweets and join in on a discussion.

Reward followers who respond or reach out

Did your follower reply to you or give you a mention? Or did a follower retweet one of your quotes?

Fantastic! Show your appreciation by retweeting something if theirs, as well! Publicly thank them for their effort. They’re guaranteed to appreciate it. If you can get this cycle of mutual appreciation going, you’ll quickly have a dedicated following.

Don’t spam

But don’t abuse your access to your followers. People aren’t on social media to be sold to. They want a pleasant online experience where they can chat with cool people and maybe learn something new.

Spamming people with offers, sales, or other things will just turn them off. Remember the golden ratio: 20% promotional, 80% non-promotional.

Choose quotes that pop

If you’re struggling for content, choose quotes that appeal to your target audience. Talking to business people? Choose quotes from prominent entrepreneurs or managers like Bill Gates. You can even try quoting movies and films, as long as they’re relevant to your topic.

One thing that really makes quotes pop is having a matching visual image. If you choose quotes that are intellectually appealing and post them with images that are visually appealing, it’s more interesting to readers and may get you a lot more interaction.

Join Twitter chats

A Twitter chat is a pre-arranged chat on a specific topic, which is formed around a particular hashtag. The hashtag links all of the participants’ conversations together to form a pseudo-chat room on Twitter.

This is a great place for you to interact with new people and possible get new followers. You can provide helpful resources like blog links or answer questions. Just make sure the topic is relevant to you, and that you actually do know what you’re talking about. And if you don’t, you can always ask questions. The Twitter crowd can be very helpful!

Try out these tips, and let me know what kind of results you get! Better yet, tweet me and we can have that conversation online!

Reach out to me on Twitter at @jenkellyjen and let’s talk! I look forward to hearing from you!

In this blog post, I mentioned using quotes as part of the content you tweet. Try out Nimble Quotes, our content as a service. Choose quote categories, timing and hashtags. Then sit back, relax and interact with your audience without the time consuming task of searching for your next quote to post. You’ll see 1-8 quotes per day being tweeted from your account automatically as if you tweeted them yourself. Pause, change and personalize at anytime. 30-day free trial, no credit card required.

Aug 14 2015

What If My Twitter Hashtag is Full of Competitors?

A Twitter hashtag is a godsend for businesses on social media. If you can find the right hashtag, you’ll be able to do a lot of things to get noticed like expand your reach and engage people in conversations.

But wait! This hashtag is full of competitors! What do you do now?

Don’t panic! All is not lost! You can still turn this to your advantage. Just need to follow these simple steps:

Assess the Twitter Hashtag

Firstly, take a step back and examine the hashtag itself. Is it a brand hashtag, or a general hashtag?

If you don’t know what those are, a brand hashtag is associated with a particular brand as either a slogan or a brand name. Kit Kat, for example, uses #HaveABreak. It could still be considered a regular phrase, but its strongly associated with the tagline, “have a break, have a Kit Kat” and so can be considered a brand hashtag.

General hashtags are typically hashtags created by the public, used to talk about a particular topic. #BadFirstDate and #WorkStress are examples of general hashtags. These hashtags aren’t owned by a particular person, but businesses on Twitter use them to get their tweets in front of interested people.

Once you’ve established what kind of hashtag it is, then you can decide what to do next.

Find a New One

If the hashtag you want is a brand hashtag, or a general hashtag that’s already been dominated by a competitor, you’re going to have to find a new one. That’s not as big a deal as it sounds, though. One of the best things about hashtags is that you don’t have to invest any money in them (not like website domain names). You can just come up with several other possible hashtags and try them all out, then run with the one that gets the best response.

Use it to Spy

Someone else using the hashtag is actually a great thing! You can spy on your competitors and watch what they do on Twitter. As you do it ask yourself these questions:

Do your competitors engage with people? How, and how effectively?
How often do your competitors tweet to the hashtag?
What do your competitors tweet? How do people respond?
What do people on the hashtag talk about?
Who are the people on the channel? Are they your ideal audience?

Watch the hashtag closely, and learn from what you see. Avoid any mistakes you see people make, and use what they do right as inspiration for your own social media strategy.

Dominate the Hashtag

If your competitors are on a general hashtag and they don’t have an overwhelming presence there, you still have a chance dominate the hashtag. I’m not talking about flooding the hashtag with your posts—it’s annoying and will drive people away.

You dominate a hashtag through quality, not quantity. Post interesting and valuable content, and engage with people on the channel in meaningful ways. Answer questions. Offer insight. Be impartial. And above all, don’t be salesy! Do it often enough, and people will start following you.

The key to succeeding with Twitter hashtags is picking your battles. Know when you should fight for a channel and when to sit back and watch. Know which conversations you should jump into and which you should ignore. If you can balance observation and action, you’ll be able to use any Twitter hashtag to your advantage. You might even start thinking, “the more competitors in my hashtag, the better!”

To learn more about using Twitter for business, sign up for the Nimble Quotes newsletter.

Jul 24 2015

5 Simple Ways to Develop Relationships on Twitter

When you look at social media, do you feel like the awkward person at the party? The one who stands in the corner of the room while this other person draws all the attention? Well, you don’t have to be ashamed. A lot of people feel that way. But that doesn’t mean you have to stay that way.

When you as a brand are trying to develop a relationship on Twitter, I’m not talking about the creepy stalker kind or the faux-familial kind. I’m just talking about developing a close connection with other people online—customers or otherwise. But even this needs a lot of trust between you and them, and this needs to be built up over time.

But every great journey begins with a single step, and I’m going to show you a few ways you can start off on the right foot.

1. Offer great customer service

If customers have any issues, they’ll try to reach out to you in any way they can—and that includes Twitter. And since Twitter is such a public venue, it’s in your best interest to provide them with the best possible customer experience online. Customers will remember brands that treat them well, and will want to re-engage with them. So you’re setting the right tone for your long-term relationship by making customers happy from the get-go.

2. Curator of great information

“Curate” in this context involves sharing information that your customers will find valuable. This includes both your own content and other people’s. Articles, reports, pictures, insightful quotes, etc. Whatever your customer might find interesting. Your goal here is to have them follow you because you always share interesting and relevant things.

3. Thank everyone who RTs or promotes

People on Twitter don’t need to share or promote your content. So when they do retweet you, you absolutely must thank them. It shows them you appreciate their attention (and you should), and encourages them to do it again.

4. Participate in conversations that aren’t about you

Remember my engagement tip from last post? Don’t be afraid to go beyond your own feed and participate in other people’s conversations. If you’re a lawyer and someone on Twitter is asking for legal advice, for example, jump in with a quick tip or suggestion. Just make sure you really do have expertise in whatever they’re asking (and that it’s related to what your business actually does).

5. Ask questions and share results

Turn the tables and ask your own questions! It’s a great way to know your followers and gives plenty of opportunities to start one-on-one conversations, which is a huge step towards building relationships. If you use the right hashtag, you may be able to attract even more answers!

Although it might seem intimidating or confusing at first, Twitter is a lot like that party I was describing earlier. You want to make connections. The standard social norms apply, of course: don’t be creepy or salesy, don’t lie, be nice and polite, etc. But really, if you want to develop relationships on Twitter, you just need to do one thing: talk to people like they’re people.

Sign up for the Nimble Quotes newsletter to receive the newest tips on how to start Twitter conversations and enhance your online experience.

Jul 17 2015

Engagement on Twitter: You Can Do It Too

One of the best and most important uses for Twitter is engaging your audience. In fact, Twitter is probably the best social network at engagement. It allows you to start, find and participate in other people’s conversations without coming off as intrusive (in most cases). And you can reap the benefits of engagement (and maybe even start enjoying yourself) if you can just master the basics.

But I’m getting ahead of myself! Let’s take a step back.

What is “engagement,” anyway?

“Engagement” in this context can be summed up in one word: interaction. It involves listening and talking to customers on your social media network (Twitter or otherwise) in a genuine and timely manner. They talk to you, you talk back. Hopefully they’ll return the favor.

What do I get out of it?

A lot! Engagement on Twitter can mean a lot of things. Good customer service engagement increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. Brands that excel at starting Twitter conversations are more effective at their social media marketing than those that don’t make the attempt. In fact, Twitter released a whitepaper that said 70% of users felt more confident about a SMB after following and reading their tweets.

If you do it right, Twitter engagement can supercharge your digital marketing efforts. The Social Media Examiner released a report that said 90% of all marketers surveyed indicated that social media generated more exposure for their business.

So that begs the question: “how do I do it right?”

The Right Way

There are a few common best practices that make for great Twitter engagement:

Timely replies – Twitter’s a very fast-paced platform, where a single tweet can disappear in minutes. As a result, conversations get obsolete very fast. In fact, a survey by Convince and Convert found that 32% of respondents expect a response time of 30 minutes after posting a complaint on social media. So when you see someone mention you on Twitter, jump on it as soon as you can!
Keep your brand personality – “Brand personality” on Twitter isn’t just your avatar or your account name. The way you interact with people on Twitter should be the same as how you interact with customers in real life. Keep it consistent. Are your tweets funny? Clever? Insightful? Considerate? Stay true to your brand!
Stay relevant – If you’re posting under your company account (and not a personal account), keep your tweets relevant to your industry. Only participate in related conversations. If your brand is a bakery, don’t jump into a conversation about dogs (unless you’re making a dog-themed cake).

The Wrong Way

As you start exploring Twitter conversations, you may be tempted to do some pretty awful things. Things like:

Selling yourself – There are lots of brands that use Twitter as their own advertising space. That’s a big no-no. People are going to run away from your Twitter feed if it only contains links to ads and self-promotional things.
Getting into arguments – You’re going to encounter angry customers on Twitter, or people who just don’t like you. That’s only to be expected. But do not get into an argument with them online. Always be professional, because Twitter never forgets.

The Best Advice

Now, all this may sound intimidating, but don’t worry. I’ve got a tip that will simplify everything for you. Ready?

Act like you’re talking to friends.

Stay pleasant, stay true to your brand and before you know it you’ll find that engaging on Twitter can actually be a whole lot of fun!

Sign up for the Nimble Quotes newsletter to receive the newest tips on how to start Twitter conversations and enhance your online experience.