social media strategy Archives

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.

Have you ever heard the saying “all work and no play make Jack a dull boy?” That’s as true for Twitter as it is for kids. Many business accounts I see (and even those of entrepreneurs I talk to) take their social media strategies way too seriously.

Yes, tweeting about promos, sales and marketing content has its place. But if that’s all you’re doing, then you’re not using Twitter to its fullest advantage. If you want to connect with the Twitterverse, you have to introduce some fun into your stream.

Mixing it up keeps things fresh

Have you ever had that one friend who only talked about work? His work? It might be interesting at first, but you’d get pretty sick of that pretty fast. Your followers might feel the same way if the only thing you do when using Twitter for business is tweet self-promotional things.

Mixing it up with other kinds of content—whether it’s your own or from other people—is a great way to keep things fresh. You don’t have to share cat videos if it doesn’t match your social media strategy or brand image. Try sharing informational articles, interesting statistics, or poignant thoughts.

Prioritize connection, not promotion

What’s the most important social media metric you should be tracking? Nope, it’s not followers or likes. It’s engagement.

If you want to get traction with your social media strategy, you have to both engage people in conversations, and put out content that encourages conversation, too. Show people that you’re not just throwing out link after link on your Twitter business account. Talk to people and get to know each other. That way, you’ll forge stronger connections with the online community and people will see you’re not a mindless robot.

Brand building is more than just “work” tweets

The word “brand” now has such a stuffy and serious connotation. But really, “brand” is just a fancy word to describe your company’s personality. And remember what I said before? A person who just talks about work has a dull personality. Commenting about your industry or sharing a quote from an industry expert furthers your brand just as much as tweeting about a sale.

So don’t be dull. Dare to be interesting. Dare to express yourself. Dare to be—god forbid—funny. Not only will you connect with people online better, but you may even start enjoying yourself on social media.