Twitter is the second-most popular social media outlet, giving businesses another option for promoting their brands and events. Gaining followers is the Holy Grail of tweeting, but how do you woo and keep followers? Here are several tips.
1. Keep your tweets relevant. While it’s perfectly acceptable to tweet an occasional cute photo or a post about a current event, such as a holiday, your Twitter account should be treated like any other marketing tool — always keep your brand and consistency of message in mind. Following the 10:4:1 rule is a good starting place. The rule states that for every 15 tweets, posts, etc., on social media, 10 should be third-party content, such as a blog or news piece relevant to your business and customers. Four of them should be content original to your business, and one post should be a link to your own website. The best bet is to link to a page with a call to action, such as a special or event.
2. Time & Measure your tweets. Timing tweets might require guesswork in the beginning, but as you start to observe the activity of your followers, you’ll be able to determine the best time to tweet to them. Try using an online tool to schedule tweets in advance. Also, measure engagement through Twitter Analytics.
3. Engage your followers. Treat your Twitter “customers” as you would your in-office customers. Respond to their tweets in a timely manner, and interact when they mention you in a tweet. By engaging customers online, they’ll feel that they’re important to your business.
4. Proofread before posting. In this age of social media, poor grammar and spelling errors seem to have become the norm. Check your posts for these common errors to help you stand out as professional.
5. Follow your followers. Following your followers is simply, in general, the polite social-media thing to do. However, when you hit the “follow” button, ensure the person’s profile is legitimate and doesn’t contain unacceptable content.
6. Use “#” appropriately. Hashtags can be clever and cool, but overusing them can be annoying. Once again, consider your marketing plan and branding, and stick to the basics. If your business has an upcoming event or promotion, streamline hashtags to one or two for this specific campaign, and use them consistently. For example, Bug Off Pest Control Center recently hosted its annual
New York Pest Expo. Owner Andy Linares established the hashtag “#pestexpo” so anyone could contribute their thoughts, observe the event from a distance or just use it as a reference tool rather than taking their own notes.
7. Follow the Golden Rule. When you’re using social media, you’re still interacting with people. Treat other tweeters the way you want to be tweeted — er, treated.
Contact Mason at terri@howtogosocial.com or 201-822-5167.
Learn the Lingo
Tweet. The content you post on Twitter is called a tweet. Your tweet must be 140 characters or less and can include photos, videos and links (a link will count toward your character limit).
Reply. This allows you to join conversations on Twitter. You can respond to someone else’s tweet by clicking the reply arrow.
Retweet. If you like a tweet someone posted, share it with your Twitter followers. You can add it to your Twitter feed by clicking the retweet arrow.
Favorite. Acknowledge someone’s tweet by clicking the star to show it’s one of your favorites. This can help you build followers.
Mention. Including the @ symbol followed immediately by a username (with no space in between) in your message delivers your tweet to that person’s attention. If you begin a tweet with “@username,” include a period before the @; otherwise, your tweet will be a reply, not a mention.
—Diane Sofranec, Digital Editor
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