How To Engage Your Audience On Twitter

Posted on July 5, 2022
by Rebekah Carter

Simple Ways to Boost Engagement on Twitter

Today Digital - How to Engage your Audience on Twitter

Learning how to engage your audience on Twitter is crucial for any growing brand. As of 2022, Twitter had more than 329 million users worldwide. Experts predict by 2024, this number will rise to a little over 350 million.

While Twitter might not be quite as big as some of the other social media platforms available today, it’s still an incredible platform for brands. The key to success on Twitter is making sure you generate genuine engagement and interest from your followers.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can engage your audience on Twitter.

What is Twitter Engagement?

Engagement on Twitter refers to any time someone engages with the content you post. People can “favourite” your tweet, retweet your content, respond (in a comment), mention you on a separate tweet, or click on your videos or links.

The more engagement you have on Twitter, the more likely you are to convince your customers to do important things for your brand, like visiting your website, or signing up for a webinar.

So, how do you generate engagement?

1.   Engage with Other Users

The easiest way to engage your audience on Twitter, is to interact with the content they share. Like the tweets your followers post, and respond to anything that might be relevant to your brand. You may even find it helpful to “retweet” the occasional post if it can bring value to your audience.

When you interact with the content other users share, they’ll be more likely to pay attention to your brand, and respond to whatever you post in kind. The back-and-forth interaction can also help to develop your credibility on Twitter, while paving the way for crucial relationships.

Retweeting and commenting on particular posts could even be a good way to start building the foundations for partnerships and influencer collaborations. Another way to build engagement, aside from liking and retweeting other content, is to ask questions. Questions naturally generate a response from your target audience, particularly if they’re related to relevant and trending topics.

2.   Make the Most of Twitter’s Features

Every social media channel has its own unique selection of features and capabilities to offer. For instance, Twitter has “Communities”, where you can connect with other likeminded people in your industry. Twitter Communities could be an excellent way to connect with a wider range of potential clients, partners and customers for brands trying to grow on the platform.

You can also look into “Twitter Spaces”, this is a more recent addition to the platform which allows companies to engage their customers and followers through real-time voice interactions. You can use Spaces to host Q&A sessions with audiences, or give thought-leadership speeches to enhance your brand’s reputation.

Making sure you’re aware of the new features Twitter has to offer as and when they emerge can ensure you stay on the cutting edge of new ways to engage your audience

3.   Know When to Post

Twitter is one of the more fast-paced social media channels in the industry today. People are constantly updating their status, sharing news and information. It’s easy for a post to get washed away by a sea of new content if you’re publishing at the wrong times.

Just like on any social media channel, there will be certain times of the day, and specific days in the week when your audience is more likely to be active and engaging with your content. Some studies indicate the best time to post on Twitter is between 12 to 3pm on Mondays through to Fridays. Other reports suggest 5pm is the best time to post if you want to generate retweets.

The best way to make sure you’re posting at the right time for your audience, is to use your own analytics. Google Analytics and Twitter Analytics should give you a behind-the-scenes look at when your audience is most active.

4.   Always Use Hashtags

Hashtags are one of the most important tools in your Twitter engagement kit. Just like on Instagram, it’s common to see virtually every Twitter post have at least one hashtag attached to it. Hashtags help to encourage engagement and make your content more visible for people searching for specific topics.

According to some reports, tweets including hashtags achieve around a 1,065% increase in engagement, compared to similar tweets with no hashtags. Tweets with hashtags are also 33% more likely to earn a retweet than those without them.

Notably, just because hashtags have value doesn’t mean you should be covering your posts in them. Too many hashtags can be overwhelming. One study even found that tweets with one hashtag are 69% more likely to get retweeted than tweets with two tags.

5.   Be Visual

Twitter might not be the social media channel most associated with visual content, but that doesn’t mean you won’t benefit from adding pictures and videos to your content strategy. In a space where you’re limited in the amount of written content you can share; visuals can be extremely useful.

According to some case studies, tweets with images get around 313% more engagement. The right visuals can also help you to bring more value to your tweets. A good image can add context to a statement, or you can even create infographics to help make your point.

Keep in mind that you can also share video on Twitter, and around 82% of Twitter’s users say they watch video content on the platform. Video can be an excellent way to share new information with your audience, evoke emotion from clients, or just provide a behind-the-scenes look at your business.

6.   Always Deliver Value

Perhaps more than anything else, the number one factor determining your level of engagement on Twitter, is how much value you provide with your posts. For many people, social media can feel like a place where people have a habit of sharing every thought that pops into their heads. However, as a brand, it’s your responsibility to convince followers you’re worth listening to.

Whenever you share something on Twitter, whether a link to an article or a video, it should deliver something useful to your target audience.

Make sure you have a good understanding of your customer, by developing buyer and user personas to help guide your social media strategy.

Twitter engagement can feel like a difficult thing to achieve at times, but with the tips above, you should have everything you need to master the platform.

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