Advice for Talking to Someone Other Than Yourself on Twitter
Does posting to Twitter sometimes feel like making a phone call to a disconnected number? If you’re not implementing Twitter best practices, there’s a strong possibility your tweets will be read by no one. Don’t let your best work go unseen, check out our beginner’s tips for building engagement (and getting so many retweets) on Twitter.
Utilize tags, hashtags, and trending topics.
If you take away anything from this article, it’s this. Tags, hashtags, and trending topics are the key to social engagement on any platform, but even easier to utilize on Twitter.
Tags can be used in the copy of your tweet, or when sharing an image if you’d like to keep your character count down. You can tag any user in Twitter in your copy by using the @ symbol, and then their username. Tagging a user will alert that user of your tweet, under “Mentions” in their “Notifications,” making them more likely to interact with your tweet. Should they choose to retweet your tweet (which I’ll get to later) your tweet will show up on their feed. So, @Beyonce, retweet the tweets I keep tagging you in. I’d like the Beyhive to follow me!
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— BlogHer (@BlogHer) October 14, 2020
Tweet often and consistently.
In the words of Eminem, “I do know one thing though, tweets, they come they go.” If you’ve ever refreshed your Twitter feed, you know you only have a matter of moments to capture attention and get engagement on your tweet. You’ll notice most editorial sites and news outlets post at least once an hour, if not more. Obviously don’t feel locked into this timeframe, but make sure your editorial calendar includes multiple tweets a day at high engagement times so you don’t get lost in the sauce (or mom’s spaghetti.) Okay, I’m done with the Eminem references.
Give your tweet some extra oomph with photos, a video, poll, or GIF.
With so many social media platforms now relying heavily on visual content, it should be no secret that tweets containing a photo or video receive more likes, shares, and retweets than those without them. Videos at any size will show up at their full size in your feed, however, photos should be sized appropriately for the platform at 1200px X 675px. I use Canva to make sure my photos crop correctly. You can add up to 4 photos to your tweet, so no selfie needs to be left behind!
No time to create your own visuals? No worries, fam! Try including a clever GIF, provided in the app by GIPHY for Twitter. You can also test polls, which encourages an extra layer of engagement on your tweet.
Retweet, retweet, retweet!
A strong way to get brands and other users to notice your account is by giving them a shout on your own feed, AKA, a retweet! Try sharing a brand or influencer’s tweet with your own comment. Sharing is caring, and the person or account that you retweeted will see your engagement, and hopefully share some of your tweets, as well!
Don’t get cut short, post in threads.
Expressing yourself in 280 characters is often challenging, especially if you’re telling a story, sharing about a product or site launch, or including a link in your tweet. Posting in a thread, which basically means replying to your own tweet multiple times, gives a more user-friendly experience and looks a lot cleaner than tweeting multiple times in a row. So really, when it comes to tweeting, the (character) limit does not exist!
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