How to Increase Twitter Engagement for your Business

Twitter engagement is the running dialogue about your company that occurs in the online world and can be something you actively promote or can be something that is organically driven without any involvement from the company.

Your tweeting goals will likely differ between your personal twitter account and your corporate one.

Retweet/Mention/Comment

One simple way to increase engagement and aid in developing your following is to retweet posts that are relevant to your business.  Perhaps you don’t have the time or the inclination to write a blog.  Likely someone else in your industry is doing this already and you can piggyback off their work.  Ensure the post is accurate and from a reputable source!

Articles are a great way to spread the news about your article – just make sure you mention the source of the article.

Engage

If you are running a small business, as the owner you are likely the face of the company.  Your customers will like to hear from you every now and then.  Don’t worry, you don’t need to send out a personal tweet every day!  However, on occasion when there is something personal that you would like to share (think holiday wishes, charity event, etc…) take the time to send out a tweet that gives your customers a chance to see your personal side.  Also consider posting pics or stories about your office and employees to provide insight into your corporate culture.

Engagement also means responding to new followers, tweets and reposts.  Even a simple “thank you for the repost” can go a long way.  Some businesses choose to send out an automatic “thank you for following me” directed message to each new follower.  This is an opportunity to direct new followers to other social media sites you may be trying to promote.  i.e.: “Thank you for the twitter follow!  In addition to our great tweets, make sure you check out our Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn page at: ….)

Hashtags

Hashtags are not meant to completely overtake proper grammar and english.  Hashtags should be used sparingly and accurately.  #You #do #not #need #to #hashtag #everything.  The hashtag is used to make a term searchable.  For example, if you are selling window-dressings you should consider adding the hashtag #windowdressing or #window.  Use hashtags that are relevant!

If you are trying to brand yourself or a product you are selling then hashtags are a great way to do it!  If you are trying to brand purple widgets for example, add the hashtag #purplewidgets to all relevant tweets.  This gets the term #purplewidgets exposure and added as a searchable term.

Content

Make sure the tweets you are posting are relevant to your business and are of quality content.  If you have media to share please do!  Links to video clips, YouTube clips and pictures are great ways of increasing traffic and engagement.

If you are updating or adding something to your corporate website, advertise it on twitter.  Include a live link back to your website and a brief blurb of the update.  With a 140 character restriction you likely won’t be able to include the whole update, but a brief summary can entice readers to click on your web link and get directed to your website.

If you have tips or advice to share from your business, twitter is a great forum to do it in.  Perhaps you run a garden centre and there is a new fertilizer or pesticide you have heard about – let your customers know.  Maybe you have noticed a new method for pruning an apple tree – tweet it out!

Twitter is your connection to your followers and they have chosen to follow you, so start tweeting.

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