Sure Shot Tips To Boost Twitter Engagement (Backed By Research)

Are you using strategies that no longer work on Twitter?

Odds are: You are.

But it’s not your fault. Things changed since 2012 and most “experts” keep talking about the same strategies.

So how do we boost Twitter engagment?

The answer: Conversations

When people use Twitter they have a particular mindset. They want to give their opinions, know what’s happening (the news), find like-minded people, keep in touch with their friends, and/or get reaffirmation.

As marketers, we can see this as an opportunity to create content that engages people.

But why take the time to do it?

Digital media is great for reaching a specific set of consumers with targeted messages quickly, efficiently and at a lower cost but a study by Brain & Company determined that it is far less effective than traditional media in getting consumers to remember a brand.

Digital media may not be enough to increase their interest in purchasing a product but then what is?

The experience we have with brands.

As Kenji Govaers said:

Brands in niche categories need to focus on targeting and engaging their customers. Here, the best benefits will be achieved by emphasizing digital media, including a mix of “earned” advertising such as tweets from a company account and “owned” advertising on company websites or company-owned apps.

How brands make us feel is one of the most important factors in our purchase behavior. Here’s how to do it on Twitter:

Tip #1 Don’t create great content

I know by now you must have heard common phrases in digital marketing like “content is king” and “you must create great content to be remembered” but what does great content even mean?

It’s completely unactionable and makes me cringe every time I hear it.

So let me share with you an alternative.

Instead of creating “great content” why not create memorable content?

Memorable content is content that leads to brand awareness. Our job as marketers is to create content that shapes memory through content.

So how do we create great content?

As AJ Kohn says:

Great content is only great when it’s read and remembered. Track metrics that measure content recall so you can produce a content marketing strategy that ultimately leads to increases in brand equity and awareness.

Here’re a few things to consider when creating memorable content:

1. Create unique content (content that provides a unique and personal perspective).
2. It’s thought-provoking (it makes you sit back and think about the topic).
3. Ask open-ended questions (questions that elicit a story, no “yes” or “no” answers).

Tip #2 Monitor brand mentions

When we log in to Twitter, one of the first things we do is check notifications but how important it is to reply to all of them?

You might not feel like responding every time someone tags, mentions, or replies to you but it’s more important than you think.

A recent Twitter study shows that the way you interact with people on Twitter can make a direct and measurable impact on your bottom line.

Responding also increases word of mouth activity, likeliness to recommend, and customer satisfaction.

If you still don’t take your notifications seriously, it can negatively impact how successful your business becomes in the future.

MeetEdgar shared more insights on this matter, here’s the link in case you want to dig deeper on how much a Tweet is actually worth.

Tip #3 Ask for your audience’s opinion

Asking for feedback is a great way to boost Twitter engagement but before I get into that, let me share Royale Scuderi’s advice:

Feedback is not about you as an individual. It’s about evaluating and improving the quality of the work you do.

Polls are awesome resources we can use on Twitter.

A Twitter Poll ends between 5 minutes and 7 days after it was posted ? it depends on the duration set by the person who Tweeted it. The winning choice is shown in bold and users who voted may receive a push notification alerting them of the final results.

Here’s an example that shows how powerful polls can be:

That poll got 4,900 voters, 86 retweets, 306 likes, and 56 replies. Not bad, huh?

I know examples like this one are extraordinary but we can leverage the power of polls to our advantage. Even though I can’t promise you’ll get 4k+ votes, I can promise you’ll get enough feedback to make an educated decision.

How can I be certain?

I’ve done it many times in the past and I don’t have a huge audience. In fact, that’s how I got the idea to create this post.

But how do we get people to help us?

The answer: Twitter outreach.

Let’s face it, we’ve all done this:

1. Spent a lot of time creating a piece of content.
2. Shared it on all our social platforms.
3. Crickets.

Not a nice feeling, right?

This is a problem that happens not only on Twitter but all over the internet. So how do we fix it?

The answer is simple.

But first, we need to ask ourselves why it happens in the first place?

There’s something called “bystander effect” and it affects how people interact online and offline. Psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané proved that in the presence of a group, individuals were less likely to help a person than if they were with a smaller group, or alone with the person who needed help.

Now think about how social media works.

Social platforms are clusters of people so odds of them helping each other are very low.

What’s the antidote to the bystander effect?

Direct 1 on 1 approach.

Here’s how to do it on Twitter:

1. Search for people in your niche.
2. Analyze who could be interested in your poll.
3. Engage and ask them to check your content.
4. Get the feedback.

This process can also be used to promote your content and lead generation.

Conclusion

Even though it’s possible to ignore engaging on Twitter, it’s not a luxury most of us have. The reality is that people want to engage with people, not faceless brands.

There are tools that can help keeping track of your social platforms. All you have to do is focus on replying to people’s queries and creating a comfortable experience for them.

This will help your bottom line with repeat customers and new opportunities.

Are you ready to boost your Twitter engagement?

Then let’s roll.