#1 – Post Regularly
It’s all too common – a Twitter profile that hasn’t been updated in six months. You’re on Twitter – be sure to utilize it! At minimum, you should be posting a few times per week. I recommend 2-3 posts per day. Promotional posts (i.e. – “check us out”) should only be 20% of your content for the week. Keep the remainder of your posts fun, informative and engaging. If you’re too promotional – you’ll lose followers.
#2 – Don’t Auto-Feed from Facebook
All social media posts should be live. Don’t auto-feed your Twitter account with your Facebook content. Nothing makes me want to unfollow a business more than when I see a lengthy post on Twitter that gets cut off with a link to a Facebook page. Twitter has a limit on characters while Facebook does not. Thanks to this, the auto-feed is painfully clear. Take the time and post manually to your Twitter account. We want to know you – the business – is actually posting.
#3 – Engage, Engage, ENGAGE
It’s great that you’re on Twitter and that you’re posting on a regular basis. But that’s only half of the work. You need to be engaging with your followers. Spend at least 30 minutes each day reading through your news feed and comment on what people are writing about. Twitter is about engagement and real-time dialog. Don’t let the opportunity for conversation pass you by.
#4 – Don’t Overuse Hashtags
Have you seen posts in your Twitter feed where most of the words are hashtagged? It makes it impossible to read the content of your post. Be sporadic in your use of hashtags and only use them when they have the highest likelihood of increasing awareness about your post. Every post does not need to include a hashtag.
#5 – Monitor Your Results
I use a great service called Sprout Social that allows me to track the success of campaigns I’m managing for clients. Be sure you find a similar program (or use Sprout!) that can provide you with in-depth reporting. Analysis is crucial to the success of your campaign. Monitor it daily to see what posts are ranking highest in engagement, clicks and re-tweets. If something is not working, make changes and improve your results.
Thanks so much for mentioning Sprout Social, Kelley! So happy to hear that you’re enjoying the service and are able to easily track and analyze your clients’ social campaigns.
And I think you nailed the top five success tips for Twitter. So important to engage and connect with your customers, without being robotic (and always analyze your strategy, then adjust as necessary). Great job!
Brittany Morse
Social Marketing Manager, Sprout Social
Thank you to Sprout for providing such a great service. I tried several others before stumbling upon Sprout and have been very impressed. The service is top notch and your customer service is outstanding!