There are 100 million daily Twitter users and more than 500 million tweets are sent out every day. That’s a lot of people and a lot of information being streamed on the social media platform. If you’re on Twitter trying to get noticed, it can be intimidating. On one hand, there’s a lot of competition. So many tweets are being sent out every day. On the other, until you get a good amount of followers, it can feel like a ghost town.
The truth is, you could never tweet too much. The platform is fast moving and relies on constant updates. But, as a business owner or entrepreneur, it’s extremely hard to take the time to dedicate that on Twitter. We’ve got businesses to run, after all! And, getting some engagement and finding followers can be difficult in the beginning, making it feel like it’s hardly worth the time needed to invest in it.
Luckily there are some tools you can take advantage of that make the game a little easier to play. These tools help you gather content, send it out, and get better engagement on your posts.
We recently had a chance to sit down with Madalyn Sklar to get her take on the Twitter game. Madalyn is a serial entrepreneur, community builder, and leading Twitter marketing expert who has coined the hashtag #TwitterSmarter. She hosts a weekly Twitter chat on Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET.
Here are some of the tips, tricks, and tools Madalyn shared with us during our weekly live stream.
Hashtags
By now, most of us know what a hashtag is. A key phase with a pound sign in front of it: #MagnetMarketers or #RelationshipMarketing. A hashtag ties conversations from many different users in one stream.
Even if users are in no way connected otherwise, the same hashtag will always appear in the same stream. Popular hashtags can become trending topics on
Do you use hashtags? Do you have a dedicated hashtag? Consider using hashtags that are related to your business. You can even coin your own hashtag and use it throughout Twitter. To see if a hashtag has been used before, search Twitter at search.twitter.com for the hashtag you’d like to use. If there is a lot of chatter around it, you may want to think of another. Before you settle on something, consider how people will interpret or possibly troll your hashtag. There have been many companies who have innocently chosen a hashtag only to have Twitter users ruin the sentiment.
Twitter Chats and Engagement
When you’re a part of Twitter, it’s easy to go out and connect with people immediately. One way to facilitate this is Twitter chats. They’re networking events, but online. Unlike in-person networking, however, it is possible to connect with everyone. You have the ability to read everyone’s tweets and the time to reply to all of them.
Twitter chats are a public discussion forum which happens on a scheduled, recurring basis. There is a designated moderator, usually a brand or an individual, and they ask questions and facilitate the discussion. A specific hashtag is usually the connecting factor and serves to let people know what the topic is.
Twitter chats are promoted to your audience ahead of time and serve to act as a Q&A or AMA session.
The main benefit of a Twitter chat is the ability it gives you to connect with your audience and people who are interested in topics relating to your industry. It shows people that you are open, accessible, and willing to engage with them. It promotes the opportunity for people to connect with you and get to know you better.
And, from a user standpoint, it gives them an opportunity to get their questions answered and hear from an expert on a subject they care about.
If you’re looking for ways to increase engagement and traffic on your Twitter feed and want a way to be able to answer your audience's questions, consider hosting a weekly or bi-weekly Twitter chat.
An Additional Trick
Whenever possible, try to respond to people with video replies. Video is trending. More and more people are looking to watch a video instead of other forms of content. In fact, Hubspot says that 43 percent of consumers want to see more video content this year. Nearly 91 percent of consumers have watched an explainer video, and 50 percent of consumers believe the right length for an explainer video is just one minute.
One of the most valuable aspects of a video reply is the relationship it builds. You can quickly share information in a relaxed manner and it just seems more personalized because of the extra time you took (even if it really didn’t take more time). 83 percent of people prefer the videos they watch to be informal and chatty.
Video replying on Twitter is an interesting and cool way to connect with people online. It lets them see the real person behind the brand.
Tools
Now, if you’re looking for some help on the tweeting front, we’ve got you covered. You could never tweet too much, but it can be hard and time-consuming to come up with so many posts. Instead, you can implement tools to help you collect, schedule, and tweet during the times you can’t. Here are a couple great tools that can help shake up what you do online.
Social Jukebox
Allows scheduling of tweets and evergreen content so you can cut back on the tweeting. You can set content to repeat. Just make sure to have it spaced out. You don’t want to appear spammy. Great tool for scheduling out weekly tweets you want, e.g. a reminder about a live stream.
https://www.socialjukebox.com/
Manager Flitter
Tool for managing your Twitter. Has a great search tool that gives you advanced search queries including people who have followed you, but you’re not following. Or, people who are using a specific hashtag that you use or is relevant to you. That’s only one of many great features that make this tool useful.
Click to Tweet
If you have a message and you want people to tweet about it, this is the tool for you. Simply put, Click to Tweet allows you to create Tweetable links that get your content noticed. It also provides analytics, tracking, and demographics so you know what’s resonating with whom. All you have to do is create the content you want to be tweeted by others, get the link, and insert it in places like a blog post. When people click the link, your message is automatically placed in their Twitter status box.
https://clicktotweet.com/
Union Metrics’ Twitter Assistant
This free tool gives you all sort of data related to your Twitter account. It will update the data every day and even send you an email with the daily updates. The free version does have a limit on how much it gives you, but for a free tool, there is a lot of great data you can take advantage of, including what kind of content gets the most engagement, which hashtags will increase your impressions, and who the most influential people in your audience are.
https://unionmetrics.com/free-tools/twitter-assistant/
Zest
If you’re always looking out for great blogs and articles to share on your Twitter, Zest a tool that will make your life a lot easier! It’s a Google Chrome browser extension that works to pull up trending stories everytime you open a new tab. Every article is reviewed and approved by real people at Zest, so you know articles are vetted and valuable to your audience. It’s also a place where marketers can follow each other and see what everyone is checking out.
Twitter is all about connecting with people easily and quickly on a topic they care about. Remember, you’re first priority is to build relationships. So share, interact, and meet people on the Twitterverse. Have fun and share the information you know will be relevant to your audience. Engage them in conversation with interesting topics and pay attention to what they’re doing online. By doing so, you will rock what you do and grow your followers. Good luck!
What tips and tricks do you use for Twitter? Let us know and don’t forget to tweet us!
Watch the weekly #MagnetMarketers live stream here:
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