6 Ways to Increase Twitter Engagement

By Shayla Price

Do you want to encourage more interaction with your Twitter followers?
Looking for ways to engage your Twitter community?
In this article you’ll discover six ways to increase engagement on Twitter.

#1: Offer Personalized Encouragement

The best engagement is sometimes a simple response. Customers are thrilled when you devote time to interact with them. It’s a sign of respect and appreciation.

Nike encourages customers to #JustDoIt. To align with the brand’s value of inspiration, Nike tweets words of encouragement to their followers. So if you’re anxious about your next run, the company could be your #1 fan.

                                                                   Give your fans words of encouragement.

To do something similar with your brand, thoroughly read the timelines of 20 to 40 of your followers. Identify tweets that announce major milestones (such as a new baby, running a marathon, getting married or a first car purchase).

Then craft a short message (aim for three to six words) of encouragement. You can make the message more personal if you don’t use any hashtags or add it to your timeline feed. Make sure you stay away from disingenuous comments. If your business isn’t known for encouragement, your customers may be confused by the message.

People desire human connections, and a great way to do that is to motivate people to reach their potential.

#2: Share Their Tweets

It’s human nature to want to be validated, so retweet your followers to show you recognize the value of their content. Let them know that what they’re saying or posting online matters.

ProFlowers retweets their fans often. The retweets usually reflect the beauty of flowers, so popular shares include floral arrangements, mantle ideas and centerpieces.

                                                                                 Retweet content from your fans.

If your business is an extension of your personal brand, you may want to retweet content on your personal account.

                                                              Use retweets as a way to validate your customers.

When retweeting your followers, choose tweets that align with your brand‘s values. Check the user’s profile to be sure it’s a real person. Also consider adding a comment to the retweet to contribute something to the conversation.

Some experts recommend that you retweet only 20% of your tweets, while others prefer a 50/50 split. Find out what works best for your industry and your audience and go from there.

#3: Include a Relevant Hashtag

Create and promote a hashtag campaign to reinvigorate your community and spark conversation around your brand.

Subway is redefining their image with the #SaveLunchBreak hashtag. The fast-food chain encourages people not to give up their lunch breaks and to eat healthy.

                                                           Use a hashtag campaign to get your followers talking.

The campaign also asks customers to show how they’re enjoying their lunch breaks.

                         Hashtag conversations can make your brand relevant to both old and new customers.

To start a hashtag campaign, decide on the goal of your campaign and how it will relate to your customers. Then research what your audience is talking about to come up with a hashtag that they’ll identify with.

#4: Link to Problem-Solving Content

One way to grab your followers’ attention is to provide content that will help improve their lives. This is a great way to integrate your brand into their lifestyles and strengthen the bond between you and your customers.

Whole Foods gives their followers tips on how to prepare and cook food. The supermarket chain regularly tweets seasonal recipes, healthy eating advice and cookbook recommendations.

To identify what content might be valuable to your audience, read through your followers‘ profiles to discover their likes, dislikes and current influences. Select a common issue that they’re dealing with (for example, finding concert tickets or locating a logo designer for their business).

Then create content that presents a solution to their problem and promote it on Twitter.

Avoid creating content that is merely disguised selling tactics, though. Customers will quickly notice your deception and may decide to take their business elsewhere. Rather than sell to them, educate your followers by posting information that they’ll find valuable. This will help you build more genuine customer relationships.

#5: Run a Contest

People love giveaways, so running a Twitter contest for a chance to win free swag is a good way to encourage engagement. Plus, all of the social mentions will boost brand awareness.

The Chicago Blackhawks teamed up with the University of Phoenix to reward teachers. Rather than selecting deserving educators on their own, they asked for nominations from their followers.                             Contests grab the attention of your followers and get people to engage with your brand.

Newspaper rewards program MyMail hosts #FridayFreebie, where they give away free puzzle books in exchange for a retweet and follow.

To create a Twitter contest, choose a contest theme that resonates with your followers and decide how people will enter the contest. It’s important to keep a low barrier to entry to make it easy for people to participate.

Make sure you promote the contest on multiple social media channels.

#6: Answer Customer Calls for Help

There will inevitably be times when your company doesn’t meet customers’ expectations and they’ll need your assistance. Helping to solve their problems is a way to provide good customer service and at the same time strengthen customer relationships.

You can give your Twitter followers one–on–one assistance through direct  messages. For example, when passengers tweet JetBlue for support, the company sends a reply and offers individual assistance via direct message.

                                   Connect with people via direct message for more personal communication.

I tweeted Regal Cinemas about login issues with my Crown Club account. After a quick reply from their support team, the conversation was moved to direct message. Here’s a snippet of the interaction.

                                  Engage with the customer’s tweet and then move the conversation to direct message.

If you offer customer service through your company’s Twitter account, it’s important to respond to customer concerns in a timely manner. You’ll also want to state your customer service hours of operation in your profile. If not, people will assume a service representative is on duty 24/7.

                                                            Post your support hours on your Twitter profile.

Conclusion

Each of these ideas will will help you get your followers talking about and to you on Twitter. Use one or all of them to build more engagement with people on Twitter.

What do you think? Do you use these tactics to interact with your Twitter followers? How do you encourage engagement? Please share your questions and comments below.

Source: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-ways-to-increase-twitter-engagement/