5 Tweeting Formulas to Get More Engagement is this week’s Friday Five. Have a listen or read about it below:
I’ve a love/in-love relationship with Twitter. Seriously though, I think it’s a great tool. I love it when I’m using it. But then I get busy with client work, marketing work, travel, kids and then it’s bed time and I realise that I haven’t been on twitter all day. A quick scan at tea-time and 11pm isn’t going to do me or my community any favours. It’s almost like I take it for granted.
But then I remember it or something makes me want to go onto Twitter and I fall back in love with it. The conversations, the information, the laughs…I wonder why I don’t check it more often.
But I do inform my clients about tweeting as part of module 5 – Promoting your Message in my Message to Market training
So here are my five top tips or formulas that I’ve discovered about Twitter that I think will help you too.
Tweeting Success Tip No. 1 – Keep it Short
I’m the world’s biggest talker and sometimes find it hard to keep a tweet to 140 characters. I’ve seen statistics where it says that you ought to keep your tweet between 100-115 characters. I’ve also seen stats where it says 120-130 words.
It allows people to add in their own comments such as “I agree” or “top tips”. It also makes a retweet have your complete post rather than chopping it off. Pls RT is 6 characters!
Tweeting Success Tip No. 2 – Share your Personality
By this I don’t mean that you should tell the world what you’re eating for your breakfast, dinner and tea. But I do mean to give a little bit more about yourself or your team. When I had Isabel last year, I posted some comments about being on twitter at 3am giving me a whole different perspective to life. It got a few chuckles.
But what about sharing if you’re travelling? If you find a new coffee shop or restaurant or activity, give a shout out to the establishment using their twitter handle. This does two things
1. Shows that you are enjoying your travels
2. The establishment might share your tweet opening you up to a whole new audience
So by all means, be your brand but show some of you too.
Tweeting Success Tip No. 3 – Ask a question
People love answering questions. It’s a great way for people to share their opinions, recommendations and thoughts. Why not go to your market and ask questions.
Lets say you’re a restaurant and you’re thinking about revising your menu. Head on out to Twitter and ask what’s their favourite…and least favourite ingredient? Or what do they think of when they think of summer food?
It’s a great way to find out what people are thinking rather than you sitting around guessing.
Just before I posted this, I posed the question as a fill in the blanks….The best thing about marketing is…One person put down ‘engagement’..and you know it’s not something that I’ve thought about before. But what a wonderful thoughtful response. So it opens up your mind.
Tweeting Success Tip No. 4 – Use Hashtags
Have you ever seen that YouTube video with Justin Timberlake? It’s fab. It’s over on the site – so go check it out. It’s funny.
It really pokes fun at the whole hashtag thing. But studies have shown that tweets with hashtags get 2 times more engagement. But in saying that, 1 or 2 will get more than 21% more engagement than if you add 3 or more.
Maybe it’s because it connects people of a similar interest or adds context, but either way it works so use them.
Tip No. 5 – Use Images on Twitter to Get More ReTweets
Dan Zarrella is a wonderful marketing scientist. He did research on just under 500,000 random tweets and found that tweets with images uploaded to pic.Twitter.com were nearly twice as likely to be retweeted while the use of Twitpic increased the odds by just over 60%.
On the other hand Tweets that used Facebook or Instagram links were less likely to be retweeted. In all four of cases, he found a 99% confidence interval assuring us of the reliability of these results.
So there you have it, five for getting more engagement on Twitter.
Tip No. 1 – Keep it Short
Tip No. 2 – Share your Personality
Tip No. 3 – Ask a question
Tip No. 4 – Use Hashtags
Tip No. 5 – Use Images on Twitter to Get More ReTweets
Let me know your thoughts – do you have tweeting formulas or tricks that have been successful? Let me know in the comments below.
Study Links
Here are the links to the studies that I found and referenced here:
Dan Zarrella and using Images on Twitter –
