 |
Many organizations are quick to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, but incessant tweeting isn't the same thing as encouraging engagement with your new and longtime followers. To really matter on Twitter—to listen and engage and inspire sharing and interaction—takes commitment and experimentation. There is no set formula. You have to find out what works for you and your brand.
But these seven engagement tips—courtesy of Corinne Kovalsky, director, digital and social media, at technology company Raytheon, John Pepper, CEO of restaurant chain Boloco, and Tammy Tibbetts, founder and president of nonprofit organization She’s The First—will help put you on the road toward becoming a must-follow on Twitter while you develop a strategy that suits your own personality and that of your brand.
-
Listen before engaging: In order to become a must-follow, you must figure out what would make your target market want to follow you. Take the time to listen. Find out what is trending. Use tools like HootSuite or Tweetdeck to find out who is following you and what they are saying.
-
Find your voice: Take what you learned from listening and design your voice based on who is following you and what they want to hear. Do they want serious, sarcastic, instructive or informative tweets?
-
Ask yourself, “If I didn’t work for this company, would I tweet this content?”: Not everything your organization does is going to interest your followers; find the most interesting nuggets and highlight them.
-
Ask followers to take action: Ask them to take some sort of action, whether it is to take a survey or to tweet a picture of your product. Try to engage them in something that will also have an offline impact.
-
Provide customer service: Leverage the velocity of the Internet to provide your followers with responses to questions, comments and concerns. Customer service via the Internet can fix a problem much quicker than an in-person visit or a phone call.
-
Be conversational: Twitter was created to chat and connect with people. Use this to your advantage—don’t just ask questions; answer them. Don’t just begin conversations; join them.
-
Connect the social media dots: Tweet about an event you’re promoting on Facebook or a pinboard contest you’re holding on Pinterest. By engaging followers in activities across all your social media platforms, they will be more likely to come back for more.
Follow Danielle Aveta: @DanielleAveta