5 Ways to Quickly Boost Twitter Engagement

Twitter can be a totally awesome tool to grow and your reader base, but surprisingly not many people use the platform correctly and don’t know how to boost Twitter engagement. I’ve seen SO many people just tweeting once a day, or only saying uninteresting things and still expecting people to discover them and instantly feel an uncontrollable urge to follow their every move.

“So, how do I build up my following and get people to follow my content??”

Well, first off there are no magic tricks or shortcuts to building engagement. It takes time and effort on your part. And it’s not just about you advertising and pushing your brand in front of peoples’ faces all day. That’s annoying. One of the things that makes Twitter unique among all the major social media platforms is how personal it is. Whereas Facebook pages are kind of like a message board where fans can go and check for bigger updates a few times a week, Twitter is and should be treated more like an ongoing conversation between you and your fans.

Engagement is super crucial here — responding to direct messages (DM’s), responding to replies to your tweets, tweeting at other people to start or join conversations, retweeting and liking (previously “favoriting”) other people’s content to build relationships with others in your industry, etc. are all ways you can engage with your community, put a face to your name, and show your personality. As the amazing Simon Sinek once said, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

These are all things that can do wonders for building reader loyalty and boost Twitter engagement. As mentioned before, tons – and I mean TONS – of creatives just spam and annoy everyone with links to their content and nothing else of value, so go the extra mile and show your potential followers who you are and that you appreciate them and their time, and I guarantee it won’t go unnoticed. You’ll stand out above all the rest.

Now that you understand the importance of engagement on Twitter, here are 5 actionable steps you can take today to start building a loyal following:

1. Boost twitter engagement by using hashtags.

Only use a few hashtags per tweet. One thing I like to do is check out the Top Trending Hashtags each day and see if I can find a way to use it in a relevant way to my brand. Don’t force it if none of them relate, but it’s a good way to hop into a conversation that’s getting a lot of attention at the time.

You should NOT, however, use super obscure hashtags that no one would search for unless you’re creating a hashtag for your brand or name because that defeats the purpose. You also should not use tons and tons of hashtags in a single tweet. If you can fit more than a couple then chances are you don’t have a quality tweet to begin with.

2. Join conversations and keep them going.

Hashtagging is #awesome for getting more exposure for your tweets and to boost Twitter engagement, but what you should really be striving for is to join conversations. Conversations happen around hashtags. That’s mainly why people use them and what people are looking for when they search for a hashtag. So don’t just post your clever tweet related to a particular trending hashtag, but also search for the hashtag and reply, like, and retweet other tweets you find funny or interesting and that relate to your music style or brand. ENGAGE. This is SOCIAL media afterall 😛

You should NOT start off a conversation with a link to your blog post or anything self promoting. It’s SUPER annoying and spammy. One of my go-to messages to start a conversation is just to ask something simple like “so where are you from?” Then you can ask them if they’ve been to any cool events lately or what their favorite stores are. Share your favorite brands with them and casually mention that you are an influencer as well. Only after a solid, real conversation that builds trust should you even consider sending a link their way. They may check your blog out without you even asking if you approach things this way.

3. Find and build relationships with influencers, and retweet engaging content.

Since Twitter allows for much more personal interactions, we recommend building relationships with influencers and thought leaders in your genre and location. Find influencers at all levels and like and retweet tweets from them you find interesting or funny and you think your followers would, too. This helps to get you on their radar and also shows them that you find their content useful and worth sharing. You should also comment on their tweets and engage them in conversation, but definitely not about your music at this point. Get to know them and show them that you’re interested in their work and only later on, once the trust and relationship is more established, should you mention anything about your content (unless they bring it up, of course).

You should NOT start off your conversation with anything promotional. Again, sounding spammy is unbelievably annoying. When you’re building a relationship in real life your opening line wouldn’t be trying to sell them something, right? You ask them questions to find out who they are and what they’re about and you share stories, get to know them, and discover their personality. It’s the same concept online.

4. Post at least 5 times per day.

This one’s pretty straight forward. Twitter is like one big live feed, so depending on how many people you follow tweets can disappear well below the fold super quickly. This means in order to get in front of the most people you need to tweet more often.

You should NOT sacrifice quality in order to just tweet more often. Tweeting stupid things that no one will find interesting, funny, and/or retweetable is pointless. No one is going to retweet that you had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch.

5. Make lists to keep everything organized.

One of the most overlooked and misunderstood features of Twitter is lists. In short, lists allow you organize accounts and tweets into custom feeds so you can more easily find the tweets and information you’re looking for. For musicians and artists we recommend making a few different lists: influencers, favorite brands, competitors, most engaged users, and relevant sources. Each of these lists serves a specific purpose that will help you with twitter and building your fan base going forward.

So there you have it! You should be ready to head out and start building your twitter empire from the ground up. If you want to learn more, make sure to check out my blogging tab for other informative posts.