Twitter Marketing Strategy: Twitter Follower Engagement Tips

Do you feel like you have a bunch of zombies following you that could care less about what you say on Twitter? Do your followers rarely “Retweet your Tweets” or “Mention” you in posts? If so, you are probably not engaging enough and you may need to rethink your Twitter Marketing Strategy. Don’t be alarmed if this is the case; you are not alone. The Harvard Business Review ran a survey at the end of 2010 that revealed that only 12% of businesses felt they were using social media efficiently.

10 Ways to Increase Follower Engagement on Social Media

• Make sure you have properly identified your target audience. As with any marketing program, consider who your target audience is and re-design and re-structure your approach to meet their needs.
• Define your content focus and/or Twitter purpose in your profile. This will set expectations for followers and let them know how they should be using your Twitter feed. If you have multiple content focuses and/or purposes for your Twitter account, then consider splitting your account into multiple Twitter feeds so that you can maintain focus. By doing so, you will increase the likelihood of people adding you to lists and referring to your feed as a resource. This will help you maintain followers and develop a more engaged audience.
• Serve as an easy to use resource. Format your Twitter feed in a searchable, easy to use and shareable format. Make sure that all Tweets have optimized blurbs with hash tagged keywords that will help your followers quickly identify which content they are interested in reading.
• Limit your feed to high quality content. Followers will come back to sources that regularly provide them with high quality links. So make sure you limit your page to good content. One bad experience may lead to a follower defection.
• Decide who to follow. Follow thought leaders in your niche who will expose you to people and companies that are also interested in this same area. This will lead to higher quality followers that will be more engaged with your content.
• Engage with thought leaders in your space. By engaging with other people and companies with large followings and similar focuses, you will increase your Twitter feed’s exposure to people and companies that are interested in your content.
• Be responsive to your followers. There is nothing more aggravating for users than an unresponsive voice behind a Twitter feed or Blog. If someone reaches out to you, try to respond to them within a short time period. Brad Feld, a prominent tweeter and prolific blogger has built a huge following around sharing great content and being very responsive to followers. He responds to blog comments and Tweets within an hour most of the time. This shows his followers that he is interested in what they are saying and it encourages them to share their thoughts more often.
• Make your Twitter presence known. Publicize your Twitter presence on other social media mediums (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, etc.) and your blog, website and newsletter. This will make it easier for your customers and prospective customers to find you. Oft times your followership will be different across different social media mediums, so doing so can expand your followership considerably.
• Integrate Twitter into your blog or article comments and reactions section. By featuring Twitter mentions and retweets on your own content, you will increase the exposure of the comments and reactions. This will encourage more people to engage with your content, as it will expose their Twitter feed and brand to every person that reads your blog or article.
• Monitor your progress. Regularly check your Klout score and Twitter Counter statistics to monitor how your revised strategy is affecting your follower engagement. This way you can be agile and quickly modify your strategy to maximize your follower engagement and the effectiveness of your Twitter Marketing Strategy.

Making these changes to your Twitter Marketing Strategy will improve your follower’s experience and ensure that they will return to your feed for content in your area of expertise and increase your likelihood of being retweeted, which will increase your content exposure.