Twitter recently created a new best practices site – check it out at media.twitter.com. There’s some really useful info there, but you have to wade through it a bit to find the good tidbits.
I did the wading for you – here’s the good stuff!
Best Practices on Engaging people via Twitter:
- Use @mentions. This makes it more likely that people will find your conversation and join in.
- Include photos and videos. Inserting media into tweets makes them more likely to get favorited and retweeted. Tweets with photos get 1.5x the number of Retweets compared to the average Tweet, and 2.3x the number of favorites.
- Tweet regularly. Twitter users like to see conversations. Set a schedule if you need a reminder to Tweet.
- Hold a Q & A live tweet session. This can be a fun way to involve other Twitter users.
- Find conversations. Listen for people talking about you, and join in if it makes sense.
- Use Hashtags. Picking the right hashtag is a great way to reach more readers and make your Tweet a part of a larger conversation. Including a hashtag can double engagement for individual journalists and boost it 1.5x for news organizations, for example. So in our industry, it can’t hurt either, right?
- Show what happens “behind the scenes.” A fun way to connect with followers is to show them what happens behind the scenes.
- Use a call to action and a hashtag together. specially for things like live tweeting, events, or a Q&A session
- Vine videos are useful, too. Vine videos drive high engagement (Retweets and favorites).
And an interesting tip. Are you familiar with this command – .@ (a @reply command with a period?)? I wasn’t. Here’s what it does: Tweets that have a period (.) before the @reply are meant to be seen by all of a user’s followers, not just those who follow both the sender and receiver. Twitter calls a normal @reply narrowcasting, and a .@reply broadcasting. Interesting!
Are you successfully connecting with customers through Twitter? I’d love to hear about it! Share in the comments. Thanks! Oh, and feel free to follow me on Twitter too, while you’re at it 🙂
Photo by Maryland GovPics
Chad says
In addition to broadcasting, Twitter can also be a huge tool for listening to what your customers, patrons, or community are saying about you. I had just such an example yesterday. http://libraryvoice.com/web/using-twitter-to-gather-customer-complaints