Building a robust Twitter audience doesn’t have to be a huge burden. It’s all about knowing where to look and how to be found. Some of the most essential Twitter best practices are all about visibility and making your presence known with the right structure to your social media account profile.
Optimize your Twitter profile
Make your profile be seen by others! Optimizing your Twitter profile is so important. The better you set yourself up to be easily searchable, the more people will actually see you.
Know which Hashtags to use in your bio: By now, everyone knows that you can reach more people with hashtags. But are you using the correct keywords? Know what is popular in your industry by searching on a tool like Hashtagify, or looking at blogs with a list of top hashtags or just by doing a simple search on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Pin a Tweet every now and then: Always pin a Tweet to showcase one of your more engaging posts. This is also a good way to feature or highlight recurring questions that your followers may have or news about the company.
Don’t get lost in the all of Twitter accounts out there.
Promote Your Twitter Across Networks: Whether it’s your own blog, LinkedIn page, email signature, business cards etc. promote your Twitter across them all. Cross-platform promotion is a great way to get your handle out there. Your handle should be as important as your work website or your phone number.
Grow your Twitter network with relevant followers in your industry
Most people trying to build a significant Twitter audience from scratch want it to be quick and easy. Sadly some are looking for the quick fix to growing their numbers and fall into the dangerous pitfall of buying followers, which is never a good thing. Authentic, truly-engaged followers are the ones who can make your Twitter account shine.
There are many ways to use the Twitter search bar to help you grow your network:
Search for specific people in the industry that you know or companies you want to follow.
Type a hashtag: A list of names will appear. These names are people who are using the hashtag. Click on their name/ profile to see what they are Tweeting. They may be someone who is a thought leader in the topic or a company that is actively using the hashtag to promote their products.
Don’t hesitate or be partial to who you follow on Twitter. Follow industry leaders, top marketers, competitors, and friends.
Think a little outside of the box to find people to follow: Look at businesses Twitter pages with a large number of Retweets and Likes:
Click the tweet with a large number of retweets and likes.
Click the highlighted retweet number. A list of everyone who retweeted the post will appear, with their bio.
If it is a Twitter handle that is relevant – click the “Follow” button:
Look for the people in your LinkedIn follow list – active social users will include their Twitter handle in their profiles. If they do not, just grab their name and search for them on Twitter.
Use tools like BuzzSumo to find even more industry leaders. Buzzsumo lets you find the highest-shared articles in your industry and see who wrote them. Be detailed and comprehensive with searching who’s talking about your industry and what companies are generating buzz. Then follow them on Twitter.
It's pretty easy to grow your following. Block out a little time in your day and turn on your investigator hat. Once you start exploring new people to follow you will quickly grow your following by following others first.
Start engaging with followers We all crave engagement in some way, shape or form and our followers crave engagement too! So there has to be a balance of promotional and conversational posts on Twitter, especially when it is a personal page.
Be smart with your tweet count and use the 80/20 rule .
Tweet and/or retweet 80% conversational style and 20% promotional style. This will help you build real relationships with your followers (coworkers, industry leaders, clients, competitors etc.) You don’t want the only conversation between you and your followers to be “buy this product.” Instead, try to engage with followers to get them interested in your brand. Your Twitter engagement efforts have a major opportunity to pay off. However, you have to take a balanced approach to engaging with Twitter followers.
Retweet what your company is posting
These days it's all about the potential reach your content can get - retweeting content can get you there. With just one click, retweeting can be the key to reaching new audiences and showing others that you know what you are talking about and you are seeing interesting things that are relevant to what you share on your handle.
To continue to grow and expand your reach, one of the easiest ways to interact with your company's tweets is to RETWEET! I've listed out tips on how to properly retweet:
Click the retweet icon under the tweet you want to retweet. A retweet or RT is defined as reposting a tweet made by another online user on Twitter. The retweet is indicated by the letters “RT” found at the start of the message. This should let your Twitter followers know that the message is not your own, but from someone else online.
Tag others in your retweet by using @ and the twitter handle of the person/ company you want to tag. This can be a great way to share company content with your followers who may be your client and/or potential client.
Add trending Hashtags to your retweet! There is a power behind the hashtag, the stats showcase that fact:
Pro tip for retweeting
Retweeting tweets can also be very effective in gaining new followers and driving more traffic to your Twitter page + your company's website!
The retweet is one of the respectful practices that you can do on Twitter. It shows that you like someone’s message or post and also indicate that you interact well with other users. Retweeting means that you’re not simply stealing or claiming other people’s posts as your own. Retweeting should, however, be done sparingly as you don't want to make your own Twitter page look like a feed of spam.
Outside of your company's Twitter handle, keep on searching for excellent tweets by influencers who are posting relevant content to your business topic themes. Make friends and connections with regular social media users who may return the gesture of retweeting your content.
Stay connected - Follow me on Twitter @amandabroser
Below I've have listed a few links that can help guide you to the answer you are looking for via Twitter Support: