Engaging your customers on Twitter can be challenging. Take it one step at a time, and begin with these easy tips. Using Twitter for business can yield significant returns; let’s get started.
You’ve got 280 characters with which to grab your audience’s attention, engage them, and entice them to complete a desired call to action. Easy. Ok, not so much! With fierce competition and intense media saturation, it is critical that you target the right people with the right content at the right times.
Here are some Twitter engagement tips to get you started.
Tweet Original Content
If you use Twitter, take a second to think about how you scroll through your feed. Fast, right? You don’t have time for filler; you want substance. It’s like skipping the lettuce at a buffet and going right for the chicken wings. Your audience wants meaty, relevant, interesting information — and they want it now.
Give it to them with original, eye-catching content. This is a terrific fit for those in the design and construction space: whether you remodel kitchens and bathrooms or sell custom doors and windows, you have gorgeous assets that you can put to work for your brand. Images and videos work exceptionally well and compel users to stop scrolling and take a look.
Bonus Tip: Use longer content (e.g. white papers, ebooks, case studies, articles, etc.) to create mini-campaigns. For example, if you have a case study of a challenging project and successful outcome, pull out data, inspiring quotes, and other enticing bits of information to tweet. And be sure to link to the original asset!
Curate Great Content
Yes, we just told you to post relevant original content. Please do! But also select the best pieces by thought leaders and non-competitors in your space. If you’re a construction firm, for example, why not highlight the best design company in your area to help customers out? Or post a list of ways to make the remodel process easier from Houzz or another trusted resource?
You’ll build trust, community, and push out quality content that you don’t actually have to create yourself. A good mix of curated, original, and promotional tweets is key.
Bonus Tip: Follow influencers in your space and engage with them; they may just exert their influence to help your brand achieve its goals.
Be Topical and Timely 
Burger King is a master of snarky commentary on current events. In January, 2019, President Trump served hamburgers (misspelled in a Presidential tweet as “hamberders,” much to the delight of Twitter) to the Clemson Tigers in honor of their 2018 college football championship. Trump ordered in from Burger King, McDonald’s, and Wendy’s, and BK couldn’t help but have a bit of fun.
2018 college football championship, the Clemson Tigers
While this brand of humor may not work for your brand strategy, the takeaway is this: Twitter users come for current events and up-to-the-minute commentary. News is the far-and-away winner when it comes to information sought out by Twitterers (yes, that’s a real world). This category accounts for about 50% of traffic.
Again, you do not have to use humor: if your brand identity is more straightforward, hard-hitting, or serious, great. Stay true to your strategy. Tweet current news related to your industry in a style that resonates with your audience.
Ask Questions
Audience interaction is key to winning with Twitter, and if there’s one thing that people like it is talking about themselves! This is a social network: they want to discuss and have conversations. So ask questions.
Twitter polls give you the opportunity to engage your followers with timely, relevant, and insightful questions. You might ask:
Which of the following are you most worried about for your home remodel?
- Cost
- Time
- Finding a great contractor
- Decision making
When you get the results, you know how to allay these fears. You can post content that aligns with these issues and challenges, while positioning your brand as the solution that will clear these worries off the slate. Share the results with your audience, and retweet comments that hit your messaging accurately.
Mind Your Frequency and Timing
How often should you post to Twitter, and when are the optimal times for engagement? This is a question all brands need to ask: while the exact answer will vary based on your audience demographics and the goals of your brand, in general, research indicates that:
- 15 tweets per day is optimal. Don’t freak out: if you can’t do that many, focus on quality. In fact, always focus on quality. A good tweet is worth more than 15 subpar ones. And remember, you can (and should) curate and retweet great content.
- Friday is the best day to post on Twitter, and between the hours of 9:00 and 10:00 am is the best of the best. Save your most compelling content for this time.
- Between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm daily are the “safest” times to tweet. You’ll generally see average engagement, possibly bordering on good.
- Sunday mornings are the worst time to post. You’ll typically see low levels of engagement.
Ready to tweet? Using Twitter for business can help you realize the results you need; leverage this powerful tool to increase engagement and encourage people to embrace your brand.
Bonus Tip: Be consistent. If you can put out three tweets a day reliably, do that. It’s far better than doing 15 one day, nothing the next, a few the day after that, then nothing again… your audience needs to know what to expect from you and see that you can deliver.
