How to create higher Twitter engagement
Use your best attention-grabbing images
Make no mistake, with Twitter you are in a high stakes game of capturing the attention of your followers, and those you would like to follow you. Most people on Twitter are visual learners (more than 65%) and skim to find something that grabs their attention, and few things capture attention more than strong visuals. At the very least make sure that your images look professional, however, the goal is to use images that capture attention…for the right reasons. As a retailer, you want images that create desire or connect with existing desires. Once you have these images, make sure you use them to their maximum advantage, and this is where your XL.Today™ DAM and Digital Marketing platform can help.
Experiment with ‘Title tweets’ and ‘Copy tweets’
Like a headline, ‘Title tweets’ start each word with a capital letter. They are tweets with just the title of an article (within your website or blog), with a link to that article. Title tweets have no extra words. A ‘Copy tweet’ presents the article as a sentence or question. Copy tweets require a little more thought; however, they tend to attract higher engagement. Try to vary the mix of these two types of posts and measure which works for you on your XL.Today™ campaign dashboard.
Include shortened URL links to drive engagement
If you are an XL.Today™ subscriber, you don’t even have to think about this, as we shorten URLs for you, creating more room for your tweet and hashtags.
Use actionable words
If you want those following you or reading your tweets to take action, you need to explain what that action is and provide them with an incentive. An example of this might be a competition where entry is based on retweeting your post. This type of competition is simple to manage and measure its effectiveness. It can also be very effective, as your turning followers into evangelists, helping you to increase the reach of your messages. Other actionable words include to ask for a follow or reply (e.g. ‘what do you think of this idea/product/look/service offering?).
Recycle your tweets
There is a very good chance that most of the people you want to see your tweets won’t the first time around. Depending on the hashtags you use and their attention during the day, you may have to retweet the same message multiple times to get the attention you want. We suggest you tweet each message at least twice daily. Your retweeting may also help with SEO for the URL you are attaching.
When it comes to followers, it’s ‘Quality over quantity’
If your main focus is to build longterm followers and create engagement (which you should be) then your focus should always be on the quality of posts. Rather than tweeting anything that comes to mind, only engage in relevant Hashtag conversations and post the best quality images. In short, consider everything you do and plan in advance.
If you want followers to engage with your Twitter profile and brand, you need to make it worth their while…and this is where your XL.Today™ subscription can help. XL.Today™ has been designed to help you maintain professional standards with Twitter (and other social channels) by helping you collect professional images from suppliers, content developers and your team, then provide them in a format optimised for load time and quality.
If you have a solution that helps you maintain the quality of images, the accuracy of product and service descriptions (which XL.Today™ does), then you’re halfway to a very professional Twitter profile. Then all you need to do is to be creative with your messages and measure what works on your XL.Today™ dashboard.
Late-night tweets attract more retweets
There is a ‘magic hour’ for retweets. It’s between 10pm and 11pm. The reason why is simple, people are relaxed, feeling more open to engaging in conversation and have the clear headspace to listen and share what you have to say. Obviously, you don’t want to send tweets yourself at this time, which is why your XL.Today™ solution allows you to create tweets in advance and schedule posts to achieve the highest engagement levels. If you try this time and it doesn’t work, experiment with other times and measure and compare results on your XL.Today™ graphical dashboard.
Present your offers clearly
When presenting an offer to followers make it clear and simple to follow. Remember people on Twitter often skim information and if your offer is obscure or unclear, they will miss it, and you will miss potential sales. To learn which offers work for you, try a few different kinds and use your XL.Today™ graphical dashboards to compare what works, and what doesn’t, then apply those learnings to your next campaign.
