Twitter Engagement Tip: Be Active, Not Passive

Twitter Engagement Tip: Be Active, Not Passive

How would you describe your engagement style on Twitter? Most people would (if being completely honest with themselves) say “passive.” They don’t reach out or initiate conversations – and this can result in missed opportunities, connections and success.

In order to improve your Twitter engagement, focus on taking active steps.

For example, rather than wait for someone to tweet a response to a generic question that you posed, why not address that question directly to a handful of influential users you’d like to see answers from?

So something like this: “Hey @user1, @mruser and @mstweeter, what are your favorite Twitter tools?”, instead of this: “What are your favorite Twitter tools?”

By including someone’s handle in your tweet, you will ensure that they will see it in their notifications tab, and you’ll be much more likely to get a thoughtful response. You can even send out different versions of this question if you would like answers from multiple users.

To further improve your engagement, try building active – not passive – engagement into your daily Twitter routine. It’s great (and absolutely necessary) to respond to those who @mention you, but when was the last time you @mentioned another account out of the blue?

Being the first to initiate an engagement will show that you listen to and care about your followers enough to take the time to talk to them.

If your daily Twitter routine includes sending x amount of tweets, retweeting at least x times and responding to all @mentions, it’s not too difficult to add in “initiate x conversations.” Starting with even one or two can vastly improve relationships with key, influential followers.

You can go even further by creating an active engagement strategy that focuses on specific, targeted users. Create a list (either via Twitter itself or in your own notes or spreadsheet) of users you would like to have a deeper connection with. Think along the lines of vendors, journalists or bloggers, partners, collaborators, etc. From there, commit yourself to interacting at least once or twice a day with members of this list. By consistently and directly responding to their tweets and asking them questions, you will stand apart from the crowd.

It takes effort to be active on Twitter, but the payoff is well worth it. You will tweet more, and appear more often in your followers’ timelines. You will be seen as an active, engaged account. And you will develop real, deep relationships with important users, rather than simply sitting around waiting for them to initiate a relationship with you.

(Engage image via Shutterstock)
https://www.adweek.com/digital/active-twitter-engagement/
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