Twitter’s true value is in its engagement. Unless people are engaging with you on Twitter, you are wasting your time.

For some time now, many twitter users have been up to gaining more and more
followers. But, does having the highest number of followers make you the most
influential? I want to change the thoughts of many by simply saying, it is
useless to have thousands of followers who don’t pay attention to what you share.

If your audience doesn’t show interest by liking, retweeting and replying to your
tweets then it means there is something that you are not doing. The question is,
how can you make a good percentage of your followers to be responsive and
engaging around your content?

1. Perfect your profile

Your profile will either entice someone to click on it or leave it. Firstly, to convince your followers that you are not a robot, you have to add your picture. Additionally, include a bio that will describe what you want and do in a catchy manner that will give them a reason to go through your tweets hence promote engagement since your statistics will have increased.

Example A.

2. Participation in twitter chats

Chats mainly encourage a number of users to be able to give their views on certain
tabled issues on twitter. Moreover, one can follow real-time conversations with
thousands of different users while promoting your expertise and building your authority on a topic. Being on the lookout for different hashtags to find Twitter chats relevant to your brand is advisable.

You can join other people’s chats or else organize your own on specific days.
Additionally, you can invite different icons in being part of heading the
conversations that will build up the audience. The idea of asking questions
and replying to remain in the loop will create more engagements.

3. Visual content

Images, info graphics, memes among other visual content make engagements effective. Human beings are highly visual creatures. Their brains process images faster when they see them.

Additionally, use of attractive visual content can strike a
very good conversation that can improve your Twitter engagement.

4. Reduce tweet characters

If you want to communicate effectively, tweet less. There is a lot of content that
is being uploaded continuously on twitter. If you want to attract a good number
of followers to interact with your content, tweet less than 100 characters.  Additionally, use simple and easily understand words in those few characters you use. Remember, you want to communicate not just push content.

5. Add a pinned tweet

I usually follow some people after checking their bio and pinned tweets. Sometimes the pinned tweets can tell how the tweep creates his or her content. Interesting pinned tweets can evoke action like, retweeting, liking and replying hence encouraging engagement. More so focus on a tweet that relates more with your audience.

6. Use strong calls to action

Induce your audience to action! Action words evoke reactions from the targeted
audience. Words like please retweet, retweet if you agree, help, follow and how to focuses on the reader of the tweet rather than on the sender of the tweet to act on the message put across.

7. Respond to followers

Being rude is never replying to your audience.  When followers ask questions or
need clarification, be kind enough to reply. Show them that you are human. When users respond to your posts on Twitter or mention your business name, respond quickly.

If you don’t, then it’s going to seem like you’re not very active on your own Twitter page or you simply don’t care; which will probably drive them away from you. But, be aware of those who are too emotional to some responses, hence check on your
tone and use to words to be fair to all. If the question evokes emotions that can drive you to reply nasty, avoid replying.

8. Use hashtags

Hashtags are the most important in tracking conversations, following discussions and participating in them. Twitter chats are usually recurring and on specific topics
to regularly connect people with the interests of your choice.

Hashtags have tremendously helped a number of businesses and brands to easily search for a topic or trend on Twitter. You can join in a conversation already happening or organize a conversation, like a Twitter chat by use of hashtags. On the other hand, when you are using hashtags, limit yourself to one or two tags per tweet.

9. Tweeting time

We have different time zones in the world of various moments when twitter
users of a particular zone are online. For instance, most Kenyans are on
Twitter in the early mornings and early afternoons. By 9pm, most interactions
start reducing through the night since most people are off to resting after a
long day. Hence, in order to maximize engagement, you must post at the best
possible times.

If you will want to know what time is best for tweeting you can check out Twitter Analytics to see when most people are active from the statistics.

10. Use Emoticons to Increase interactions

Most people refer to them as emojis. You can break your text by adding emoticons
that mostly show a certain element of playfulness that provides your brand with
a bit of personality. Actually, statistics show that the use of emoticons boosts the retweet quote, retweet and reply rate of your posts, and increase likes.

Moreover, you can use emoticons not only in your tweets but also in responding
to your audience to add a personal touch and show appreciation.

It’s a Wrap

Day in day out we find new ways we can make our content interactive on social
media. The above are not the only ways. There’s more to dig into the use of
digital platforms since development has not yet stopped. But for now, you can
put the ones you have read into practice. These ways to double engagement not
only apply on twitter but also on other platforms.