Number 4: Use standalone graphics to share information

I love Twitter.

It’s one of my favorite places on the Internet, and one of the few sites I visit more than once per day. There’s so much to see and do that even when I’m not actively tweeting, it’s safe to say I’m reading, clicking links, and favoriting things to look at again later. As far as social media marketing goes, Twitter is one of the major players.

With over 330+ million monthly active users on the site, it’s easy to see why Twitter is one of the platforms most businesses and marketers could benefit from joining. But here’s the big question: How do you get some of those 330 million monthly active users to engage with your posts and click on your content?

While building followers and social media presence take time, there are strategies and techniques you can use to increase your Twitter engagement quickly, which in turn can lead to more clicks, increased brand awareness, and more conversions.

In order for your audience to engage with your posts and click on your content, they need to actually see what you’re posting. One of the best ways to make your content stand out is by adding an image.

Convince&Convert found that sharing images on Twitter increases retweets by 150%. Including a large image with a short summary of text on Twitter is more visually appealing than a text-only post.

The first, and perhaps most obvious, reason to share your content more than once is to drive more traffic that the initial share. Tom Tunguz did an experiment on his own blog to show how reposting the same content helped him to boost traffic.

To get an idea of how many people were seeing and sharing his posts, Tom looked at the number of Retweets he got when Tweeting a link to one of his blog posts. We can assume from this that actual visits to his posts increased with each Retweet, as well.

Below is a chart of the average number of retweets a post receives the first, second, and third time he tweets it. On average, each subsequent attempt gains about 75% of the previous number of retweets, a very encouraging metric.

Do you have an awesome Tweet you want all of your followers to see? You can pin tweets to your profile that will remain on the top of your page until you removed the pin.

• Pin a Tweet that has an eye-catching image to boost retweets by 35%.
• A pinned tweet is similar to an ad, except you don’t have to pay for it. Take advantage of this free advertisement by having a strong call to action.
• Include a URL in your pinned tweet to receive 86% more engagement.

By now, we all know that using images in tweets will increase engagement, but what about adding an image without any links? A standalone graphic is an image that gives useful information on its own without needing a link back to something.

Research shows that posting a standalone graphic with a quote increases retweets by 19%.

• Use a graphic with text that gives quick information to your followers.
• Grab small pieces of information from your blog posts to put in your standalone graphic.
• Use tools like Canva to create a standalone graphic.

Research shows that “customer emotions become permanent with time. It’s best for an effective intervention to take place as close to the experience as possible,” says Baba Shiv, Stanford Professor of Marketing at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

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.

It’s been found by Search Engine Watch that 65% of surveyed Twitter users expect a response from brands they reach out to on Twitter, and of those users, 53% want that response in under an hour so it’s your priority to respond as fast as possible.

• Your followers will be much more likely to post comments if they know that you are reading them and that you will respond to them in a helpful manner.
• Use first names when you are responding. Addressing your followers in this way makes them feel more appreciated, not to mention that people love to be acknowledged. Small gestures like these help to build loyalty.
• If you respond right away, there’s a chance that the conversation will continue since they may still be on your page.

Are you only tweeting your own content? Sharing the content of others is one of the best ways to show that you’re not all about you and that you value the work of others enough to share it on your own Twitter feed.

One report found that 82% of marketers curate content. Curating content is a widely known tactic for a reason because it works. Over 50% of marketers that curate content indicate that it has increased their brand visibility, thought leadership, SEO, web traffic, and buyer engagement.

Next time you post on Twitter, mix in a few curated pieces along with your usual content to increase engagement among your followers to expand their experience.

Twitter didn’t invent the hashtag (#), but it certainly popularized it with the masses.

According to Quicksprout, hashtags are proven to double your engagement rate and help users to easily search for a topic or trend on Twitter.

Hashtags identify the subject of your content, making it easier for Twitter users to stumble across your page when searching for similar subjects.

Because of this, using hashtags is an incredible way to boost social media engagement among both followers and non-followers since you’re making your content more visible.

While images perform better than text, Twitter users love videos, especially on mobile. According to Research Now, The majority of Twitter users (82%) watch video content on Twitter and most watch on a hand-held screen.

Twitter users value discovering video content. Twitter is all about discovering relevant and interesting content at the moment. So it’s not surprising that 41% of users believe that Twitter is a great place to discover videos.

People also turn to Twitter to be in the know. In fact, Twitter users are 25% more likely than the average consumer to discover video first among their friends.

An analysis found that native video on Twitter drives more overall engagement than third-party videos shared on Twitter: 2.5x replies, 2.8x Retweets, and 1.9x Favorites.

The number of people you engage with is directly related to followers viewing your tweets. In order to maximize engagement, you must post at the best possible times.

According to Coschedule’s research, the best times to post on social media, studies show a few ways to make every tweet get a little more engagement:

Use these times as a guideline. Test out different times and find out when your audience is the most active on Twitter. You can also check out Twitter Analytics to see when your specific audience is most active.

When you interact with a major player in your industry, it can help get some eyes on you. On Twitter, even talking about or tagging an industry leader or peer can be enough to get extra eyes and engagement on your post.

Whether you start a conversation with them directly or just write a post and tag them in it (in a way that makes sense, like by sharing their content or saying you liked their product), they may notice and engage. Especially if they respond or retweet your content, you can continue to get higher levels of engagement if their audience is active.

Again, this can also help build relationships with big names in your industry, and they could be more inclined to share some of your content or posts later on, likely helping you to get more engagement when they do.

The research found that one in four of those you thank will follow you back. But there’s more to it than that: gratitude also boosts your Twitter engagement exponentially.

Buffer’s research found the following, based on their 50 “thank you for sharing” tweets:

• 26% (13/50) of the people they thanked, favorited their tweet (recognized their thanks)
• 30% (15/50) of the people they thanked replied to them
• 26% (13/50) of the people they thanked followed them
• 24% (12/50) of the people they thanked engaged with them in more than one way (both replied and followed them, both favorited and followed them, etc.)

What does this data show? Basically, if you look for people who are sharing your content, and offer them a simple “thanks” or express your gratitude, you have a better chance of them following you.

Since Twitter only has so many characters, it only makes sense to use abbreviated, shortened links to the content you’re posting. You don’t need your whole website address to be listed as long as users are clicking.

Using shortened links will give you more characters, your Tweets will look cleaner, and it can increase retweets.

Instead of having a plain block of text, consider breaking up the text with an emoticon. Emoticons show a certain element of playfulness that provides your brand with a bit of personality.

In fact, statistics show that using emoticons will boost the share and comment rate of your posts, and can help increase favorites by as much as 57%.

• Choose one or two emoticons per tweet. “Think of emojis as the ultimate elevator pitch for your business: you have one or two symbols to let people know exactly what value you’re bringing them with every tweet.”
• Use emoticons when responding to your followers to add a personal touch and show appreciation.
• Emphasize specific parts of your tweet with a correlating emoticon to intensify engagement.

This one might fall under the title of “common sense” for many of you, so it’s great to see that there’s data to back up the claim. Social media analytics company Beevolve analyzed 36 million Twitter profiles and 28 billion tweets to find the correlation between tweet frequency and twitter followers. The results (as you might have guessed): Those who tweet more have the most followers.

Specifically:

• A Twitter user who has sent 1 to 1,000 tweets has an average of 51 to 100 followers
• Users who have tweeted more than 10,000 times are followed on average by 1,000 to 5,000 users
• It’s estimated that a person with more than 15,000 tweets has between 100,000 to 1 million followers

I think it’s important to keep a few things in mind with this data:

• Lots of tweets equal lots of activity. And the more active you are on social media, the more likely you are to gain followers, make connections, and build relationships.
• Lots of tweets equal lots of experience. As you tweet more, you get better at tweeting.
• Lots of tweets equal longevity. It makes sense to think that that the longer you’re around on social media, the more time and opportunity you’ll have to grow your followers. Posting 10,000 updates would mean a years’ worth of 27 posts daily. You’d deserve all the followers you get at that awesome pace!

All of these strategies are free, and only require a little extra time and an adjustment to the content you may already be creating for Twitter.

There are 300+ million monthly active users, after all, you just have to find the right strategies to get them to interact with you and your content.

Look at engagement as a stepping stone that leads followers to view your website, subscribe to your newsletters, and purchase your product. Without engagement, you will be tweeting to a black abyss. Building a strong relationship with your Twitter followers will bring forth high engagement.

Although data and studies can help steer you in the right direction, the best way to figure out what works best for you and your audience is to test out new strategies and tactics. Remember, all audiences are different. Try out different images, texts, A/B tests, and make data-driven changes.