Good morning and welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. I'm Esther.
And I'm Melanie.
And today we're talking about easy ways to increase Twitter engagement. So Twitter, do you use it?
I do. I've been using it, I'd say for about seven years now, pretty much.
You? Twelve I'm twelve. I got my anniversary badge a couple of weeks ago. Twelve long years.That's almost...
You just thought you were older than me.
Who would have thought? I just caught on faster than the trend. I like Twitter. Twitter is a really fast moving platform, and I like keeping up with the information and the news and everything that's there. But it can be tricky to get engagement on Twitter. So let's give our audience some easy ways to do that.
Okay. Well, I think first and foremost, I think a lot of people are quite intimidated by Twitter because you need to put in so much data, you have to put in so much effort into making your Twitter marketing work. But this is why these tips today should be beneficial, because it's not just always writing tweets, it's also getting involved in other areas as well. So what would you do first if you were training somebody on Twitter, Esther?
First up would be to show them the hashtags. So hashtags, they're not as important as they used to be on Twitter, but they're still if you look at the trending topics of the topics that everyone's talking about, it's usually still hashtag related in there. So you can search through trends for your area, worldwide trends, specific ones for sports, technology, politics, if that's what you're into. And see something that speaks to your audience, something that would work with your brand and check them out before engaging with the hashtag, because sometimes hashtags aren't what they seem.
Agreed. I would take my audience, the person I was training through their profile, their bio as well. And as part of that, I would make sure that the information is still relevant and current as to what they're trying to put across. Maybe that day, that week, heck, even that quarter. And the great thing about all of your professional buyers is they can change and be updated as often as you like. If I'm coming up to a speaking engagement or an event that I'm running when we did DMAT, I changed my bio to reflect that was what was coming up. That was what was relevant. I even put the hashtag of DMAT in there as well on my personal profile, not just on the business Twitter profile. So don't be afraid to update your Twitter bio because it's an incredibly powerful resource. It is. And when people see your tweets, whether it's on the phone or on your laptop, they can just put their mouse over your actual bio and they can see the first few lines of your bio when they put their mouse over your handle when they're looking. So it really is a great resource. And it's completely free, obviously, as well.
Yeah, completely. So another thing that I recommend doing is to look through the engagement or the awareness days. So we've always got special days throughout the year. There's the usual Christmas, Happy New Year, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day. But there's also ones that are specific to your industry or to what you are interested in. So there's Odds Up Day to highlight autism. I want to say for that one. I never remember which one it is exactly. But there's fun ways to get involved in the hashtags and Twitter.
I would have thought that would have been washing Machine awareness day. That's where it goes.
That's where it disappears into the odd stock bundle. It's one of those things that just there's random days.
Ginger Days, isn't there? That's quite a good one. Put a pillow on top of your fridge day.
I've never heard of that one.
But there is a thing.
There's a website called Daysoftheyear.com and you can see all these random days, right. And weeks and months. They have theme months as well. So, I mean, some of them end up trending. And that's where we come back to the trending topics and the hashtags. Not all of them will be relevant to your brand. So just be careful and don't get sucked into ones that would not be acceptable or professional for your brand. But if it's something that's dear to your heart or indeed like thank your Web designer Day, then.
Okay. So I would also think about hosting a Twitter chat as well. They don't seem to be as popular as they used to be, but I think that's because of a second thing related to this, which would be hosting a Twitter space as well. But there are still Twitter chats out there, aren't there? As stuff?
Yeah, there definitely are. The one I host is called USA Bizparty. It's every Tuesday, 01:00 p.m. Eastern time, 06:00 p.m. Gbt. No, GBT. GMT
Where is that?
I don't know. Gibraltar time. I don't know. It's probably still the same time zone, to be fair. But yeah, if you can't at least host one, at least join one. There's always one. There are so many that again, our niche that are specialists. There are ones to help you learn more about Twitter. There are ones to rent, there are ones for writers, there are ones.
Be careful when you rent now, because if you're renting as your business profile, it could actually be quite damaging.
Yes, because all your tweets are visible to all your audience. Even if you're chatting to these other people, it's not private. You will be shown across the world. But again, those hashtags for those Twitter chats can end up trending and can help you get more engagement and more followers and more interaction on your tweets and have more people see you around the world.
How about getting verified on Twitter? That is actually something you can do now, it isn't just for celebrities and journalists anymore. You can actually look at getting verified on Twitter. Obviously there is a criteria you have to fulfill. But yes, the door is open. Why not have a look and see if you can apply?
Nice name dropping there, Melanie. Saying as you're a journalist and you've been Twitter verified for years, I've been out of twelve years and still not verified, but you were seven and all. But I think one of the most important things that you can do, say you only have ten minutes to spend on Twitter Is to interact with people who interact with you. So if someone has retweeted your tweet, thank them. If someone has responded to your tweet, Go back in and continue the conversation. If someone comes up on your feed, whether you have it in chronological order or in whatever order that you want to have it in, if somebody has said something that is interesting to you or even as something as today is my birthday, congratulate them, congratulate them for their win in their business, for their birthday, for getting a promotion. Interact. If they're having a bad day, say that you're there for them, say that I'm sorry you feel that way. We've all been there. Blah, blah, blah. Interact have those places where it's not just a one way system. You're not just waiting for people to engage with you, but you are actively going and engaging with them.
Agreed. And do remember that people tend to treat Twitter like customer service and to this degree, they expect a response normally a little faster on Twitter Than they would expect on the other platforms. So if you are going to place yourself on a platform like Twitter, Then I would highly recommend that you move your notifications from the third page on your phone, put them on the front page when you open your phone and allow notifications. I don't have it buzzing every time. My phone is on silent nine times out of ten. But I always see notifications and it gives me the opportunity to get back in a timely manner.
Exactly. That's a great tip to end on. And if you have any other ideas on how to increase your Twitter engagement or you would like to learn more, you can get in touch with us at the Mondaymorningmarketing.com. We'll be back next week for more Monday morning marketing. Until then. Bye bye.
I can't believe you've just managed that on the nose. Ten minutes. You said bye bye at ten minutes.
And now you've just messed it up. This is fun.
Wow. Bye.