Are you looking to boost your engagement on Twitter and skyrocket your website's traffic? Stay tuned for the 15 most efficient tactics to leverage likes, comments and retweets on Twitter and promote your content like a pro.
How To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter
Social media networks are among the most powerful sources to increase your website's reach and to drive new readers and potential customers to your blog.  With 310 million active users, Twitter is the second largest social network worldwide and THE place to be for every social media manager. Twitter was the first network to introduce #hashtags and @handles for helping users to quickly sort the masses of news, images and videos uploaded every day. The very easy way to spread messages across millions of users makes the short messaging network highly valuable for marketers to promote their products and services.

Learn what, when and how to post best to your Twitter channels to catch your followers attention.

What to Share To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter
#1 Provide High-Quality Content With Added Value
Besides all its beneficial aspects for marketers, in recent years, Twitter has also become a place to massively share and retweet what ever you come across. Stand out by offering high-quality, helpful and well researched content which brings added value to your followers!
Especially, when your brand seeks to generate leads and customers through content marketing, value is your only currency. I would even go as far as saying, forget everything you’ve learned about Twitter engagement — value is the only thing which keeps users interested and coming back for likes and retweets.
#2 Share Great Images And Intriguing Graphics
Right after providing great content, sharing images is your number one tactic to skyrocket your engagement and reach on Twitter! Any kind of visual content simply tends to catch the eye faster and draws your followers attention to your tweets in the midst of thousands of uploads. Especially, if you only have 140 characters to express your marketing message, images are a great way to get the word out.
Lucky you, Twitter just recently extended its character restrictions in 2016. While images used to take up 24 characters worth of your tweet, you can now add visual content without losing extra space.


Share Grapics To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter

And, giving it a try can really pay off! Research shows that image tweets will generate up to five times the engagement of regular text-updates. Your followers will be able to view your content right in their feed or in your twitter media album, generating more direct interactions.
#3 Post Directly Embedded Videos For More Interaction
Whereas images easily outrank simple text updates in terms of engagement and retweets, videos are continuously rising in popularity and can outshine the most intriguing info graphic. Jumping onto the video-streaming wagon, Twitter implemented its video feature early 2015, enabling users to directly record videos with their smartphone or upload video files no longer than 30 seconds. Especially, brands who seek to build an up-to-date image on social media and engage with younger target groups can profit from directly embedded clips.


Share Embedded Videos To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter

The format offers great opportunities to give your company a personal feel and drive your marketing revenues through interesting storytelling. No surprise as 82% of Twitter users frequently watch video content on the short messaging network.

#4 Share Links And Shortened Links To Triple Engagement
The list of efficient tactics to boost engagement and CTRs on Twitter should not be short on links. By adding a link to any text or image tweet, brands can almost triple their retweets. And, of course, boost their website traffic. Generally, 95% of all interactions on Twitter are actually link clicks. But marketers should not waste too many of their limited characters on the entire website address. Shortened links take up little space and do the trick!


Use Shortned Links To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter

You can shorten your URLs with link shorteners such as bit.ly and goo.gl, however some automation tools for social media such as Blog2Social already cross-post your content with shortened links.
#5 Curate Valuable Content Of Others To Boost Interactions
While it’s nice to generate clicks for your own blog or website, it should never be just about you on social media! Instead, the key word is: Content Curation!
By sharing interesting and valuable content from others your feed does not only seem more lively and diverse but will also encourage others to pay more attention to your feed and postings.


Share A Mix Of Contents To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter

With every 10 tweets you should mix

5 pieces of curated content: This is content from other sources that is relevant to your audience, but it should also be connected to your topics
3 pieces of created content: This it content you have created, that’s relevant to your audience.
2 pieces of personal content: This should be content that gives your brand a human touch. This can be fun and entertaining content or personal statements

Furthermore, sharing valuable content of other indicates that you know your way around the industry and can help to position yourself as an expert and insider. By tagging the brand or user who created your curated content, you can build profitable relationships with other industry leaders, drive engagement with other users and set the cornerstone for future cooperations with influencers. As a bonus, other users will eventually start to share your content as well sending more traffic, new readers and potential customers to your website.

#6 Recycle Evergreen Content
Apart from your website's newest hits and interesting content from others, why not recycle your evergreens as well? High-quality content which already performed well in the past and let your social signals shoot through the roof should not dust over in your archives. Instead, re-share your great articles, videos and graphics frequently.

Especially Twitter is so busy, many of your followers have most likely missed your tweet the first time you’ve published it. In fact, most users won’t even notice, if you recycle your content with the exact same images or comment. But, nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt to spice things up a little and to vary #hashtags, add a timely comment or include individual images in different tweets. However, not everything is recyclable. Stay away from news jacking and trending topics as well as last season's holiday greetings.

PRO TIP:Create Twitter PollsTo create extra engagement, try out Twitter’s poll feature. It’s a great way to interact with your followers, receive valuable knowledge and show that you are interested in your brands community.

#7 Share GIFs And Memes For A Personal Touch
What Boomerang is to Instagram, GIFs and Memes are to Twitter. The humorous images and short clips are the number one fun content on the network and will add an entertaining touch to your corporate tweets. Especially, on fridays and during the holiday season, GIFs and Memes are extremely popular and will grab your followers attention right away.
And Twitter also makes it extra easy to post GIFs. Simply click on the GIF-Button in your tweet box and select the one you like!


Share GIFs To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter

When to Share To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter
#8 Share At Best Times For Engagement & Tweet On Weekends
On average, Twitter users visit the network only thrice a day for a couple of minutes, so the right timing can be crucial for your success on Twitter. Studies show, that engagement-rates as well as CTRs directly relate to the numbers of followers seeing your tweet when they scroll by. Therefore, knowing the best times to post on Twitter and your target-group-specific peak hours can already have a major impact on your twitter performance. For starters, take a look at our recommended best times and frequencies to post to Twitter. Nevertheless, being familiar with your audience and knowing your followers preferred Twitter Times is advisable when trying to boost your reach.


Best Times To Tweet To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter

The Twittersphere is most active during the daytime hours between 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. in your respective time zone. Tweets posted during that time will generate 30% more interaction. Tweets on weekends generate 17% higher engagement than on weekdays.

Generally, the best times to tweet are:

morning hours from 8 a.m. – 10 a.m
midday from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m and
after work from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m

Using automation tools such as Blog2Social to automatically hit the ideal times to maximize engagement can make your social media management a lot less stressful. Especially when you are promoting in different time zones or your preferred audience is not online during your work hours, you should try scheduling your tweets.

#9 Tweet At The Right Frequency - Don’t Tweet Too Much
The tricky thing about Twitter: the average lifespan of a tweet is only 18 minutes. So, in order to appear on as many of your follower’s feeds as possible, you might want to share the same content more than once. But caution, posting too frequently could annoy and drive away your followers.


How Often To Tweet To Boost Your Engegement On Twitter

Post new blog posts 4 times during the first 32 hours for initial promotion. Afterwards, re-post your content with different comments, images, #hashtags and @handles once a week.

PRO TIP: Pin TweetsAnother pro tactic to boost your engagement is to pin tweets to your profile which will stay visible long-term on top of your feed until you remove it again. If you have awesome high-quality content, pinning it to your Twitter profile can leverage your engagement-rate immensely. Furthermore, pinned tweets basically work like free of charge advertising right on your Twitter profile. Take advantage of this feature by including a strong Call-To-Action and an intriguing graphic.


#10 Stay Active And Respond To Mentions, Retweets And Listings
The bigger your brand, the busier you will be on Twitter. But, keeping an eye on your mentions and listings and actively engaging with your followers pays off in the long run. By sending out personal responses you can demonstrate that you care about what your followers have to say and get in contact with potential customers or influencers.
Especially, if you receive criticism or a negative response on Twitter, reacting right away should be your priority. After all, being open for conversation is an effective and powerful tactic to build a community and positive image for your brand. Furthermore, people who have received responses to direct mentions also tend to engage more actively with your content in the future.


Respond To Tweets To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter

A response as simple as this one, already shows commitment and will leave the other person with a positive connotation of your brand.
How To Share To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter
#11 Keep It Short
The maximum length of a tweet is 140 characters but keep it even shorter! Studies show that Tweets around 110 characters already increase interaction up to 17%. Tweets of about 80-110 characters are the ones working best to leverage engagement. For a simple reason: Twitter users are lazy and do not want to put too much effort into editing an update before retweeting it. By leaving a little space, other users can easily add their own comment or @handle and are much more likely to retweet.

#12 Use Hashtags And Trending Hashtags
While it might be tricky to fit your marketing message within the 140 character limit or less, you can boost your reach tremendously and lure many new readers and potential customers to your website, simply by adding an appropriate hashtag to your tweet.


Use Hashtags For More Engagement And Reach On Twitter

Hashtags are such an essential part of Twitter, you even tend to react surprised if a tweet is missing hashtags. While Twitter's in-house invention makes it extremely easy for an interested audience to find your tweets, adding hashtags is also a key tactic to drive interactions!  Simply by adding hashtags, your tweets will be 33% more likely to get retweeted than any other update on Twitter. But, as in life so on Twitter, more can sometimes be less. Therefore, be careful not to overuse your favorite hashtags, as engagement decreases the more hashtags you use.

#13 Use Handles To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter
I explained earlier that curating content from others rather pushes your engagement rate instead of hurting your own page traffic. The same goes for using handles on Twitter. By mentioning a fellow marketer or expert in your field, you not only expand your reach but higher your chances of likes, retweets, conversations and maybe even interesting cooperations in the future. In fact, merely talking about or tagging a known influencer or industry expert can skyrocket your impressions, as your tweet will appear on the respective feed as well.


Use Handles To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter

Go ahead and tag other Twitter users, either when sharing or recommending their content or replying to it. They will notice and eventually respond, retweet and push your tweets as well.

PRO TIP: Participate In Or Create Twitter Chats YourselfA big part of boosting your engagement on Twitter is going the extra mile. Instead of just pushing out your message or products in tweets or direct messages, try to actually generate conversations. Creating or taking part in a Twitter Chat is a great opportunity to do so and actually having a real-time conversation with up to a thousand users at a time! Chats gather people of similar interest around a unique hashtag - the perfect stage to display expertise on a topic.

#14 Use Clear Powerful Language And Include CTAs
Don’t be shy on Twitter! Using clear and powerful language as well as including direct calls to action such as “please retweet” can have a tremendous impact on your engagement rate. In fact, tweets which include CTAs and those directly asking for RTs are getting retweeted 12 times more than tweets without.

Use words like:

pls.
RT
help
read
check
Follow

There is no need to be poetic on Twitter, try to bring your message across as clear as possible and to-the-point. If you have a great article to share, why not state what the link is about?
#15 Ask Questions
Asking questions almost goes along naturally with the previous point and is a classic tactic found in every engagement guide. For a good reason - it simply works.
Everyone likes to be asked and to give an opinion. If you have already proven to listen to your followers by actively responding, asking questions will work even better for you! If you’ve convinced your followers that their opinions matter to you, it’s actually of no importance how intriguing your question is.

To simply build a community for your brand or a relationship with your fans, ask what they are doing after work. If you want to follow a more strategic approach, ask what they like about your new product or service. This way you will not only boost your engagement but also get an insight on what your customers a looking for.

How To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter With Smart Social Media Automation
As mentioned before, your success on Twitter doesn’t need to lie solely on your own shoulders. There are plenty of automation tools to do the job for you, but not every one of them will help you stick to these efficient tactics. Simply bursting out the same message to all your social channels will have the contrary effect and might even drive away your followers.

The WordPress Plugin Blog2Social is designed specifically to cross-promote blog posts to all your favourite networks, customized and in the ideal format for the respective community. This is how you boost your engagement in just a few clicks and right from your blog.
Add individual Images To Your Tweets
If you want to share the same blog post more than once or re-share your evergreens, why not spice up your feed with individual images for every tweet or scheduling unit?

Blog2Social let’s you add any image from your blog post or media library to your tweet and even give the option to upload one from your computer. With just a simple click on the displayed image you can choose and share any of your desired photos or graphics to trigger engagement.


Share Individual Images With Your Tweets To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter

Add Individual Comments, Hashtags And Handles To Your Tweets
If you want to make your tweets more personal and engaging, you can also customize your tweets with individual #hashtags and @handles. The “Custom Sharing & Scheduling” option of Blog2Social allows you to individually edit multiple tweets at a time in a one-page overview. You can customize the pre-filled text and add hashtags and handles, separately for each Twitter account and each Tweet.


Cross Post To Multiple Twitter Accounts To Boost The Reach Of Your Blog Post

If you are ready to go, just click “share” and your tweet will be send out.
Tweet At Best Times To Maximize Engagement Or At Your Custom Times
To tweet during Twitter's peak hours, you can schedule your Tweets with Blog2 Social and apply the “best times scheduler”. This way you can catch the most active time slots of the short messaging network and increase the likelihood to appear in your follower’s feeds. Alternatively, if you know which times work best for you, you can also save your preferred times and schedule your tweets according to your custom time settings.


Tweet At The Best Times To Mazimize Your Reach And Engagement On Twitter

This can be handy, especially if you promote your products or brand internationally and across various time zones.
Tweet In The Ideal Post Format For Your Needs - Post Link Or Image Tweets
With Blog2Social you can choose to post link or image tweets. While an image tweet clearly focuses on the image and enables your followers to view photos or info graphics right in their feed, a link tweet generates an automatic preview and forwards your followers straight to your website as soon as they click. Both formats work great, but for some purposes you might want to make sure to use a specific format for your post.


Tweet In The Ideal Format To Boost Your Reach On Twitter

To do so, simply go to “Settings” in your Blog2Social dashboard and select the tab “Network Settings”. Here you can select whether you want your blog posts to be shared with a link preview or as an image tweet with an individual comment containing the link to your website.
Schedule Your Tweets In Advance & Re-Share Evergreens
If you want to set up recurring tweets for your blog post, you can set up various recurrent scheduling schemes for up to one year. Additionally, you can decide to either publish your postings immediately, at a specific date and time or multiple times.


Share Your Blog Posts Immediately, Once Or In A Recurring Scheduling Scheme

Same works for resharing your old evergreens or for planning tweets of not yet published blog posts. Seems like too much effort for a few retweets? Alternatively, you can just activate the Blog2Social auto poster and the plugin will share everything you publish on your blog directly on your Twitter channels.

Wrap Up: 15 Most Efficient Tactics To Boost Your Engagement On Twitter

While all these tactics have their effect, try them one at a time at first and monitor your engagement, retweets, likes and comments. Every audience is different and your target group might have unique preferences. So take your time and trial and error what works best for you and your brand.

Do you have other tactics to add to this list? Let me know and leave a comment, I am keen on your opinion!


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