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Next to Facebook, Twitter is one of the most engaging and most popular social networks out there. Aside from being a digital soap box for many active voices, businesses are using it to connect with their followers and reach a new target audience.

However, for some, Twitter is a mine field of questions. What’s the best way to grow my followers? How many hashtags should I be using? Is it worth using Periscope, (Twitter’s live streaming app)?

As a business you need to be staying up-to-date with the latest trends and changes in technology, especially on social media. If you’re not on Twitter, or if you are but haven’t posted in a while then this is for you, as we look at seven tips for using Twitter to boost engagement in 2017.

Tip 1: The hashtag

This is one of the easiest ways to make sure the content you’re sharing is hitting the right audience. The simple way is to search the industry your in and make a list of hashtags which are relevant to your business. When it comes to tweeting an update or even a blog post make sure you refer to your list, this way you know that the theme of your tweet is being seen by the right people.

Tip 2: Favouriting tweets

From time to time you might come across a tweet that you like or which makes an impact on you in some way. In this instance give that tweet some love and click the little heart underneath it. This will alert the person or company who tweeted that its getting some engagement. This is a great way to grow your followers and start building great relationships as more often than not they’ll love a tweet you put out, and in most cases may even follow you.

Tip 3: Trends

There’s always something happening on social media these days and searching trends is a good way to keep your finger on the pulse. Trending topics can attract a lot of attention so its important to take time out and search popular trends that might relate to your industry or business. Just by clicking ‘change’ on the home page you can set trends for your specific location.

Tip 4: Tweet length

This can catch people out. You only have 140 characters to get your point across so its vital that you do so with the right keywords and voice. Keep your tweets short, the ideal length is around 100 characters which are more likely to get retweeted. Anything over this and they can become confused. Remember, people scroll through their news feed pretty quickly so your tweet has to stand out from the crowd.

Tip 5: Visual content

Content on social media is becoming more visual. Whether its an image, video or live stream people want something which they can engage with and relate to. It might be humorous which always gets a good response, but could be an answer to a problem they might have. GIFs are great to use with your post and they receive a lot of retweets. Make sure that the image or video you’re sharing is relevant to the content your posting, and don’t just post for the sake of it or that everyone else is doing it.

Tip 6: Response time

Another area businesses on Twitter struggle with is when to tweet. This is something that you will need to experiment with and there are a number of third party tools such as Hootsuite which will help you see engagement stats for certain times of the day. From experience there are two key times of the day to send a tweet out, these are 10am – 12pm and 8pm – 10pm. It’s trial and error but over time you’ll find out when your audience is most active.

Tip 7: Get involved

The only way to connect with your audience of loyal followers is to engage with them as much as you can. Users love an active profile and it might help to influence their purchase decision and help send more traffic to your website. Something worth trying is hosting a weekly chat.

This is where you can ask your followers questions about anything relating to your business, it might even be within your industry. The idea is you get people talking about you and your products and services. This form of engagement requires dedication but its well worth it in the long run.

Finally, plan strategically…

Before you start to construct your first tweet, or reignite your account, go away and plan what it is you want to achieve. Have a clear goal, do you want to raise the number of followers? Perhaps its driving more referral traffic to your website? Neither of these can become a reality without a strategic plan in place. If you’re able to create a Twitter calendar great, as this presents an organised way of scheduling all of your tweets each month leaving you the time to monitor the success of your content.

If you need help with Twitter or any aspect of your social media then speak to us at J&PR, and while your at it why not follow us @JandPR