10 Ways to Increase Twitter Engagement
Expert Roundups - Marketing

10 Ways to Increase Twitter Engagement in 2023

People often feel like it’s a daunting task to increase Twitter engagement. The tactics change from time to time, as stakeholders constantly upgrade social media platforms, their respective algorithms, and terms of service. Recently, Elon Musk has been very intentional about changing the policies and direction of the company since his takeover. Love him or hate him, his decisions are impactful and you need to be aware of the best tactics to stay relevant.

From actively replying to engaged audience members to leveraging hashtags, try the tips below to see if you can improve engagement on your profile.

Reply to People 

One way to increase engagement on Twitter is to reply to people who reply to your tweets. This helps to create a dialogue and encourages people to keep the conversation going. By replying to tweets, you show you are listening and interested in what others have to say, which can create a sense of connection.

Additionally, you can interact with other users by retweeting their content, liking their tweets, or commenting on their posts. This helps to create a more personal connection with your followers and encourages them to engage with you.

Michael Alexis, CEO, Swag.Org

Take Part in Discussions

When a tweet makes the rounds, send a reply to it—and make it count. People get the most impressions whenever they take part in the discussion of a widely circulated tweet. The more you do that, the more attention it brings—and the more followers you get. 

Before long, you’ll be the one posting relevant content on Twitter. But the key to that is to build your audience first. Find what’s trending. Think of something interesting, funny, or profound to add to the conversation and keep at it. After a while, you’ll get noticed. Influential people still matter on Twitter, so reply to the tweets from those influential types and make them interesting. If you follow that plan, your engagement numbers will grow exponentially.

Rachel Blank, CEO & Founder, Allara

Rachel Blank, CEO & Founder, Allara
Rachel Blank, CEO & Founder, Allara

Start a Twitter Newsletter

Did you know Twitter has a newsletter feature users can tap into? To launch yours, you will first have to create an account on GetRevue.com. This is the third-party platform Twitter partners with to enable newsletters. 

After you start a newsletter, you can put a “Subscribe” button on your profile so people can sign up with one click. Publishing relevant industry content will help to boost engagement while also casting a net for new followers.

Stephanie Venn-Watson, Co-Founder, Fatty15

Ask Open-Ended Questions

Brands need to ask open-ended questions. This encourages followers to interact with the tweet and share it with their friends. For example, ask them about their favorite product or what their weekend plans are. In doing so, engagement will increase along with your connection to your target audience.

Karim Hachem, VP of E-Commerce, La Blanca

Allow Employee Takeovers

Company Twitter profiles have a harder time than most at cutting through the noise. This is especially the case for B2B Twitter accounts. The solution? Humanize your brand by organizing periodic employee takeovers. 

Guidelines need to be established, of course, in order to make clear what is and isn’t acceptable for the employee to share. They do also need enough creative freedom to make their takeover stand out: selfies, sharing favorite things, tweeting in a non-corporate manner, and sharing pics that are tangentially related to work. These are all things that will help increase engagement.

Claire Trevien, Account Director, Isoline Communications

Claire Trevien, Account Director, Isoline Communications
Claire Trevien, Account Director, Isoline Communications

Know the Rules

Staying up to date on Twitter’s latest policies will help you increase engagement. For instance, not being allowed to link to other platforms like Instagram or LinkedIn means you have to solely funnel users to your website now. 

In order to do so, you need to have the right hashtags, as no longer will the clientele be able to find you by searching for your wider socials. Make sure your filters are precise, and, as odd as this may seem, both broad and niche. You don’t want them so broad that everyone sees you, but so niche that no one does. Staying up to date on Twitter’s policies will help you increase engagement.

Temoer Terry, Partner, Mommy Care Kit

Create Polls on Sensitive Topics

Polls are a great way to increase engagement on Twitter. By creating polls on sensitive topics, you can get a lot of user interaction and further conversations about the topic in question. 

But be careful! It’s easy to alienate some of your followers by creating a poll on something that is too polarizing. Make sure you are aware of the sensitivities of your followers before creating a poll on something potentially controversial. Make sure to keep your polls as objective as possible to get an honest response from users.

Burak Özdemir, Founder, Online Alarm Kur

Add Visual Elements

On Twitter, if a Tweet has visual elements, they get 55% more engagement than those without visual elements, so it’s crucial that you use visual elements if you want to boost your Twitter engagement. 

So, if you want to improve your Twitter engagement, it’s time to up your visual game. Post interesting photos or videos with your Tweets so that they stand out amid all the text-heavy posts in your feed. 

For example, if you’re sharing an article with a picture, or a GIF, it will be appreciated more. Even if you share a link to another site, include a picture so that your audience can get an even better idea of what they’re missing out on if they don’t click on the link.

Kartik Ahuja, CEO & Founder, GrowthScribe

Perfect Your Timing 

You’ve got to time your tweets right. It’s important to post when most of your followers are active. To figure out the best time for your business, try tweeting at various hours and then compare the analytics performances. 

This should give you a better idea of when people are receptive to your tweets. Knowing when to post has a tremendous impact on the number of people who see it and engage with it.

Carrie Shaltz Haslup, CEO & Founder, Tabeeze

Leverage Hashtags

Hashtags are essentially keywords that people include in their Tweets related to a topic, event, or conversation. When you use relevant and popular hashtags in your content, it helps your posts reach a larger audience who would be interested in engaging with them. This is especially important for businesses and brands that want to build an engaged Twitter following. 

We can use hashtags not just to start conversations but also to join existing ones. By joining conversations or trends with relevant content, you can increase engagement on Twitter and grow your follower base.

Mark McShane, Marketing Director, Birmingham First Aid Courses