Madalyn Sklar

Strategies to Level Up Your Twitter Connections

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Strategies to level up your Twitter connections - #TwitterSmarter chat with Christien Gritmon - October 10, 2019

Twitter is such a versatile social platform. Not only can you grow your influence and promote your business, but you can also meet people from all walks of live and make lasting friendships. Sadly, though, a lot of people lose out on capitalising their Twitter relationships. So we invited social media strategist and consultant, Christine Gritmon to share her thoughts about how we can get more out of our Twitter interactions.

Here’s a summary of our chat.

Topic: Strategies to Level Up Your Twitter Connections
Guest: Christine Gritmon
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to contribute.

Q1: How do you find relevant people to follow on Twitter?

Twitter, by default, gives you many options. When you open Twitter, on the right you’ll notice a list of relevant profiles Twitter curates based on your activity and interactions. That’s a great place to start. Twitter’s advanced search is also a treasure trove—look up industry-related hashtags and keywords and you’ll find a lot of relevant people to follow.

Christine’s top tip is to browse through speaker lists of conferences you attend, and find them on Twitter.

Some other ways to find people:

  • Participate in Twitter chats. You’ll meet many users who’re interested in the same things you are.
  • See who’s regularly contributing valuable ideas to your industry-related communities and conversations. Connect with them.
  • Look at who your followers are following. It’s a good way to find new people who might be relevant to your work.
  • Identify users who actively engage with your tweets. They could be valuable contacts.
  • Look up your favourite brands and tools you regularly use. As Melissa pointed out, it’s also a good idea to follow people who work for these companies—they can help make further connections.
  • Find writers who contribute to magazines you regularly subscribe to.
  • Search for influential and relevant people who follow your competitors.

Q2: What are some ways to find conversations relating to your subject on Twitter?

Chats are a great source of conversations. The best part is that during Twitter chats, people share other chats, events, and topics you can join and contribute to.

This becomes easier when you’re following relevant people. As our guest mentioned, just make sure you’re only following people whose content you’re interested in, and that’s all you’ll see on your feed. It’s the most efficient way to join discussions that matter to you.

Christine also reminded us that trending topics can be a viable place to find relevant discussions. However, don’t jump on the bandwagon unless you have something valuable to offer.

Sarah also talked about Twitter Lists. Build lists by interests and you can easily follow conversations only specific to those lists. It’s a wonderful way to filter and categorize if you’ve got multiple interests.

Q3: Can you still engage with people you’re not connected to on Twitter?

The most beautiful thing about Twitter is that it’s completely public. You can interact with anyone, whether or not they’re in your network. And guess what, you can use private and public lists to do just that!

Also, like Maria mentioned, striking up conversations with people you don’t know is the best way to get to know them. That’s how you build connections, and eventually a community. Offer useful ideas instead of being salesy, and people will want to connect with you.

Christine also gave us another pro tip. If you manage to respond to people right away, they’ll be more likely to reply and engage in real time.

Q4: How do you help your brand and personality come through on Twitter?

Oh, there’re a ton of ways! But the first thing you need is to have a clear profile. Make sure people know who you are, what you offer, and why you’re doing what you’re doing. This includes updating your profile picture, using the background space effectively, and creating a proper bio with appropriate links.

Then make a strategy. Choose how you will communicate on Twitter. This means you need to find your tone, topics you cover, topics you avoid, theme colors for your creatives, logos, and the style of images you’ll use. It’s important to define this early on and maintain consistently.

Our community members shared some more ideas:

  • Incorporate emojis, personalized GIFs, graphics, and videos where relevant.
  • Share useful content.
  • Be genuinely interested in others and stay authentic in your conversations.
  • Respond actively to people who engage with your posts.
  • Retweet other’s posts, share other people’s content to help boost their reach.
  • Share your opinions on industry matters and articles.
  • Prioritize relationships over salesy spam posts.
  • Be a considerate and kind Twitter user.
  • Finally, as Michelle from WP Coffee Talk said, be you on social media. And always proofread.

Q5: Should you jump on a trending hashtag to get more visibility?

We talk about this a lot on our chat, and the answer is always the same: Not if it’s irrelevant.

To be honest, though, getting involved in a trending hashtag is a fun and instantaneous way to meet new people and contribute to important discussions.

That said, you should also know what the hashtag is and where it comes from. Most topics on Twitter have a bigger history, and unless you’re careful, you could easily trigger reactions you don’t want to. Get the context first.

Second, evaluate if you’re important to the conversation. Often, trending hashtags aren’t for everyone. If it’s not your place, if it’s not relevant to what you do, then stay away.

Gene gave us some questions to think about. If you can ask yourself how your tweet serves your goals and the existing conversation, you’ll know if you should jump on a hashtag.

After all, as our friends from Making a Marketer said, no one wants to be a hash jacker.

Q6: Does tweeting out to people with a lot of followers help improve your reach?

Not so much, and not always. As Christine said, what matters more than a lot of followers is relevant followers. If the people seeing your content have nothing to do with your industry, then your efforts are pointless.

And when you do find the person who has relevant followers, don’t just take them out of the blue. Consider other ways of offering value to them so they have a reason to respond to you.

Another good idea is to start building relationships with them before you involve them in your content. Quote retweet their posts and let them know you appreciate their work. That’s a nice way to introduce yourself.

The more followers a person has, the less time they have to respond and engage with every mention or tag. That’s where micro and nano influencers help, like Emily suggested. These are people with a smaller, targeted audience, but they have a big influence over their followers. They’re also more likely to partner with you and encourage you.

Q7: What are some ways to have fun with your tweets and replies?

Christine was an excellent example of having fun with replies. Throughout the chat, she added custom GIFs to almost all of her replies to our questions.

Emojis, videos, video replies, photos, and images, polls, line breaks, tweets with various layouts are all great ways to express your personality and tone in a lighthearted way.

Tagging a friend or a regular tweeter is another way to add cheer to your tweets. Nothing brings a smile like a casual shout-out—people love it when you tell others about them. It’s a good way to expand your network and showcase the spirit of social media.

Of course, as Chaim demonstrated, sarcasm and witty wordplay is another route to take. Although, as Gene correctly said, not everyone appreciates sarcasm. On a global platform like Twitter, where various cultures culminate, what’s funny in one place might not be in other places.

Q8: What are some things to remember when you’re building relationships on Twitter?

The most important thing to know is why you want to build the relationship in the first place.

Once you identify the right people you want to engage and develop a relationship with, do so by offering value to them. Avoid being a pushy sales person. The essence of social media lies in being social and mutually helpful. Play your part.

A few other things worth remembering:

  • Listen to your audience.
  • Engage with and respond to people who interact with your content.
  • Offer resources and value with each tweet.
  • Encourage others in your industry and network. Promote their work.
  • Join communities and become a regular conversationalist.
  • Share relatable stories and experiences.
  • Be polite.
  • Also, as Ganesh said, Twitter is a public forum. Once you say something, it’s almost impossible to take it back. Be wary of what you say.

That’s all from me, folks. Check out this Twitter Moment Joana put together, featuring more great thoughts from our community members. And if you’ve got some time to spare on Thursday, join us for the next #TwitterSmarter chat at 1pm ET.

 

About me, Narmadhaa:

I’m a writer of all things—technical and marketing copy to fill the pocket; haiku and short stories to fill the soul. A social media enthusiast, I’m a member of the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and always happy to take on writing gigs.

Say hello: Personal blog | LinkedIn | Twitter

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