We’ve spoken about this, folks. Engagement. It’s arguably the most valuable metric on social media. But regardless of how many times we’ve discussed this and how much we know about engagement rates, there’s still so much to learn. After all, Twitter is home to millions of strange and interesting people—you can’t possibly follow the same strategy for everyone. There’s a whole lot of courtesy and even more improvisation involved in garnering engagement to your content.
This week on #TwitterSmarter, we invited social media strategist, Julia Bramble, to talk about all things engagement, Here’s a summary of our chat.
Guest: Julia Bramble
Topic: Improving engagement on Twitter
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.
Engagement is how you build relationships.
Q1 1/2 Engagement is important for building relationships. We want to encourage people to feel connected with us, not just to be aware that we exist, & encouraging engagement is a great way to achieve this. Also it feeds … #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
As you engage more with your audience, and they with you, your profile earns more recognition. The Twitter algorithm favors a tweet with a high engagement rate.
Q1 2/2 … the algorithm a positive message about our content, so that more of our tweets will get seen by more people.
And, of course, it increases the visibility of our content – when people engage it will often show up in their followers’ feeds. #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
For example, if you follow X who engages on Twitter consistently, you’ll gradually start to see posts from people X engages with—even if you don’t follow them yourself.
You’ll also see tweets from mutual friends: Y and Z, who often engage with your friend, X.
This chain reaction can happen only if you engage with people. After all, as Jim rightly pointed out, it’s the best way to build the know, like, and trust factors.
A1. Engagement is how you build know, like and trust.
It is not only important on Twitter, but all social networks.#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/86TqF7JpBA
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #DigitalMarketing (@FuhsionMktg) November 18, 2021
Your engagement rate is the number of engagements you get for a tweet divided by the number of impressions for each tweet. Engagements could be a range of activities including, likes, retweets, quote retweets, replies, video views, audio plays, link click-throughs, and tweet expansions.
Q2 1/2 Overall engagement is the retweets, follows, replies, favorites & click-throughs your tweets get.
Your Twitter engagement rate is your tweets' overall engagement divided by the number of impressions those tweets have made. #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
Your default Twitter Analytics will give you this information. However, like our guest, you can also get this as periodic reports generated on a social media management tool.
Q2 2/2 You can get this info from Twitter Analytics or use a tool. I get a great weekly report from @semrush by using their Social Media Toolkit https://t.co/uB95nLg59C #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
As Rachel from Express Writers said, once you analyze which tweets get the most engagement, you can start to recognize a pattern in the types of content your audience prefers most. Once you understand that, share more of that.
A2: Do a deep dive into your analytics. What kind of posts seem to inspire people to take action? This will tell you what to create more of. #TwitterSmarter
— Express Writers | Your Content Writing Partner (@ExpWriters) November 18, 2021
The short answer is that there’s no one right answer. Engagement rates usually vary by business size, industry, location, size of audience, the number of active audience, and many other variables.
Q3 1/2 If you research this you’ll end up with an infinite number of answers, depending on your sector, location, size of audience, and a massive list of other factors.
There is no one answer! #TwitterSmarter— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
The best way to find out the ideal engagement rate is to measure your own performance regularly. Don’t compare your engagement rate with others to find out whether you’re doing well. You’ll likely end up with a misrepresented rate. You do you!
Q3 2/2 So you are best measuring your own engagement rate for your business and your audience, to use as a baseline, or benchmark – and then monitor your progress. Don’t compare yourself and your data with others too often! #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
Your engagement rate also depends on your goals, as Lance reminded us. If you’re focused on sharing links and want to increase click-through rates, your standard might be much different from when you’re sharing a video or GIF to widen your reach. Because reading a link requires an audience who’s more engaged than one that watches a video.
#TwitterSmarter A3: Ideal engagement rate depends upon your overall objective. Are you sharing content; trying to generate click-throughs, potential sales? Or are you just measuring how far/wide your content is traveling? pic.twitter.com/9XITBPLnvc
— Lance A Schart (@LanceASchart) November 18, 2021
However often you need to. Our guest suggested checking weekly, but that’s not for everyone.
Q4 1/2 Ideally once a week, but don’t get bogged down with data. If you can’t do weekly, then check in detail once a month.
If improving engagement is a top priority for you, then you’ll want to make sure you’re tracking it weekly. #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
If your goal is to drive more engagement to your posts or increase click-through rates, then you’ll need to check frequently. However, if you’re reasonably established and you’re trying to sustain the engagement you already have, checking your rates every month might be more than enough. If you’re running a campaign or experiment, then you’ll have to assess it more often to identify minute changes in your engagement rates.
Q4 2/2 You may be focusing on a specific type of engagement as a priority – for example replies, or clicks to your website.
In this case, you’ll need to monitor the data that’s especially relevant, as well as the overall engagement rate. #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
Madalyn suggested assessing your engagement monthly. Twitter’s default analytics compares your performance month by month, allowing you to see highlights from each period. You can use this 30-day period as a way to execute a strategy and evaluate its effect.
A4: I think checking your analytics at the end of each month is a smart move. This will tell you how much engagement you’re getting and whether or not your strategy is working (or if something needs to change). #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/z5We7QodVb
— Madalyn Sklar 🗣️ 6/100 #Voice100 (@MadalynSklar) November 18, 2021
Healthy relationships are built on quality conversations. The more helpful and insightful your content is to someone, the more they’ll trust you and share your work with their contacts.
Q5 1/2 Quality really matters when it comes to building those all-important relationships.
A tweet that provokes an engaged discussion will have more impact on the people who get involved than a tweet that encourages a quick, one-word comment. #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
That said, though, if your goal is to increase brand awareness and help more people know about you, quantity may play a more important role for you. A hundred retweets and a few tens of one-word responses may well broaden your reach.
Q5 2/2 But if you want to raise brand awareness, then a tweet that gets a ton of one-word comments may serve you well. It all depends on what you want to achieve.
(Remember that your tweet will be seen by far more people than just those who respond.) #TwitterSmarter.
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
Be wary, though. Quantity has its value, but only if handled carefully. As Sabrina said, if you start posting just for the sake of it, it’ll soon start to become noise. You don’t want that.
A5: I'm a big quality advocate, that's why I don't post on social media often (and people reach out to me thanks to that) – I don't really like too much noise just for the sake of it #TwitterSmarter
— Sabrina Cadini (@SabrinaCadini) November 18, 2021
Know your audience. That’s the best and most important Twitter advice. The more you know about what your audience prefers, the better you can cater to their wants.
To learn more about your audience, experiment. Try different content formats like audio, video, GIFs, and images. Monitor how your audience responds to each format and identify which ones work best.
Q6 1/3 Get to know your audience & what they respond to.
Use different formats eg. video/text with image/ gif & monitor the response
Try new ideas & check the results -see what’s working in other sectors for inspiration!
Tweet about trending topics if relevant. #TwitterSmarter— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
Show people your human side. Be genuinely interested in them and they’ll do the same for you. This means asking questions, running polls, and getting your audience’s votes before making decisions. People engage with people they like—be likable.
Q6 2/3 Most of all, be human, be interested in other people, be enthusiastic (it’s infectious!) and be YOU!
Ask questions & involve your audience in decision-making.
You don’t have to be funny, but making people laugh is a great way to get more engagement. #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
If someone engages with your content, acknowledge and actively respond to their engagement. Thank them, retweet something they shared, or recommend them to a friend—show them you care.
Q6 3/3 Respond when someone replies or RTs -if you regularly ignore people who respond, they’ll stop doing it!
Engage with other people’s tweets to raise your visibility & encourage them to check your tweets
Ideally, engage with others before tweeting yourself#TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
One of the most common mistakes brands make is to engage using only one-word comments. They try to get involved in a discussion, but instead, end up adding empty value to their audience.
Q7 1/2 Often, brands try to create engagement (usually one-word comments) for the sake of it, without trying to add value to their audience. The audience will get bored of it after a while. #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
Another common mistake is to misuse trending topics. Sure, it’s great to use them when they’re relevant to your brand and your industry, but if you use them when they’re irrelevant to you, it’ll just show that you don’t know your audience well enough.
Q7 2/2 Or, they’ll see a topic is trending & engineer that topic or hashtag into their tweets, even if it’s not relevant.
Worse, they’ll tweet about something controversial to get engagement & end up offending their audience & losing customers. #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
Another big mistake brands make is to ignore replies they get to their tweets. Now, you don’t want to feed trolls, but it’s important to understand the difference between a troll and a genuine reply. If someone replies to your tweet or quote retweets it, whether it’s appreciation, feedback, or complaint, always acknowledge that as Madalyn said. It’s important to show your audience that you’re listening to them.
A7: One of the biggest mistakes that brands make is simply failing to engage. Oftentimes, they don’t bother to respond to the replies they receive or they intentionally ignore complaints or criticism. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/40SSpWRqYs
— Madalyn Sklar 🗣️ 6/100 #Voice100 (@MadalynSklar) November 18, 2021
This is a bit of a chicken-or-egg question. Sure, automation is great when you’re using a social media management tool that collates all your activities and responses in one easy-to-access space.
Q8 1/3 Yes and no!
Yes – social media management tools that bring all the replies, RTs and DMs into one inbox (like @agorapulse) can really help you respond quickly when someone engages, giving you the best chance of extending the conversation. #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
They also help generate comprehensive reports showing how your content is performing over time. It’s a great way to get a dashboard view of your social presence.
Q8 2/3
A yes and no answer …
Yes – they usually provide reports showing which tweets attracted the most engagement, so you can easily see what’s working well for you. #TwitterSmarter— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
However, one of the drawbacks of automation is that it can make you lazy. You might be more inclined to schedule your content and then drop off, failing to recognize the responses you might get from that content.
Q8 3/3
A yes & no answer
No – using automation can encourage you to just schedule tweets in advance& forget to check for engagement, or to proactively engage yourself
– and these are both vitally important if you want to improve engagement. #TwitterSmarter
— Julia Bramble Ph.D. (@JuliaBramble) November 18, 2021
As our friends from Clover Media Consulting added, use automation for essential tasks, but engagement should always be manual and human-to-human. Keep a content calendar so you don’t have to struggle to find content to share every day, but at the same time, keep an eye on how your content is performing. If someone engages with your content, respond as only you can, as soon as you can.
A8. 100% yes! Automation can free your time up for the crucial engagement on Twitter. You should have a content calendar ready to go that also shows what saw the most engagement/success for that particular piece of content or campaign #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/B4qMw52FcM
— Clover Media Consulting (@clovermediahq) November 18, 2021
Well, that’s all from me, folks. Thanks for reading through, and for more insights from our chat with Julia, have a look at this Twitter thread. If you think this summary is pretty good, you’ll love the real-time chat. Join us every Thursday at 1pm ET on #TwitterSmarter. Afterward, we also hang out on Twitter Spaces at 5pm ET to continue our chat. Catch you there!
About me, Narmadhaa:
I write all the 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