We talk a lot about engagement, but what is it really and how can you get more of it? If you’ve been on Twitter longer than 2 months, you’ll know that there’s no one fool-proof formula for nailing engagement rates. So this week on the chat, we invited media strategist Sarah Clarke to talk about engagement and what we can all do to build a more engaged community on Twitter. Here’s a summary of our chat.
Guest: Sarah Clarke
Topic: Improving Twitter engagement
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.
Engagement is action in any form. On social media, this usually refers to likes, replies, link clicks, retweets, and video/GIF expands or clicks. Anyone person being social and interacting on Twitter is considered engagement.
A1: Engagement on Twitter is any ACTION taken by one account on another.
This could be in the form of a:
Like, Comment, Retweet, Click, Video View, Click to Profile, etc.
Engagement = being social and interacting with others = the entire purpose of social media.#TwitterSmarter— Sarah Clarke (@sclarkeOville) May 5, 2022
As our friends from Social Media Pulse pointed out, aside from those standard engagement metrics, is one of the most important engagement metrics: the number of conversations you initiate or participate in. This usually refers back to replies, but unlike just one reply to a tweet, a conversation is more interactive and involves quite a lot of back-and-forth. The result is that you engage with a lot more people when you’re having a meaningful conversation.
A1.
While likes and retweets/quote tweets all count as engagement, the most valuable engagement is active conversational interaction.#TwitterSmarter 🚀 https://t.co/dLQZeaIzhs— Social Media Pulse (@SMP_Community) May 5, 2022
Engagement is the main indicator of your audience’s opinion. If your content’s getting a lot of engagement, you’ll know that whatever you’re doing is working. But if you don’t get much engagement, then it’s time to change things around because your content isn’t as effective as it could be.
A2: (2/2)
on the flip side….
If you are not engaging with others – you are also missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with your target audience in a powerful and authentic way.Engagement goes both ways.#TwitterSmarter
— Sarah Clarke (@sclarkeOville) May 5, 2022
That said, however, if you don’t actively engage with other people’s content, you’re missing out on a lot too. Engaging with others’ content is a great way to get your message out to your audience.
Dorothée added to that point, saying she wouldn’t support businesses that don’t engage with their audience because it shows that they don’t care about developing that relationship.
A2 If brands won’t engage I recommend not buying from them. It tells consumers that they have zero interest in a relationship. #TwitterSmarter
— Dorothée Lefering (@DoroLef) May 5, 2022
It depends on the type of negative engagement. Sometimes, you’ll have people using the reply and tag features to bombard you with negative comments because they don’t know how to solve a problem. Other times, you’ll have people berating you on social media to escalate a question or concern they’ve already contacted you about. Depending on what type of person you’re dealing with and the specific problem they’re experiencing, your reaction should be varied and appropriate. A good way to establish the how-tos of operation is to have a clearly-outlined social media policy that tells all your social media managers how to react in certain situations.
A4: (2/2) Generally I suggest responding to negative engagement politely and offer to take the conversation offline.
However if it is really abusive or vulgar, delete and block. You don’t need to subject yourself to that type of bullying.#TwitterSmarter
— Sarah Clarke (@sclarkeOville) May 5, 2022
Normally, it’s ideal to gently acknowledge the situation and steer the conversation away from Twitter and into an email or direct message. However, if someone’s being a bully, just delete or block them.
Our friends from VirtuDesk reminded us that disagreements and disappointments can quickly turn into nasty arguments on Twitter. If you sense that happening to you, just leave politely. That’s completely ok.
A3: If it leads to an argument, better stop and leave the conversation. As far as we know, Twitter has that function. 😀 #TwitterSmarter
— VirtuDesk (@virtudeskcom) May 5, 2022
Videos are always the most engaging piece of content, followed closely by GIFs. Asking open-ended questions, creating polls, and sharing photographs of the people of your brand are all great ways to increase engagement with your content. Check out this blog Sarah wrote, discussing 22 ways to improve engagement.
A4: Content that gets the most engagement on Twitter
💖Videos, including GIFS
💖Ask a question
💖Host a Poll
💖Share real images of you and your business #TwitterSmarter
Here is a blog post I published with 22 Ways to Increase Engagement on Social Mediahttps://t.co/emzcLGUxQA— Sarah Clarke (@sclarkeOville) May 5, 2022
Whatever type of content you’re posting, don’t forget to include a clear Call to Action (CTA), as Amna said. Whether it’s a “click here” or a “register now” or a simple “learn more”, give people a clear direction and they will oblige.
A4
Gifs add spice and fun to conversation.
A mix of educational and personal content drives more engagement on Twitter.
Add CTA for more engagement.#twittersmarter— Amna Aslam (@amnaaslam20) May 5, 2022
Twitter’s built-in analytics is a great way to keep up with your engagement rates. It gives you a comprehensive analysis of how people are engaging with your content, whether it’s for each tweet separately or on your profile as a whole. You can get daily, weekly, and monthly statistics. It’s also free, unlike other analytics tools you might come across. Just go to: https://analytics.twitter.com.
A5: Twitter has an awesome Analytics feature.
You can measure Twitter engagement from the analytics on each post, or within the analytics.
Twitter will tell you how many people engaged with your posts and what your engagement rate is.#TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/7huQErhA2r— Sarah Clarke (@sclarkeOville) May 5, 2022
But they’re so many other tools that give you similar analytics, as Pavel pointed out. He mentioned Sprout Social and Hootsuite—both of which are fairly popular among social media managers.
A5: I use Twitter analytics the most. You can also use @sproutsocial, @hootsuite, or any social media analytics tool. #TwitterSmarter
— Pavel Stepanov (@pavelStepanov77) May 5, 2022
Carla also told us how she uses the Twitter Studio analytics dashboard, which offers similar statistics to the default analytics, with some additional data on how your media elements are performing. Not everyone has access to Media Studio, however, and if you’d like to know more about using the Media Studio, have a look at this page from Twitter’s help documentation. https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/media-studio
A5: I actually use the Twitter Studio Analytics dashboard to see. Then I look at likes, video views, comments and shares. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/kfL1wOgTua
— Carlarjenkins (@carlarjenkins) May 5, 2022
Our guest suggested that having steady engagement across all your content is more sustainable than having one massively successful tweet. As for what makes a good engagement rate, it depends on your industry and business reach, but anything between 1% and 5% is really good, with anything higher meaning you are crushing it!
A6: I would rather have consistent engagement across all of my Tweets, but having a viral Tweet, now that is just SO fun & exciting!
I like to try to average out my engagement rate..anywhere between 1% and 5% is generally good, and higher = WINNING 🥳#TwitterSmarter— Sarah Clarke (@sclarkeOville) May 5, 2022
Madalyn echoed Sarah’s opinions. Going viral is exciting and gives you immense exposure immediately. But know that it’s also short-lived. If your content goes viral, that’s great. However, don’t stress about making every piece of content go viral. Instead, focus on building up a community that’s genuinely excited about the content you share.
A6: Going viral is always exciting, but a lot of times that engagement is short-lived. People who interact with a viral tweet don’t always follow you or engage with your future content. So, I think it’s better to receive average engagement on all tweets. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/XIug30FRGR
— Madalyn Sklar Digital Marketing since 1996 (@MadalynSklar) May 5, 2022
First off, make sure what you’re posting is interesting and engaging. Then engage with others in your community. If someone’s replied to your content, always respond and continue the conversation. If you come across a piece of content that’s relevant to you and is interesting, respond and initiate a discussion. You can’t expect engagement without engaging yourself first.
A7:
(2/2)
DON’T
🚫Post infrequently or irregularly
🚫Ignore comments
🚫Engage in controversial topicsThe most effective strategy is to engage with others.
More engagement always leads to more engagement 😀
Oh and don’t forget Twitter Chats they are amazing!#TwitterSmarter— Sarah Clarke (@sclarkeOville) May 5, 2022
As for don’ts, it’s fairly simple: don’t be sporadic, don’t ignore replies, mentions, and discussions, and be overly aggressive on controversial topics.
Alyx also shared some really good advice: don’t jump on trending topics just because they’re trending. Focus on building conversations and building relationships with people and brands that are genuinely relevant to your brand.
A7 DO
Engage with others that are relevant to you/your brand
Be consistent
Be polite, kind, helpful, conversational and transparentDON'T
Be a jerk
Hop on a trending topic without purpose
Mislead or misinform your audience-Alyx#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/jW54pP9YGF
— Charlie & Alyx – Charlie Appel Agency (@ColfaxInsurance) May 5, 2022
Sarah’s favorite is the built-in Twitter analytics. Aside from that, she also uses Tweetdeck and Sendible Analytics. Google Analytics is an industry favorite as well—especially to track who’s clicked through from Twitter and how they’ve navigated through your website.
A8: I really like the Analytics Tool provided by Twitter
I also use Tweetdeck and @Sendible Analytics.
Google Analytics is another great tool to see how much traffic is being sent to your website from Twitter. #TwitterSmarter— Sarah Clarke (@sclarkeOville) May 5, 2022
Our community members voted for Agorapulse, If This Then That (ITTT), eclincher, Later, and Brand24.
Well folks, that’s all from me this week. Thanks a lot for reading through and for more great insights from our chat with Sarah, have a look at this Twitter Moment that Joana put together for us. If you think this summary is pretty good, you’ll love the real-time chat. Join us every Thursday at 1pm ET on #TwitterSmarter. 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—marketing stuff so I can pay the bills; haiku and short stories so I feel wholesome. A social media enthusiast, I hang out with the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and am always happy to take on writing gigs.
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