As a Twitter Marketing Strategist, I spend time every day sharing and engaging with my community on Twitter. It’s my top social site for connecting with people – entrepreneurs, small business owners, big brands, and everything in between. I have discovered a variety of tactics that work. I call it my #TwitterSmarter “Secret Sauce.” These methods helped me grow my Twitter to 70K followers and interactions with thousands of people every week!
Try these strategies and watch your Twitter explode!
Be Consistent
The one thing I found that separates the high profile users on Twitter from everyone else is being consistent. If you want to stand out, get on Twitter every day and connect. Engage with your community. This strategy works well for all your social sites but especially on Twitter. By taking the time to tweet at least a few times each day, you will increase your visibility dramatically. Even if you spend 10-15 minutes a day. Doing so regularly each day holds more weight than spending an hour once a week.
Tweet every day – minimum 5x/day
One of the best ways to attract attention on Twitter is tweeting every day. You need to be seen and heard. I recommend spreading tweets throughout the day. The best way to do this is with Buffer, Hootsuite and/or SocialJukebox. But keep in mind, this is for your generic and evergreen posts, articles and information. Your engagement and connections with people should never be scheduled. I recommend you tweet those in real-time.
The benefit of tweeting every day is to not only show your visibility but to show you are connected to people. That attracts attention. And attention is the fuel you need to propel forward with more likes, retweets and followers. It becomes a cycle.
Tweet to be visible. Visibility gets you attention. Attention moves you forward. 
click to tweet
Go through notifications daily and respond
You should view your “Notifications” as the jackpot of Twitter. Think about this: every notification is a tweet from someone who mentions you by name. They are pointing you out. It may be a reply to something you tweeted, a tweet they liked, or a shout out to their followers. Regardless of why they tweeted your name, you have struck gold here because you have their undivided attention. It’s an opportunity to continue the chat in Twitter or move it to email or some other platform. I always stress the importance of checking your notifications every day and then spend time replying to everyone.
Your notifications page will also have a list of your new Twitter followers. Is it necessary to respond to them all? No, but I do recommend going through the list, read their bios and decide if you want to follow them back. And for those that really grab your attention, peruse through their tweets and retweet, like and/or reply to them. This is all part of the magic sauce.
Use Twitter lists
It is important to be organized on Twitter, especially as you grow your following. Twitter lists can help tremendously. It is a curated group of Twitter accounts. You create your own lists that are either public or private. You can also subscribe to public lists that other people create. Your list is a timeline showing you a stream of tweets from the accounts on the list. For example: I have a public list called #TwitterSmarter Podcast. It’s a curated list of people I interviewed for my podcast. I simply created the list and added Twitter profiles to it. You can create a list to monitor your competition, connect with industry leaders, stay on top of trends, create list of speakers at an event and so much more.
You can find Twitter Lists in the pull-down menu at top right side of your page in a browser. It’s also available on the mobile app. Click here to learn more about using lists.
Hear my interview with Brittany Berger from Mention.com as we discuss leveraging Twitter lists. And my interview with Mark Schaefer on being organized with Twitter lists.
Participate in Twitter chats
Twitter chats are the best way to expand your network and connect with like-minded people. It’s where you’ll find your tribe. And where topics resonate with you. You can easily get plugged into a discussion with people you want to build a rapport with. When you attend chats regularly, you become an integral part of a community. You’ll be amazed at the new connections you make. Commit to a few hours a week and you’ll feel like Norm from Cheers, where everyone knows your name! I recommend using TweetChat. It’s a free website that makes it easy to participate in a live chat.
Click here for my list of the best social media and marketing chats.
Check out my #TwitterSmarter chat every Thursday at 1pm ET and #SocialROI chat every Tuesday at 5pm ET.
Engage. Engage. Engage.
The most important thing you can do on Twitter is engage. Think of it as one big happy community that connects you with millions of people. I like to view Twitter as a giant cocktail party. It’s so easy to interact with people. Your Twitter followers will be the most receptive since you’ve already connected with them, so start there. You can easily seek out new friends just by surfing on Twitter.
Listening is the smartest thing you can do. Your mission is to look for and join in conversations. Don’t be afraid to jump into live Twitter chats and join in the discussion. Hit reply (the bubble icon) and chat away. Like a tweet (tap the heart icon) or even retweet it (tap the square arrow button). It shows you care. It makes you likeable. Before long you will forge new, meaningful relationships with people, businesses and even big brands. These tactics will elevate your personal brand and help your business flourish.
The Formula for Twitter Success
If you follow these six tactics on Twitter, you’ll unlock the recipe for success. Think of Twitter as a marathon not a sprint. It takes time to build. In no time it will snowball.
- Be consistent.
- Tweet every day.
- Check and respond to your notifications.
- Use Twitter lists.
- Participate in chats.
- Engage. Engage. Engage.
I hope you found my #TwitterSmarter Secret Sauce helpful.
Be sure to tweet me @MadalynSklar and share your results with me.
Listen and subscribe to my #TwitterSmarter podcast for more helpful tips and advice. And join me on the #TwitterSmarter chat every Thursday at 1pm ET.
If you need one-on-one assistance, I’m available for coaching/consulting. Click here for details.