Do you need 100,000 Twitter followers to be successful? Do you need to have engaging content to be a winner on Twitter? Do you need to increase your social and personal brand currency to help attain your bigger goals?
Most Twitter users consume both the news and other content on the feed. Keep in mind, those that tweet, tweet a lot! The top 10% of tweeters generate 80% of the tweets in the U.S.
Graph Source: Pew Research
Along with executives, marketing leaders, sales executives, and thought leaders, you should be on Twitter. But, you don’t have to jump in and start messaging today. Here are five ways to ease into being successful on Twitter.
5 Twitter Basics All Newbies Need to Know
1. Map your goal to your overarching objective
You cannot determine what your Twitter success looks like until you articulate your purpose. Are you looking to learn? Do you want to become a thought leader and brand amplifier? Are you trying to sell more products or services? Do you need more followers? Or, better message engagement? Or, maybe you just want to follow more relevant contacts? If you understand what you are trying to do, you can determine what you need.
2. Secure more relevant and Twitter followers
More relevant followers enable your message to reach more people. If you reach more people, then you can make an impression with this targeted audience. It helps you to start a conversation. It’s harder to drive earned messaging if you don’t have a critical mass of followers on your channel. Make sure your followers align with your goal. Also, make sure they are not purchased from a Twitter follower broker from another country, either!
3. Follow more relevant people
The more relevant people you follow, the better handle you will have on the information and stories they favor. This Twitter feed observation will help you to share useful information. Good content is always the cure to reach any goal. This listening will help you learn and move your agenda forward.
You cannot determine what your Twitter success looks like until you articulate your purpose.
Gerry Moran
4. Share great Twitter content
People expect great content. Once you have Twitter followers and follow the right group of people, you need to ‘feed the machine’ with great content. You’ll know if you have great content by measuring engagement – retweets, mentions, and favorites. The more, the better. Engaging content will drive new network additions and reduce overall network drops or unfollows.
5. Engage more to improve your social currency
It is impossible to have a 1-1 relationship with more than a few hundred followers. No one on Twitter expects you to have a personal relationship with them. The Twitter platform is not built for this reason. However, you need to engage with your audience regularly and authentically. This interaction creates your social currency, thus increasing your awareness, influence, and sales.
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Do you have an addiction to this approach that makes you successful with Twitter? If so, please comment below. Or, email me directly at gerry@marketingthink.com.
A vanity metric isn’t the best way to measure your Twitter success. Always tie what you do to your business objectives.
NOTE: This blog post was originally published on 5/5/2014 as What Does Twitter Success Look Like and was updated on 2/4/2021.
