Saturday, February 6, 2016

7 Easy and Free Ways to Boost Your Reach on Twitter

Writing a great tweet is, well, great, but it doesn't mean that tweet will be read. Even if you have thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of followers, your tweets might fall on deaf ears.


Why is this? For one thing, Twitter doesn't use an algorithm to determine who sees what tweet. Everything is piled into users' timelines in real time. This means that if your tweet is sent when no one is around to see it, no one will see it. This is different from networks like Facebook, which use algorithms based on people's profiles, past interactions and networks to show content (they hope) is relevant to them, even if that content was posted while they were offline.


So in order to get your tweets in front of eyeballs, you have to be strategic with your timing, content and overall strategy.


Here are seven easy ways you can boost your Twitter reach:


1. Time it right


A big chunk of your Twitter reach will come down to whether you tweeted at the right time. The right time will be different for every brand, though, since "right" in this case means "when your audience is online." So in order to maximize your reach, examine how well past tweets performed and schedule future tweets for the best performing times of day. Continue to refine your timing as you learn more about when your audience is online.


2. Repeat yourself


Hello there! Hi! Why, hello! Hey, how's it going! Greetings!


Repeating yourself might seem like it would annoy your followers, but really, all you're doing is getting your tweet in front of a different audience at a different time. But just like the example above, make sure you change up the wording of your tweets, otherwise you'll appear spammy. Repeating tweets is a perfect way to experiment to find out the best times to tweet, so pay attention to which ones get the most response.


3. Ask for help


Do you have Twitter pals? Why not ask them for help promoting your tweets?


Sometimes a simple message asking for a retweet or engagement is enough to prompt a friend into doing a small favor. And if they are influencers - those with larger, more engaged followings - a single retweet from them could go a long way in increasing your exposure.


4. Use keywords and hashtags


If you use industry standard terminology, trending hashtags and common keywords in your tweets, they will be more likely to show up in searches. This will allow your tweet to be seen not just by your followers and maybe a handful of their followers, but by a much larger and diverse group using Twitter search.


5. Be topical


Jumping on a trending topic can go a long way in increasing your reach - but only if it's done right. Since trending topics are those that are currently seeing a large volume of tweets, you could put your tweet in front of a huge audience. However, you will also be competing with a glut of other tweets, so your had been not only be very relevant to the topic at hand, but also unique, compelling and engaging.


6. Tag often


By including usernames and tagging users in the photos you tweet, you will alert them and hopefully encourage them to interact in some way. If they retweet your tweet, for instance, it will be seen by their followers, who could potentially retweet it themselves, spreading your tweet to hundreds of users who would not have seen it otherwise.


7. Add visuals


Last but not least, don't forget to include visuals in your tweets whenever possible. A tweet that contains an image or video will appear larger in users' timelines, and they will be more likely to engage with it and share it with their own network.


Do you have any tips for easily increasing the reach of your tweets? Share them below!


Growth image via Shutterstock




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