Boosting Your Twitter Visibility

Here is another in a series of great blogs by Smirk intern Allie Carrick about how to become a social media star.

Effective social media strategy is proactive. The Twitterverse is vast, but there are ways to target those that actually benefit from your message. Here are a few simple tips to reach more users on Twitter:

Trending topics and Hashtags

The hashtag was created to categorize and filter messages (Ex: #socialmedia). Both hashtags and keywords appear in a Twitter search. Your followers are your primary audience, but by paying attention to trending topics you can easily find an audience interested in subjects relevant to you. Use appropriate hashtags in your tweets. You won’t gain real followers by putting #soulsurfer in a tweet about lawn care. Here are some sites that compile trending Twitter topics and hashtags:

• TweetStats: This site is still in a beta version, but it lists the current top trends and keywords on Twitter. Also, ranks the top 10 and updates them as they change in real-time.
• What the Trend: Sorts Trending topics by country and town. Shows the Twitter user that started the trend and allows people to explain the topic, retweet it, see users that have mentioned it or see news related to it.
• Hashtags.org: Site lists popular hashtags in different categories like business, celebrities and social change. There’s a search option.

Be a conversationalist

The simplest way to draw attention to your profile is to reply to others. Spend some time engaging one user at a time and your followers will increase. Don’t be afraid to tweet at people who are discussing topics relevant to you. People can only follow you when they know you exist. Search for keywords related to your organization and reply to people who tweet in frustration or asking for help. Replying when you have productive info will demonstrate that you’re personable and knowledgeable. Also, it will incite curiosity about your organization.

Twitter Lists

In the Twitter search bar, search for the city or state you are based in. Follow users that are tweeting around you. Search for users tweeting about your field. When you go their profile, choose to add them to a list. This way you’re aware of what’s going on around you and of opportunities to establish connections with someone new.

Promote others

By promoting others, you encourage them to do the same for you. Twitter’s Follow Friday is a great way to expose your followers to new connections. Most list out people their followers should check out. I like to pick one or two people and use the remaining characters to tell people why they’re so great. Also, try to retweet significant posts from your followers. Everybody wins when we support each other.