Everywhere you look there are courses and training on social media, including Twitter. Every presenter will tell you why their course is different. In this article I’m going to cut through the clutter and tell you clearly my 10 best tips, which I have learned through trial and error in my small business.

1.       Set up a compelling profile and ‘about me’ section. I can’t say what makes the perfect profile or ‘about me’ section but you need to pay attention to it. Some people make the assumption that they’re important enough not to write any profile description, however, I would not suggest this unless you’re actually very famous. Start by writing what it is you do that will interest your readers, such as your related work or hobbies. Tell people what they can expect if they follow you, for example, what you will be posting about regularly. You might like to include keywords here and any relevant hash tags. Finally, you should mention if your have specific expertise or qualifications in your chosen field.

2.       Tweet day and night. I know that sounds daunting but I don’t mean you have to be awake and posting 24/7. After a few weeks of tweeting during the day, on Sydney time, I noticed half of my followers are in the U.S. So, by posting tweets during the night, I have been able to increase the rate of followers, re-tweets and people who favourite my tweets.

3.       Follow people like you. People who share the same interests as you are likely to follow you back. You share the same interests, so it’s more likely they will tweet content that interests you and that you can both engage each other in a Twitter conversation.

4.       Unfollow people who don’t bring anything to the table! You may be surprised to learn that some people follow you to get your attention and unfollow you 48 hours later. You should regularly go through your list of followers and unfollow those who aren’t of any value or aren’t following you. If you follow too many profiles, and very few are following you, it is less likely that anyone new will want to follow you.

5.       Engage your followers in conversation. Posts containing original content are great; however, sometimes it’s more engaging to reply to someone else’s tweet instead of posting an original. To reply, you simply hit the reply button at the bottom of a tweet. The person who posted the original tweet will often be excited that you’ve read it and given them feedback. You will often get a good response if you have written a positive reply.  

6.       Create a hash tag or hitch a ride on someone else’s. You can create your own hash tag by adding # at the start of a word or phrase. Creating a hash tag lets you start your own conversation and makes your post more searchable. Publish your hash tag on your website, in your store, in your podcast and wherever your followers are, so they know to add it to their posts to get in on the conversation. An easier way to get started is to jump in and add someone else’s hash tag to your post. For example; if you want to post about true crime novels you might find a television show or podcast about true crime novels online and find out they already have a hash tag. Add that tag to your relevant post and you’ll instantly be engaging people who are already passionate and talking about true crime novels.

7.       Write posts that interest your followers. I know this sounds so simple; however, human nature is to get up on our soap box sometimes and complain. Don’t do it. My core business is marketing and I have built a steady following based on all things entrepreneurial. I once made the mistake of writing a single post about politics and it lost me a few followers very quickly.  Also, don’t write too many sales pitches. Any more than 1 in 10 is probably too many and will lose you followers.

8.       Post original content. Start a bog or write articles that interest your followers and then tweet a link with a catchy headline each time you post an article. The headline is supposed to be a teaser to make people visit your blog or article. People are tired of seeing the same old articles reposted, so this is your chance to create unique content to keep your followers’ interest.

9.       Write your own engaging headlines. When you find an article or video online and you use the tweet button on the page it creates a default headline for you to post. Don’t use that headline unless you want to bore your followers. Your followers might skim over hundreds of tweets each day and their brain will block out those they’ve seen more than once. Share the content if it’s interesting but I would suggest writing your own engaging headline or post in the tweet. Don’t forget to add a hash tag.

10.   Quotes are better than re-tweets. Re-tweets are great to quickly share something that might interest your fans. Did you know that you can also quote a tweet? This includes the original tweet and allows you to add your own comment. This is a great way to inject some of your personality into a re-tweet.

I have found and tested some great tips from regular social media users and I recommend you do the same. I have also found some techniques, which don’t work for me, that might work for other people. In this article I have provided 10 simple steps that I have found are easy to implement and you can start doing right away. Feel free to follow me. My user name on Twitter is @rise_sbm .