Ten Tips To Develop An Effective Twitter Strategy

When it comes to using Twitter for your website, brand or business you have three options. First, you can do it half-heartedly, which won't work. Second, you can make the right commitment but focus on the wrong strategy (which won't work either). Or you can use the right strategy and commit enough time and energy to making it work. When you do this, Twitter can become a powerful tool. Here are 10 tips to help you develop an effective Twitter strategy:

1. Figure Out Why You're Using Twitter

The first step is to define your objectives for using Twitter. Some common and effective Twitter objectives are to improve your communication with customers, develop leads, and to start conversations with influencers in your sector or industry.
2. Get The Basics Right

You shouldn't start on Twitter if you don't have a clear objective, and you shouldn't continue if you don't have the basics in place. This includes fully completing your Twitter profile, setting up your email notifications so you are not overwhelmed, creating a list of people you want to regularly interact with, and using a platform to schedule your tweets.
3. Get Involved

You need to use Twitter as a reader rather than only as someone trying to promote something or build a brand. When you do this you will start to develop strategies that are effective. You can use this knowledge to iterate and build your community. 
4. Remember The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule dictates that 80 percent of your Tweets should have no promotional or self-serving message. Instead they should offer help, information or entertainment to your audience. The other 20 percent can contain promotional content.
5. Write Good Tweets

Writing good tweets involves being creative and having a personality. You should also try to create a sense of urgency and use a call to action whenever it is appropriate - if you want your followers to do something, ask them to do it. Even though Twitter is mostly a text-based platform, it doesn’t hurt to post images and videos sometimes too.  
6. Use Hashtags

Hashtags make your tweets visible to Twitter users who are not your followers. Plus it helps to organically start conversations around whatever topic you’re tweeting about. For example, let’s say that you’re sharing an article about your new online business. After the link, you can use the hashtag, #business to get the eyeballs of other business owners who are also searching that hashtag. But try not to always be so serious and professional. Twitter is a fun, playful platform. You’ll build more engagement when you can tweet about business - but not in a “business as usual” type of way. So make sure to add a silly hashtag too. 
7. Create And Share Lists

Making contact and reaching out to other Twitter users is one of the ways you can improve the number of followers on your account. But how do you do that? One way is to create lists. When you add someone to a list, make the list public so that you’re helping your Twitter followers find this new person (who is worthy of being on your important Twitter list). This helps build trust. And trust is everything when you’re interacting online.  
8. Use The Twitter Favorite And Retweet Tools Properly

Select the tweets you favorite carefully, and do it manually rather than letting software do it in bulk. And when you retweet consider copying the text of the tweet into a new tweet rather than hitting the retweet button. Just make sure you include RT (for retweet) or MT (for modified tweet) plus the original user's Twitter handle. When you do it this way it’s easier for the owner of the other Twitter account to interact with you.
9. Maintain Your List Of Follows

Keep the list of people you follow as clean as possible. Try to follow people rather than brands, and unfollow inactive accounts. You should also consider unfollowing accounts that don't follow you back. A number of online tools do this for you, some of which include Commun.it and Sprout Social. 
10. Commit The Right Time

Committing time and effort into your Twitter strategy is crucial if you want to see results. But if you do it right, the rewards are endless. You can start new friendships, gain new business, build your community and maybe even laugh out loud during the process. If you’re being yourself, and constantly learning more, Twitter will reward you and your business.