Twitter is a fast-moving social network that can connect you with thousands of potential customers, or people who could help spread your message. However, engagement, which is vital to your success on Twitter, doesn’t occur naturally. You have to put yourself out there, especially if you’re new to the site. Use these three tips to help build your connections and encourage engagement with others.

1. Share Other People’s Content and Tag Them

First, you want to share content that relates to your own business or industry created by other people or businesses. This can be in the form of a retweet, using social sharing icons, or simply copying and pasting a link. Then, look up the twitter handle of the content creator or business. Include that Twitter handle in your tweet, and give the author/business props for creating great content. Here’s an example in which we shared an article from Dasheroo and included the author’s Twitter handle as well:

When sharing your own content, also try including the Twitter handles of your internal content creators (but ask for permission first).

Authors or businesses of the content you’ve shared appreciate this extra effort. They may repay the favor and share your content as well, getting it in front of a whole new audience. This is also a great starting point to building a relationship with someone who could have a positive impact on your business.

2. Thank People When They Share Your Content

If someone shares or retweets your content, reply back and thank them for doing so.

In our example above, we shared a blog post written by Dasheroo. Here, Dasheroo takes our advice and thanks us back for sharing their content. This then results in a dialogue and engagement.

3. Comment on Other People/Business’s Tweets

Like yourself, everyone else is also seeking out engagement on Twitter. Lead by example and get the ball rolling by replying, asking questions, or commenting on posts you find interesting or helpful. This often piques interest, or results in a dialogue.

In the example below, Social Media Examiner posted an article on Twitter that we found handy. Instead of just retweeting the content, we commented, thanked Michael Stelzner, owner of Social Media Examiner, and he replied. Voila! Engagement.

These are just three of our favorite and easy engagement-generating Twitter tips. Have any others to add to our list? Share in the comments or reply back to us on Twitter.

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