twitter bird paper toy 300x225 4 Easy Ways to Engage Your Followers On TwitterWe have heard many times how important it is to engage your followers on Twitter, especially if you are trying to build community as a blogger. If you are new to Twitter, this sounds like gibberish! Even for some of us more seasoned Tweeple it can be hard to find time to engage with those who are following us. I have three simple ways you can engage your followers in just a few minutes a day.

You need a list first

Before we get into the simple ways to engage, the first thing you need to do is make a list. How to do this varies depending on if you are using the website or a third party client.

  • On the website:
    You will see “Lists” on the right hand side of your homepage. In that area there is a “new list” link. When you click on that, it gives you a window to name your list, add a description and set it to public or private. You can then add people to the list by going to your following or followers page. I would use the followers list for this particular list (note: it can NOT be called following).
  • There are so many clients out there, I won’t go into any of them for the sake of brevity.

Once you have created this list, you can use it to filter down to just those you added. You can click on the link to this list on the website or added it to your client as a separate column. Now on to the easy stuff!

Engage!

  1. @replies
    When you see that a follower has tweeted an great blog post, quote, etc send them an @reply to compliment them on that tweet. You can tell them how it helped you out, made you smile…something with VALUE. I’d not send a simple “great tweet”. That’s about as engaging as getting a blog comment that says only “great post”!
  2. RT
    When a follower tweets something that you believe other followers might find interesting, retweet it! Its pretty exciting to see retweets when they first start coming. If you can add a comment or reaction to the retweet, do so. This will let the original poster know you actually read what they put up.
  3. Follow Friday
    A lot of people say Follow Friday is dying, but it seems to simply be evolving. This is where each Friday, you send a list of people you recommend others follow. However, lets do this is a better way! Give a comment on each one if you are doing this via Twitter and don’t forget to add #FF, #followfriday or any other variation of this hash tag.
    If you blog, you could also do your recommendations in a blog post and then tweet it with the hash tags. This will give you plenty of room to extol each persons greatness.  Its also good for a list post, which we all know tend to be popular with readers.
  4. Thank them.
    The easiest way to let your followers know you value them is when you catch them retweeting something from you or adding you to their Follow Friday lists. Thank them. Seriously, Direct Message or @reply with a simple thank you. It will make an impression on them. Just be consistent with this. You can make it a once a week round up, or do several at a time a few times a day. No matter how you chose to thank them, they will remember you (in a good way).

There you have it–four very simple ways to engage with your readers that you can do in a 10 or 15 minute time span. You may even want to set aside a few 15 minute time blocks to work these points so its not so overwhelming.

What do you do to engage your Twitter followers? Is there an awesome way you find works every time? Share your tips in the comments icon smile 4 Easy Ways to Engage Your Followers On Twitter

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