Image from Madrageek
Is it me or is there never enough time in the day?
Some days (or weeks if I’m to be honest), I feel like I just don’t have time to effectively engage with my Twitter followers. At the same time, there’s always a nagging thought in the back of my mind telling me I need to [be huge on Twitter].
My solution?
Look for quick ways to @mention my followers.
If you’re lucky it’ll become a conversation kick-starter. If not, there’s a good chance you’ll at least receive a thanks in return. And that’s always better than having an empty @mentions tab gathering cobwebs.
So here are my top Twitter tips to triple your Twitter mentions.
These hashtags are used to recommend Twitter users you find valuable to your followers.
Have you been the recipient of a #ff mention?
Doesn’t it just make you feel warm and fuzzy? Probably not. But it should at least make you feel good being recognised as a worthy user for your followers to recommend.
If you’re short on time, simply glance over the engagements you’ve this week. Pick the users who you’ve found most interesting/valuable and recommend them like so.
#FollowFriday @socialmotus @supercaldy @ Val_Ce1
— Shane Atkins(@ShaneAtkinsBiz) August 31, 2012
You can also use #FF, an acronym for Follow Fridays, or #Follow if you want to recommend users on days other than Friday. Whichever suits you best. I prefer #FF so I can leave room for users to reply with a thanks and still be able to fit all the contents of my original tweet in with my username. Or even better, add a short comment to make the tweet more valuable.
Happy Monday All! & make sure you #follow these guys! @socialmotus @dreamgrow @sunsetsunrise1 @jvanrijn @parker80 @paulbobnak @thesocialchef — Stephanie Fischbach (@Pay_Per_Visit) September 10, 2012
Use the tweet characters to describe something specific and amazing about the people whose tweets you value the most. For example, if you’ve spent the week throwing @mention love at authors (including the Twitter handle of authors of the articles you’ve shared on your Twitter account), you could tweet:
#FF @missrogue @socialmediadiy @samhosenkamp for writing the best articles I’ve read this week (and I’ve read a lot!). — SocialMotus (@socialmotus) September 13, 2012
Advanced tip: If you have time, send different tweets for each Twitter user you’re recommending.
An extra 5 minutes is all it takes to show your followers why that particular user is worthy of following and sets it apart from all the other mentions. More importantly, the time you dedicated to this won’t go unnoticed by the user you’re recommending.
They’ll be much more inclined to retweet and follow you.
Here are the steps according to the brilliant @dayneshuda n his article on Follow Friday success:
“1) Use the entire 120 or so characters to describe something specific and amazing about the people whose tweets you value the most. For my handle (@dayneshuda) I can get away with leaving 15 characters available.
2) Include #ff
3) Include a Website (preferably the actual URL vs. a shortened version…for branding) 
This doesn’t have to be an incredibly time consuming task.
Unless you’ve manually changed the settings, by default you receive email notifications from Twitter. Don’t delete these emails, have a quick look at their name, photo and bio.
Is there anything you can quickly think of to @mention them? If you have a little time on your hands, you can quickly view their website to help you figure out what they’re interested in and anything in common you might have.
Here’s one of the first @mentions I ever sent!
Think about how you can you help them or how they might be able to help you. These tweets are more likely to spark conversations and @replys than a simply ‘thanks for following’.
@yourfriendrainy Thanks for the follow. Was interested to know what you mean by organic social media marketer? — SocialMotus (@socialmotus) September 7, 2012
This was a great way for me to increase engagement back in the days when very few people were @mentioning me. Even with my busy schedule, I tried to @mention at least one person a day.
If you don’t have time everyday, you can put all your emails into a special folder, then you can set aside 20-30 minutes a week to go through them.
More recently though I have switched over to using SocialMotus’s New followers feature to engage with users.You may have your own Twitter tool that curates a list of new followers.
With SocialMotus, you simply head over to the engage feature, then ‘New Followers’ dashboard and you’ll find a list of all your new followers.
Hover your mouse over their username to find details information about their Twitter bios, last tweets etc. You can also quickly follow them in return. If you need more information, you can always click on their @username to go to their Twitter page.
It’s easy to hit the retweet button when you find an interesting tweet. But a couple of more seconds of your time can really make a difference. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to add a short comment to personalise the tweet. Is there anything that particularly stood out? A response you can give?
I’d say 5 RT @davegray: If your social business strategy is a wiki and a blog, you are at least three years behind. @ccrummey #sbs2012 — Rachel Happe (@rhappe) September 12, 2012
Rather than tweeting the article title @dallaswillcox tweeted an interesting fact from the article (clearly showing he had read the article). This helped him stand out from the other retweets we received and I ended up retweeting him.
Hashtags: “Tweets with 1 or 2 hashtags had 21% higher engagement than those with more hashtags.”Read more at business2community.com/twitter/6-twit…
— Wording Wizard (@dallaswillcox) September 3, 2012
Even something simple like this tweet below was enough for me to retweet @ImAmandaJulius.
6 Simple Twitter Tips To Explode Your #Twitter Engagement buff.ly/Proyus via @socialmotus — Great tips! #sm
— Mandy Kilinskis (@ImAmandaJulius) September 1, 2012
Everyone loves to be praised for their hard work (even though they may brush compliments off, they’re secretly jumping up and down inside).
When you share an article, often it only @mentions the website you’re sharing it from.
Try “via @”mentioning the author as well. Usually you can find locate their Twitter handle in their profile or through a quick twitter search.
All it takes is a few added seconds and you’ll often get a follow and/or thank you out of it, as well as someone else who becomes aware of your brand. If you’re lucky, it opens up the lines for communication.
In my previous article on How To Find Your Best Time To Increase Twitter Engagement @JulieBurstein was the only one who was lovely enough to credit me with an @mention. Not only did she receive a big thanks and a new follower, she is featured in this article and I plan to let her know once it’s published!
Really helpful post from @sivology: How To Find Your Best Time To Increase #Twitter Engagement po.st/x3T4t6 via @b2community #smm
— Julie Burstein (@JulieBurstein) August 21, 2012
If there’s room you can also leave a quick comment to encourage the author to interact with you. A simple tweet to show your appreciation goes a long way!
These are my Twitter tips for tripling your Twitter mentions at times when conversations don’t come so naturally. As always, perfecting the right technique for your account takes trial and error. Try using a combination of the tips above to see what works best.
Are there any tips you recommend to increase your mentions and spark conversation?
If you enjoyed my article, feel free to throw me some @mention and/or #ff love my way.
Or a simple tweet will do. I’ll take what I can get.
Great article, and thank you for another shout out!
Actually, getting mentioned in #FF does make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
But you make some excellent points. People love to be @mentioned, especially if they are part of a multi-author blog or wrote a guest post. That means that you really went above and beyond to single them out, and that’s very touching. I make sure to always thank people to who do that for me, and it definitely makes me feel more inclined to return the favor.
Glad you liked the article Mandy. Apologies for the delay. I’m not sure why I wasn’t notified of your comment.
ahaha definitely agree. I’m more inclined to retweet them and share their tweets as well. Always great to meet others who feel the same way I do!
- Siv