[PODCAST] 20 Retweet Tips to Kill Your Social Outreach

20 Retweet Tips to Kill Your Social Outreach

If you’ve been struggling to build a following using Twitter, then these tips are for you. This podcast will help you learn how to build your following and create natural engagement. So, take a seat, grab yourself some coffee, and listen to these retweet tips that will “kill” your social outreach. In a good way.

Tip # 1 – Pithy

Yes, 140 characters is short already. Yet the highest performing tweets are almost always on the short side. And for good reason. First off, it’s easy to let others add your account when retweeting. The shorter your tweet, the more it’s likely to get passed around, and the more likely you are to get credit for it when it does.

Take a look at your Twitter stream, the short tweets are cool water on your eyes after reading the 140 character monsters that usually swallow your stream.

Tip # 2 – Frequent

Above all things, similar to blogging, it is hard to build trust if you only show up in other people’s stream once every few weeks. Getting into a regular pattern of Tweeting helped me build my startups’ Twitter account in a short period of time, and without all the headache.

This doesn’t need to require a lot of time. Every morning I’d spend 10 minutes reading the news and drop in 5-10 Tweets into my Buffer about great articles I found. This gives me a regular Twitter stream and provides my followers with great content throughout the whole day.

Tip # 3 – Timely

With Summify, a hot cup of coffee/tea, and just ten minutes once a day you can digest the most popular posts from among your networks. Make a list of tweets with your thoughts/comments as you read your Summify, them send them all to Buffer and they will automatically be staggered and posted for your followers during times they are most likely to read them.

Tip # 4 – Special

Most blog posts are unique. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with tweets. Oftentimes, the headlines of posts are Tweeted hundreds of times. Give each of your Tweets original copy, and you can immediately upgrade the quality of your Tweets.

It shows your followers that you are fully engaged with the content, and that you have actually thought about this more than just hitting the retweet button. In case you think the headline is perfect already, try adding a short comment of opinion. This still shows more of a personal endorsement.

Tip # 5 – Balanced

Spicing up your Tweets with things other than links can help tremendously. Strike a healthy balance between tweets with links and those without. If you find a great post title posed as a question, try tweeting it without the link. Of course, maybe you can Tweet the post with a different title later so you can still give credit to the author.

This can greatly help to create engagement and kick-off discussion around your Twitter account. Simply using the word “you” and a question mark will also naturally trigger engagement.

Bonus Tip – #hashtagged

Hashtags, when used well, can improve the quality of your tweets, the engagement of your followers, and your overall ability to be found amid all the noise. Of course there is the danger of putting them to overuse, so thinking carefully about each hashtag is key. Research beforehand, in order to show you are knowledgeable about the niche you are Tweeting.

Some well-monitored hashtags are #Twitter, #SocialMedia, or #Startups. Find Twitterchats you enjoy. If the post fits, you can add the hashtag of the chat in to get a further reach of your Tweets.

Bonus Tip #2 – CC’d

This is a rather unexpected tip, but potent if used well. And to reference it correctly, it was @HnShah a great entrepreneur who pointed me towards it. He mentioned in a video that you can try out to “cc” someone who is well known for the topic you are tweeting about.

For more learning on this subject matter check out these courses:

• Passive Candidate Outreach Via Social Media
• Live Advanced Twitter Webinar

Authors

Shally Steckerl

One of the pioneers of the sourcing discipline, Shally is the Founder and former President of The Sourcing Institute, where he has helped numerous F500 and mid-market organizations train and develop their talent sourcing capabilities for nearly 20 years. When it comes to innovative approaches to candidate search, Shally literally wrote the book. He is the author of the industry-standard textbook “The Talent Sourcing and Recruitment Handbook” as well as “The Sourcing Method: Tactics to Find Unfindable Talent.”