Do brands actually engage on Twitter?

In my conversations with several people recently, the answer seems to be a resounding “not well”. I hear “they are more interested in talking about themselves” a lot.

Even though Social Media Examiner’s 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report states that 88% of marketers want to find out how to best engage with their audience on social media, are they?

Marketers say that one of their top goals for using Twitter is to improve engagement, but surveys still show that increasing brand/product awareness is trumping improving engagement as goals.

Brand/product awareness tends to come in the form of broadcasting or promotion. In fact, eConsultancy recently noted that 25% of top brands still use Twitter for broadcasting rather than engagement. What happens when brands do this is they lose credibility and trust by prospects who might want to do business with them. After all, people want to do business with people who genuinely understand them and want to help them. Therefore, aren’t brands just sabotaging themselves considering another top goal for using Twitter is lead generation?

So, what can brands do to improve their engagement on Twitter?

1.Understand the difference between engagement and broadcasting.

I think of broadcasting on Twitter as throwing darts. You keep throwing darts and you hope that you will hit the bullseye. Broadcasting usually is in the form of self-promotion and it is always one-way communication.

Engagement is a conversation that can be two-way or multi-way. It is not telling someone about your latest product you want them to try.

Conversations are more about listening than speaking. You listen and respond. Your goal should always be to help the other person without expecting anything in return. If you listen and engage, you will know what your audience wants, and be able to craft better posts and create/curate content that more effectively meets their needs. Sometimes we forget that we are communicating with an actual person, not their profile. Remember social media interaction is human-to-human.

Engagement is important because you want to have conversations with people. For people to buy from you, you need to earn peoples’ trust. For people to trust you, they need to believe you (1) genuinely care about them, (2) get where they are coming from and understand their pains and needs, and (3) can help them. This is why relationship building is crucial.

Potential customers is just one segment where engagement is crucial. Just as in the case with prospects, if you want to work with influencers, you need to earn their trust.

This brings me to intent. Intent is very important. If your intent is to help, you will come across as genuine. If your intent is to get, you will come across as self-serving.

Always make it about the other person, take a one-relationship-at-a-time approach and give it your all. There is no instant gratification with relationship building — it is an investment that you must commit to if you want to be perceived as trustworthy and reputable.

2. Shift your Twitter strategy so you (1) listen (2) engage (3) help and then (4) broadcast/promote, in this order.

This is one of my mantras that I recite often.

But, how often is it ok to promote you and your content?

A smart frequency recipe that I like to use is the Rule of Thirds that goes something like this:

• one-third of your posts should be posts you curate from other sources
• one-third of your posts should be engaging with others to build connection and your brand
• one-third of your posts can be related to self-promotion.

A recent Buffer blog post did a wonderful job in discussing self-promotion and different ideas about frequency in social media.

3. Monitor your followers and mentions religiously and respond timely to comments.

Especially in the case of customer service questions and comments, ensure your response time is within four hours. Also, welcome new followers as quickly as you can.

4. Make social listening a very high priority.

Get to know your audience and listen to them with both ears. Realize that your Twitter audience is different from your audience on other social media networks. Guy Kawasaki says he looks for people tweeting his name. He responds to them and even debates with people sometimes.

There are a variety of tools you can use to monitor your brand, like Google Alerts, Talkwalker Alerts, socialmention, HowSociable, and Meltwater’s IceRocket, to name a few.

5. Create content that is relevant, thought-provoking and what your audience wants to see.

You are not going to hit it out of the park every time with your content. Develop a content strategy, create and curate your content, distribute your content, test it through Google Analytics and other means, and refine where necessary.

6. Initiate engagement through asking questions, commenting on your audience’s posts and content, etc.

As you are getting to know your audience, ensure the conversation is not only about business. Find out their likes and dislikes and communicate with them in a genuine, organic way. I can’t tell you the number of people I have met through conversations related to dogs, restaurants, sports, philanthropy and other subjects. Engage and develop a relationship with them. Recognize people who share interesting content through mentioning, re-tweeting or favoriting. Diversify your communications to connect with different segments — just be sure to always stay on brand and on message. And, speaking of communications, make sure you communicate consistently.

7. Implement and use social measurement tools to refine your engagement activities.

Place a greater value on your engagement and reach statistics than likes and follows. Here’s a great list of social measurement tools to get you started. Some of my favorites include Tweriod, SumAll, Swayy, BuzzSumo and Newsle.

Social media is no longer about likes and followers, it’s about engagement.

Those who keep their audience top of mind and deliver content that they want, and those who make it all about the other person by developing genuine and strong relationships with them, will be the ones who win.

What are you doing today to help your engagement tomorrow?