01 Aug Drive Triple Digit Increases in Engagement Using this Twitter Tactic
First of all, thank you all for the love you showed my last article “The One Twitter Trick You Should be Using but Aren’t.” I hope to see Twitter cards in my feed in the coming weeks! As I was thinking about engagement on Twitter I realized that I had another trick that I had always done, but never looked at in a strategic formulaic way. I then dove into some metrics and saw that with very little effort it drove a triple digit increase in Twitter engagement for my clients. Across verticals.
So what have I been selfishly keeping to myself that I am now going to share with the world? Get ready to kick yourself because of how stupidly simple it is… Recycle content. About a year ago, I began testing by sending out the same tweets multiple times a day. The brands that adopted the tactic immediately saw huge increases in retweets, favorites, and replies. It’s not enough to just repeat your tweets though, you have to do it strategically.
Content Selection
Not every tweet is created equal. Therefore, not every tweet should be duplicated. You’ll want to select concise, visually stimulating tweets as candidates for reposting. You’ll also want to make sure that the content you select is not time sensitive. A good morning tweet at Noon on the East coast just makes your brand look out of touch. In addition to timeliness, you’ll want to make sure that the tweets you’re selecting have a call to action or strong brand statement. This allows you to spread your desired message farther.
Measurement
I rely heavily on data to optimize content. When duplicating content, it can be difficult to determine where traffic is coming from and if each individual tweet is performing well beyond metrics like retweets and favorites. A good way to dive deeper into measurement is to develop link tracking. This can be done using Google Analytics or Omniture tagging. Link creation documents are easy to create and allow unique shortened links to be created. You’ll want to test several posting times to determine how far you should spread your duplicate tweets apart and at what time of day you should tweet them.
Fan Fatigue
I am sure you’re probably saying, “But John, aren’t my followers going to call me out and get sick of my content?” In short, nope. The velocity of the Twitter feed means you’re likely lucky to reach 10% of your audience with any given tweet. Increasing content cadence with duplicate content on Twitter just gives followers a greater likelihood of discovering content they are interested in. Think of it as setting multiple traps to catch a mouse.
Tips and Tricks
A few tips to keep you from banging you head against the wall like I have.
- Shorten links individually using a link tracking creator to avoid Twitter identifying them as accidental duplicates.
- Leave at least 15 minutes in between duplicate tweets
- Respond to replies within the thread of the tweet they responded to not independently. It can get very confusing without context.
- Test how many times you send out the same tweet to see what the threshold for duplication is. It is totally reasonable to send the same tweet out three times a day.
