One of my Twitter objectives is to get @messages and RTs.
@messages are when someone mentions you in a tweet so their followers see your username and may choose to follow you too. Increasing your followers is a good thing, because then more people have the opportunity to read your tweets, find out what you do, and maybe eventually book you or recommend you for some work.
RTs are retweets, when you tweet something to your network of followers and one of them passes it on to their own network of followers, therefore increasing your reach. It’s an example of how incredibly viral Twitter can be, and a sign that you’re tweeting content of value.
The odd thing about Twitter is that results don’t always come from the tweets you expect.
For example, I recently started tweeting an occasional ‘word of the day’. This isn’t an entirely random action. As a writer, it’s a good fit with my brand identity and was partly for my own amusement. I don’t tweet definitions, just words that I like for whatever reason.
However, I was surprised by the response.
I often receive @messages from people asking what the word means, or sharing a story that the word reminds them of.
One day, I even received an email from a PR company that follows me on Twitter, saying ‘Where was yesterday’s word? We were looking forward to it!’
I now make sure I tweet a new word every day (scheduling them on days when I’m out of the office). The PR company, and others, RT them, and my follower numbers have increased.
What can you tweet regularly, that fits with your brand identity and will trigger such a response?
