Steps To Take When Your Twitter Engagement Is Dropping?

One of the worst things that can happen in the world of social media management is evaluating your analytics and realizing your social media engagement is dropping. This doesn’t usually happen all in a day, but when you’ve noticed day after day and week after week that your numbers have slowly (or drastically) been dropping, it raises a red flag. 

That moment when you realize that your Twitter engagement is dropping.

Regardless of whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube…a drop in social media engagement is a tough pill to swallow.

Quick Tip: If you are still trying to grow your Twitter following and increase engagement, be sure to check out this post with tips on activities that can help you build a Twitter audience and increase those likes, retweets, and comments.

Even if you aren’t a social media professional a drop in engagement can be pretty frustrating, especially if you’ve spent countless hours trying to understand the various platforms, and their algorithm changes.

Twitter has been a particularly challenging social network, when it comes to engagement. There are so many users, so many different types of content, and the algorithm behind what is displayed and what isn’t is muddy at best.

Of course having the option to turn off the Twitter algorithm for your own news feed is a plus, but the question still remains – Why is my Twitter engagement dropping? and more importantly What can I do to fix drops in Twitter engagement?

What Steps Can I Take To Get My Twitter Engagement Back?

While we would all love cookie-cutter, easy to implement quick fixes to these questions, the truth of the matter is improving your visibility, reach and overall engagement on Twitter is going to take some time work.

But find comfort in knowing that not only have you come to the right place to find options for increasing your Twitter engagement, but I’ve done my best to make them easy to understand and implement.

Just take your time and make sure you are following all the steps below.

Step 1 – Understand The Differences Between Twitter Impressions And Engagement

Before diving into HOW to increase your Twitter numbers, you need to first understand the difference between two of the most important aspects of using Twitter in the first place. Impressions and engagement. These two can often be confusing, but one of them holds the key to how your Twitter account is truly impacted.

Simply put, impressions deal with the number of times your tweet appears to a user. This can be in the form of results from a search or the fact that your post is displayed directly in their timeline because they follow you.

Engagements, on the other hand, reflect the number of times users actually interacts with tweets you’ve posted. It’s the number of times users have liked your tweet, retweeted it, and even clicked a link that was included in your tweet. It’s even the number of times your tweet was shared to another platform like Instagram or Facebook.

Engaging tweets aren’t just read. They are liked, retweeted, replied to, and shared to other platforms.

Basically, it’s any action that is above and beyond just reading your tweet. It goes without saying that engagements are what you want if you want to grow your Twitter audience and expand your reach. 

Engagements are evidence that not only are people seeing what you’re tweeting, but they find them interesting enough that inspire them to either learn more by clicking a link or share them with a bigger Twitter audience. 

So, when it comes to growing your Twitter audience, posting = good. Posting engaging content = better.

Step 2 – Understand What Causes Twitter Engagement To Drop

There are actually quite a few reasons why your Twitter engagement could be dropping, so take a look at the following list and see if any of them might be impacting your account and then we’ll move on to fixes.

You’re not posting as much.

Fewer posts means less content is getting out there for people to engage with in the first place. This kind of goes without saying, but you have to actually put stuff out there for people to engage with in order for Twitter to recognize your account as valuable.

The key, though, is to figure out how to post a level without over-saturating your audience. Which brings up the next potential cause of drops in Twitter engagement.

You’re posting too much.

This is where the numbers game really kicks in.

Posting too much will kick Twitter’s basic sorting algorithm in gear and it will start hiding your posts – and rightfully so. How many times have you scrolled and got tired of seeing back-to-back tweets from the same account? It can get pretty irritating and can actually cause your audience to stop following you.

Finding the sweet spot in volume and timing of Twitter status updates can be tough…but an effective tool.  Studies show that posting close to 15 times per day is the point at which you are over-saturating your audience, so that is your ceiling.

No…I’m not encouraging you to tweet 14 times a day. Bear with me and we’ll talk about what you can experiment with later in the post.

Your content is no longer favored.

Honestly, sometimes your content just gets…bad. In other words, while you might find your content fascinating, your users aren’t interested in what you’re posting about. The thing that a lot of people don’t understand about Twitter is that your posts aren’t about you. They are about your audience.

If your audience doesn’t like your content, they won’t stick around.

Your content should be created with the express intent of helping your audience in some way. Whether it’s helping them understand a complex topic, helping them make a buying decision, or helping them connect with another Twitter user, or even just helping them get through the day with a funny meme…the goal of the platform should be to help your audience.

If you aren’t focused on helping your audience, then your audience will move on. They will find another resource. They will stop engaging with you and they might abandon your account altogether.

YOU aren’t engaging.

Are you the type to answer back when someone responds to one of your tweets? There’s a natural reciprocation that is established when you’re seen as a person who actually engages back with other users. Whether it’s through a tweet, retweet, follow, or the like… if you’re not engaging, that could be hurting your own numbers.

The Twitter algorithm can easily identify accounts that don’t engage by sharing other people’s content or liking posts. If you are simply pushing content and not engaging, then Twitter only sees you as half-engaged in the platform.

You have no rhythm.

No…I don’t mean you can’t dance. I mean you actually have no posting cadence.

As with any social media platform, there’s usually a learning curve and it can take some time to find your groove. If you haven’t found your Twitter flow, this could be hindering your engagement big time. Twitter, as a whole, is inconsistent so giving your audience a little consistency can help increase their engagement. 

No…you don’t have to be robotic or fully automate your social media status updates, but you can find a posting rhythm that aligns with your audience.

Okay, those are some of the activities that can hurt your Twitter engagement. Now let’s talk about how to get your engagement numbers up, and keep them up.

What to Do When Your Twitter Engagement is Dropping

Now that you understand what drives Twitter engagement, here are some practical (but powerful) tips for reversing your declining engagement.

NOTE: I do want to remind you that not all Twitter accounts are created equal. You’ll want to keep your business, niche, and audience in mind as you test out these strategies. Overall, you’re looking for what works best for you and gets you to your next engagement goal.

Make sure you’re engaging with others.

Give and you shall received.

Back to what I mentioned earlier, you don’t want to put yourself in the position to always be receiving engagement without giving anything back. Sometimes in order to get, you have to give.

Create content your audience will want to engage with, and then start a conversation about it.

In this case, start setting aside a few minutes per day to interact with others by liking, responding to, and retweeting your users’ content. If you’re not already following them, hit that Follow button!

This shows you actually value them and chances are they’ll want to return the favor.

Mention other Twitter users to increase engagement.

Sharing a blog post that you loved? Be sure to mention the author.

Baked apple cinnamon scones that turned out perfectly because you used a killer recipe? Mention the recipe creator.

Disagree with a political pundit based on what you just watched them say on your favorite new show? Mention them in your comment (always remember to be nice).

By mentioning others in your Twitter posts, you are inviting them to engage. You are encouraging them to interact. This is what Twitter wants. This should be what you want if you want to see your engagement numbers grow and your Twitter audience increase.

Even if you don’t agree 100% with the other Twitter user, mention them and politely invite them to engage.

Learn the what, when, and how of posting.

In terms of what to post, you may want to do a little experimenting. As I mentioned earlier, if you content doesn’t align with your audience needs, then engagement is going to drop.

So experiment. Try some new things. See whether humor works better than purely educational content. Test whether your audience like photos more than just links to content. See if videos work.

Put your tweets on rotation with sharing links, images, GIFs, memes, videos and conversation starters and pay attention to the ones performing the best. The ones with the highest engagement are strong indicators of what your audience likes most from you. There are studies that show that images are getting an upwards of 300%+ percent more engagement.

The key is that you have to put the work in. You have to understand your audience and what they want.

What to post on Twitter is equally important as When to post on Twitter.

Understanding when to post is linked to learning your audience’s most active hours. Just about every social media platform can show you your peak hours, so pay attention to that data. It varies for everyone but studies show 12:00 – 3:00 during the weekdays is a pretty hot time frame for engagements.

So, post at lunchtime and see if it works. If it doesn’t, try breakfast time and see if your audience is more engaged when they are drinking their coffee. Again, do the work and understand your audience.

Twitter already gives you a limited amount of characters for posting, but consider keeping your tweets somewhere between 80 and 110 characters. In the limited space your are provide, you need to understand how to communicate effectively. Is it with an image? Is it with a video? Is it with an introduction and a link to a longer post?

It all depends on what your audience wants and they will tell you with increased engagement.

Pro Tip: Like I said earlier, engagement is all about inviting others to view your content and participate in the dialog. Two of the best tools to do this are mentioning user tags and hashtags. Mentioning others by retweeting their content or adding their user handle creates an opportunity for Twitter engagement. Adding hashtags helps expand your content to new audiences. Both can be very effective in increasing Twitter engagement AND growing your audience.

Understand that value is the key.

You’ve heard the saying content is king. While the saying is cute…it’s only half-true.

Content is king? Crappy content isn’t the king of anything and will actually hurt your social media engagement.

When it comes to Twitter engagement and growth, value is the most critical component of your content.

If you’re looking to grow the engagement of your account – which most people do – then make sure you position yourself to always offer value to your audience.

Your posts should always seek to inform, inspire, persuade, or educate. Find ways to understand what problems your audience is seeking to solve and then help them find solutions. It could be fashion advice, amazing recipes, political evaluation and education, or a host of other topics.

The key is to align what interests you with what it meaningful to your audience.

Is that bikini pic really helping your audience in any way? It might if you can help them understand where you bought it, how much it cost, and why you do or don’t like it. Think about it…a simple photo from the beach can actually provide meaning to your audience.

Can a simple bikini pic actually provide value to your Twitter audience? Of course it can, if you find a way to make it meaningful.

Also, be sure to use straight forward language that isn’t complicated to understand. And while you’re providing value, don’t hesitate to ask for responses, retweets, likes, and follows. It never hurts to ask!

The idea is to provide value however you see fit and expect something in return.

Realize that words matter.

Piggybacking off the last tip, pay attention to your language. You’re already working with a short number of characters, so it only makes sense to use words that have some power behind them.

Words that are shown to draw a reader’s attention are:

• Best
• Fast
• How to
• Improve
• Complete
• Immediately
• Exclusive

There are a few hundred words that are said to get the attention of readers, so they are sure to get the attention of your Twitter audience, as well.

If words matter and pictures are worth a thousand words…then images matter, too.

Unless your data specifically shows that your audience doesn’t want images, gifs, and videos you should be using them in your status updates. It’s a simple as that.

Create images that align with your content and share them. Infographics are a great way to communicate a large volume of information in a concise manner, so consider boiling complex topics down into more digestible images.

Rinse and repeat.

Once you see your content taking off, re-purpose and recycle it.

There’s no need to always get caught up in always creating something new. Instead, break it down and add a link from your site or YouTube video. Unless someone is keeping complete tabs on everything you’re posting, you’re recycled content will seem like new to those who have never seen it before.

Pro Tip: A 50/50 blend of brand new and recycled content can be a great place to start. See how your audience reacts and adjust from there.

Putting it all together to increase your Twitter engagement.

No one wants to put time into using a platform only to see little to no results. Keep your goals in mind and approach reaching them with small actionable steps.

The strategies above are sure to help your Twitter engagement, so take your time and try them all until you find what works best for you. 

Be sure to let us know what worked for you as well as other strategies you’ve tried that aren’t mentioned.

Cheers!

— Sean

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