Let me be honest. When I tweet, it typically disappears into a void. But Twitter remains my favourite platform, because generally, the more active I am there, the more I grow and the more engagement I get. It’s a numbers game.

I can’t say the same for Instagram or Facebook.

Twitter is my main source of traffic for this blog, all thanks to the writing community 😊.

This is how I have gotten engagement on Twitter (sorry, I meant X😏):

1) Hosting writer’s lifts

This is where you encourage people to share links they want to promote. You can like and retweet them and therefore amplify their exposure.

People who are really successful at this read and engage with the respondents. As a result, they gain followers, maybe out of gratitude, curiosity or by virtue of their sheer awesomeness. But not many hosts do now. I’m guessing a lot of these posts are scheduled and the host is not online at the time of posting.

As a host I used to retweet (oops, I meant to say “repost”) my favourite ones. I don’t host these anymore as the traction has decreased too much for me.

2) Participating in other people’s writer’s lifts.

This is where you respond to writer’s lifts with the link you want to promote.

There’s no law against promoting several links but don’t be greedy. You will come across as spammy.

I participate in several writer’s lifts a day…In fact, pretty much all those I can see when I’m online.

It seems that the same people gather round and engage in them so I’m making a goal to add variety to my tweets. If I’m promoting the same link for a whole week, I introduce it differently. I have 3 different introductions at the very least. This way, it’s less boring to those who always see me. I sometimes also add a picture or a GIF to my posts.

Caveat: At the time of writing this, I have been using writerslifts for 6 months. I’ve noticed engagement is going down. Maybe it’s because the space is getting saturated and writer’s lifts are becoming perfunctory, or because the algorithm doesn’t like them anymore. I hope it’s not on its way out, but I’m prepared to pivot.

Edit: in 2024, I confirm that engagement has gone down and this strategy has not aged well. I have been shadowbanned for sharing the same message too much. X confused me for a bot. So be careful.

3) Pin for pins.

That’s where you repost someone’s pinned post and in exchange, they repost yours.

I do this less often because it seems that people don’t always return the favour. But it’s still a good string to add to your bow. I will do more of these in the future.

Edit: in 2024 I have but given up on this trend. It doesn’t seem to be popular with the writing community anymore, more for arts and crafts. Let me know if I’m wrong

4) Using popular hashtags.

One I’ve been using every Sunday is #ThingBigSundayWithMarsha. Its aim is to spread positive, inspiring quotes and insights. It gives good exposure as Marsha retweets most tweets to her large audience.

But you have to know the rules: no political or religious content, no plugging.You rely on people to get curious about you and look you up, so buff up that profile of yours, make it interesting.

Edit: in 2024 although traction is not what it used to be, it still has survived the test of time. Engagement through this medium is still higher for me compared to anything else.

5) Answer random questions!

I’m sure you’ve seen these polls and other questions floating around. Love them or hate them, they seem to be very popular in the writing community.

They garner attention, provide exposure to all participants, they can be entertaining, stimulating and you can learn a thing or two.

I can see this trend staying. They encourage connection, discussion, more so than random thoughts sent into the ether. Time will tell if I’m wrong or not.

Edit: in 2024, this trend really is still strong. At last one thing I got right 😆

Although they sometimes feel a bit forced, they can be a way to connect with like-minded people who aren’t likely to unfollow on a whim.

I know I’m not the only one annoyed by the never ending follow-unfollow-refollow dance 😅

It’s about finding your tribe, after all.

It’s always good to be on the lookout for new ways to connect. We do get bored easily nowadays. We crave novelty. As a result, things evolve very quickly. It’s easy to be left behind.

What about you? Any other tactics to share?

Reflect, redefine, rise!

R.