One of the great things about social media is that it’s social: people have conversations, they reciprocate, and they interact. Things you couldn’t do with traditional media.
A favourite social media platform of mine is Twitter, and over the last 9 years, I’ve learned a few tricks to help me improve my Twitter engagement. The key to behind my social interactions on Twitter is my Notifications tab. In fact, I have that open more often than any other tab. It allows me to keep track of every time someone mentions me, retweets me, or comments on something I shared. These actions from others on content I share are what make up the foundation of what I do on Twitter.
Today, I want to share with you 3 steps I take whenever someone retweets me.
1. Thank them
The first thing I do is thank the person for the retweet. I typically don’t thank them for retweeting content I retweeted myself because I don’t find retweeting the most engaging form of interaction, so it doesn’t mean much to me when someone retweets what I retweet.
However, if someone retweets a tweet I crafted, then they find value in something I created (even if it was based on content I curated). And I find that value meaningful, so I say thank you.
2. Retweet them
Next, I visit their profile page and I look for content to retweet. If the person’s profile is filled with just retweets, then I typically ignore them. If they have their own tweets, and they’re topical, I retweet them.
For example, with Hot Pepper Communications, I look for content related to writing and social media. If I can’t find anything, I might look for something related to entrepreneurship or general marketing.
Retweeting seems the right thing to do when someone retweets you
3. Curate them
The final thing I do is curate their content. This goes beyond retweeting tweets they wrote. I look for blog posts they’ve written (also topical), and I curate them into Buffer for sharing at a future time. I make sure to mention their username when I craft my tweet so they are notified of it and so my followers become aware of this person with great content.
So, there are the 3 steps I take to engage with those who retweet me. What steps do you take when someone retweets you. Let me know in the comments below.