Twitter has been experiencing a media bonanza that has driven an extra 15 million visitors to the site in just six months. Now three years new, agencies and government officials are looking to get on Twitter and converse with their constituents. The only problem is, there's no one to explain the rules of the game and the subtleties of building up a following. We've outlined our top tips for enhancing the tweeting experience and maximize the return on the time investment below.

10.  Have an easy link to your Twitter page.

It's easier to amass Twitter followers than newsletter followers, so advertise your Twitter presence on your site and make the ad obvious. If no one knows you're on Twitter, no one will be following you there.

9.  Tweet and ReTweet.

Retweeting happens when you see an interested Tweet and simply repost it with credit to the author where possible. If you immerse your gov feed in the huge web of sharing and communicating, it will feel less a contrived extension of your press shop and more like an actual voice, which appeals to people. Retweeting demonstrates you are truly participating in the dialogue of the community, and are simply trying to self-promote. Plus, others appreciate it when you retweet their posts, and they are likely to return the favor in the future. This will drive more traffic to your site and engage a braoder audience over time.

8.  Don’t Atrophy

Nobody wants to see lots of mundane posts, but if it’s a really slow day day or week for your agency, it's OK to add something humorous or anecdotal on just to keep people engaged. Retweeting is also a good way to keep your status as an interesting news provider as well.

7.  The bio

Unless you are the White House or a famous politician—or even if you are—an informative bio with links is a plus for easy investigation by potential followers. Explain who you are (or what you represent), and maybe include a one sentence version what your role in gov is. Make sure it looks legitimate, but it doesn’t have to be too stiff—the whole point of Twitter is to connect with people.

6.  Direct replies work.

If you have a lot of followers it will be impossible to reply to every question or concern, but if you make an effort to make as many direct replies as possible, people will take notice. Direct outreach is always good PR, even if the reason for doing so is to quell an irate citizen… 

5.  Keep it clean.

Some twitter feeds are nearly impossible to read with the jumble of shorthand words, hyperlinks, hash marks, and sentence fragments. To avoid this unpleasant experience find a uniform format for your tweets. This is easy for a blog or a news outlet, as their posts are almost always rehashed headlines followed by a link to the article. For agencies or offices, taking on a similar format is a good idea, making your page look cleaner and more readable—the format doesn’t have to be 100 percent adhered to, but if most of the posts look similar, the effect is there. To maximize your character count, use tweetburner or some other service to shorten long links, making room for more words that actually say something meaningful.

4.  Don't clog your arteries.

The key to the “follow and ye shall be followed” mantra is to network with content providers that are relevant to you and your audience. If, in an effort to extend its reach, the Office of Management and Budget followed the three most followed accounts, it would be following Ashton Kutcher, Ellen Degeneres, and Britney Spears. One can’t write off the possibility that any of those three are closet political wonks, but OMB would still be better off following news, politics, and gov feeds, like this one. Remember when following, that every person you follow has a feed that will show up on your main page. If you're serious about using Twitter to get information, following too many people will quickly clog your feed and you'll find yourself unable to keep pace. You may wish to grow and thin your audience as time elapses, allowing you to control the relevancy of your online connections.

3.  It's good to be a follower.

One of the biggest differences between Twitter and other social media sites is that you don’t have to be approved by another on the site in order for interaction to take place—you can follow anyone you want, and anyone can follow you. But the idea of having ‘friends’ online lingers, and it is an unwritten culture that if you follow someone, they will follow you in return. There are always exceptions to this rule, and not everyone follows it. So don't expect Oprah to start following you and your five folloers. Stay in your league (as determined by your number of followers) and build up to an equal playing field. 

2.  Avoid double posting.

People hate that, it’s annoying.

People hate that, it’s annoying.

1.  Less is more.

Yes, Facebook and Twitter have broken down the barriers that formerly kept boring details from reaching a wide audience—but don’t exploit this new ability. Chances are the banalities of your agency’s daily schedule and award ceremonies don’t garner the same interest as the banalities of, say, the life of Shaq. If most of your Tweets are mundane, not only will you attract less followers, but when you do publish an important tweet it’s likely to be swallowed up by all of the useless ones, and go unread.

You don't have to Tweet every five minutes to be useful and interesting to someone else. If you do tweet, make your tweets count. No one cares you had cornflakes for breakfast. But they do care if those Cornflakes were made in China and contaminated with poison. Limit the number of tweets a day to something reasonable so you don't annoy anyone and to information that people find interesting. If you don't know what that is, monitor your web traffic from your tweets and see which generate the most interests.

Get our Newsletter!
Click here to sign up and stay informed