What are a few easy steps you can take to maximize your reach on Twitter?

Twitter is all about communicating information to your fans and followers in a simple and efficient way. The issue, however, is that with hundreds of millions of tweets being sent every day, it is easy for your message to get lost in the noise. So what can you do to maximize your reach on Twitter?

There are three key issues that factor into reaching as broad an audience as possible. First, when are your sending your tweets? Second, are you incorporating all the necessary components in your tweets to increase reach? And third, are you keeping it short and sweet?

Best Time to Share Information

Studies have shown that engagement increases by over 15% when tweets are sent out on weekends. Conversely, tweets sent on Wednesday and Thursday tend to have lower engagement rates.

With regards to the time of day, keep it to the day time (of your target audience, that is). Tweets sent between 8a.m. and 7p.m. see 30% more engagement than those sent outside of those hours.

Tweet Features

What can you add to your tweets to maximize your reach on Twitter?

First, engagement increases by roughly 20% when a hashtag is used. But don’t bombard your followers with hashtags – that looks spammy. Keep it to one or two hashtags per tweet, and customize them so you can follow your topic. (For example, #SocialMedia is going to be used widely, whereas #t2SocialMedia is easily identifiable as a customized hashtag campaign.)

If you really want to reach more people, then simply ask!  Asking for a retweet increases retweet rates twelve-fold! Now, don’t abuse the request. Eventually, people will get tired of that kind of promotional content. However, asking for a retweet is certainly a viable option when it comes to increasing your Twitter reach.

What’s more, you are going to want to specifically ask for a retweet and not simply RT. While using the term ‘RT’ tends to increase your retweet rate ten-fold, specifically using the term ‘retweet’ increases that rate to 23-fold.

Short and Sweet

Are you creating tweets that fit nicely into that 140-character space? Well, if you thought 140 characters was short, this might not be what you want to hear: keep your tweets to roughly 100 characters.

Engagement increases by over 15% when your tweets are 100 characters or below. First, this is easily absorbed and appears less cluttered. Second, it allows for retweets accompanied by a comment. Third, and it might sound crazy, but people are moving so fast through the content online, that 140 characters might be too long!

These are a few quick tips to help you maximize your reach on Twitter. Try them and let us know how they work out! Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!