Easy Twitter Tips to improve your Twitter / X account in 2021

I have been on Twitter for 12 years now (as of April 21st, 2020) and over the past 9 years, I have come to love the platform. Over the past 12 months however, Twitter has had a lot of issues and problems. The main thing is that it is no longer called Twitter, as Elon Musk, the new owner, has renamed it (a very boring) X. For me,​ Twitter, or X, is a source of news, opinion, and interesting articles as well as the odd competition which I have won. If you are looking to grow your Twitter / X audience and influence you are going to have to invest some time on Twitter. These are some Twitter Tips to help in growing your following and presence in 2021. For the purpose of this article, I am going to reference Twitter / X during this intermediate period as the brand transitions.

3. Your Twitter / X Bio

Your Twitter Bio should detail what your account is about. Tell people the benefits of following you. It should also outline the types of interest and content people will expect if they follow you. For example, you could tell people what interests you or what you tweet about. If you look at my Queen account @shanesqueensite it has the following biog…

Shane’s Queen Site run by Shane McDonald. Keyboardist & MD for Queen Tribute Band ‘Celebrating Queen’. Tweeting all about the band #Queen. YouTube Channel ⬇️. 

Feel free to use hashtags like I did or even other accounts. e.g. “I am an​ ​ account manager for @mentioncompanyhere and I like #Travel”. or “I love Twitter. Follow my account for freebies and great Twitter Tips and advice.”

If you have a website don’t forget to include that. This is one of the key Twitter Tips – so if you do one thing, it’s update your Bio.

 4. Daily Twitter / X Activity – Key Twitter Tip !

Each day, as as much as you can, you should log on to Twitter and do some sort of activity. This is my personal must do from this Twitter Tips list.

This activity may include;

– Tweeting something even if it is just a comment on the weather. This keeps your feed flowing with recent content but try to make it interesting and if you can include a photo of the weather in your region (following on from this example) if puts your tweet in context..
– Retweeting others tweets. If you find something interesting retweet it. Perhaps ‘Quote Tweet’ it and add your own personal comment
– Responding to any replies or notifications ; always thank people for replies and always respond to your engagements
– Thanking some of your recent followers for retweets or likes.
– If you find the ​content you like the press the ‘Like’ button on others tweets or perhaps leave a comment
– You should follow any Twitter accounts which you are interested in. Normally I follow about 5-10 accounts per day. If I find a Twitter list of Food Bloggers or Travel Writers I may end up following 50 or 60 accounts.

One warning on things like ‘The weather today is …” if you over use that sort of tweet, just for the sake of having content, then you run the risk of people becoming bored and perhaps unfollowing or muting you. Always try to keep your content relevant and of interesting

5. Tag or include others in your tweets

Every now and again you should mention other accounts using the @account method.
For example “Hi @mrshanemcdonald many thanks for liking my tweet. I am delighted with the Twitter Tips post on your website” would send me a nice mention and I may then follow you as a result. This can be especially good when responding to Brands, e.g. complementing a brand on a good job or a great product you recently used. They may retweet your tweet to thousands thus exploding your reach.

6. Use Hashtags

Use hashtags, as tweets with one or two hashtags have about 20% more engagement. You can use systems like Hashtagify to find the best hashtags for your tweets before you tweet.

7. Use images and GIFs

Use images and gifs in your tweets. Apparently tweets with images and relevant gifs normally get over 80% more engagement than tweets without images

8. Use Lists

Lists are exactly that, it’s a section a Twitter where you can list all the accounts which share a similar topic or relationship with you, e.g. You could have a list of Digital Marketing experts or just place all your friends and contacts in a ‘My Friends’ list. Twitter Lists are free and easy to setup. The upshot is you don’t need to filter through all of Twitter just to check in on a certain list – plus others can subscribe to your list.

9. Use a Tweet Scheduler

If you think you might be away from Twitter for a while or you might be busy this week, add a few tweets to a scheduler such as Buffer, Hootesuite, Crowdfire or Agorapulse. This can ensure you have some content being dripfed onto Twitter and your account can continue to show in feeds.

10. Occasionally do an Twitter account Cleanup

Every so often, do a clean up of your Twitter Account and looking at who you follow, remove dead Twitter accounts, Twitterbots, people who don’t provide any value to you following them. Every so often I clear down the accounts I am following based on their content. 

How do I know if I am doing well on Twitter / X?

If you follow some of the Twitter Tips above, you should see some growth over the next while. There are a few pointers and KPIs to show your success in growing your Twitter account.

1. The first is your follower’s growth if it is increasing fast this is one indicator that you are doing well.
2. Secondly is your mention notifications, if you are getting a lot of @mentions, either responses or direct mentions, this shows a well-engaged audience.
3. Check your Twitter Analytics to see your performance month on month
4. You can also look at how much traffic is being driven to your website via Google Analytics. Strong Twitter performance would lead to good traffic to your website.
5. If you are enjoying Twitter and you are Tweeting daily – In a way, this is a success of its own as many people start on Twitter and just give up!

Klout is Dead, Long live the King

In 2018, Klout had it’s last score update. There are a few different cites which have digitally passed-away over the years.

You may also be interested to know how long people spend online and on social media – check out this report regarding the Average Time on Social Media.

I hope you enjoyed these Twitter Tips for 2021 and this is what works for me. Twitter changes all the time which is why I updated this list of Twitter Tips for 2021 as it was last updated in 2018 and again in 2020.
If you have any other interesting Twitter Tips or hacks please feel free to leave a comment.

Follow Me on Twitter / X 

My Twitter account is @mrshanemcdonald so if you like this list of Twitter Tips post why not follow and say hi!

A full list of Social Media Tools

If you are looking for a great list of Social Media Tools please visit this great link – https://bulk.ly/social-media-tools/
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A New Social Media / Video Tool Review – Coming soon

I will soon be reviewing a tool called VEED. As you all know I run a YouTube Channel and the hardest part of my day is generating subtitles. I often omit them and this is not good for my audience and the accessibility of my videos.

Of course, we all know that incorporating video content into your Twitter strategy is an excellent way to engage with your audience and attract more followers. Platforms like VEED can help enhance your videos with useful features. The add subtitles to video tool can ensure that your messages reach a wider audience, including those who watch videos without sound. Likewise, the auto subtitle generator can save you time by automatically adding accurate captions to your videos. Finally, the video caption generator lets you customize and position captions to ensure optimum readability and impact.

I will place a link to the VEED review/article in the coming weeks on this page.