As a software engineer, having a social media strategy on Twitter is particularly important to remain competitive in the ever-changing industry. With its combination of powerful analytics and networking capabilities, Twitter is a great platform to gain visibility and establish your professional presence.
A robust social media presence is essential for success as a software engineer. In order to keep up, many software engineers are turning to social media networks as a way to not only stay current but also showcase their skills and experience. Being tech famous on Twitter is no exception — and having an effective strategy is the key to standing out and making your mark in the software engineering industry.
It can be difficult to make sense of all the noise, but it doesn't have to be! With the right plan in place, you can reach a wider audience and ultimately become tech famous on Twitter.
Make your mark in the Tweetosphere!
1. Check Profile Optimization
Optimize your Twitter profile. If you want your audience to know what you have to offer, you need to make it unique with customized content your audience will recognize.
There are a number of facets of your Twitter account that you can actually optimize to attract more followers, including:
- Handle: This is your username, like @samanthabretous, for example. Ideally, your handle should be your name that you want to be recognized with, so it’s easy to search for and find you on Twitter.
- Header: Your header is your Twitter profile’s background image. You can display a unique image related to your niche or personality. Taglines may also be in this area.
- Profile Picture: Your Twitter profile picture is what users will see whenever you interact on Twitter. This image sits above your Twitter bio and can be your own logo, initials, or even a picture of yourself.
- Bio: A Twitter bio includes a summary of an introduction about yourself and what you do. Although Twitter has a 160-character limit, you’ll need to keep this summary short, engaging, and include all the important details about what you do.
- Website URL: Under your bio is a place to enter your website’s URL. This provides users with a direct link to your site.
- Birthday (optional): In the same palace as your URL, you can enter your birthday. This allows your audience to learn about your business on a more personal level.
2. Try a best time to post on Twitter
Compared to other social media platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, Twitter moves much faster. As a result, you’ll need to post regularly to keep your posts top of mind.
Software engineers are likely to visit Twitter in the afternoon, when they are taking breaks and checking the social media for updates and entertainment. This is your opportunity to make the most of this high foot traffic on Twitter. With all social media platforms, engagement is key in order to grow. Twitter will expand the reach of a post when it sees a lot of users engaging with it. Retweets, comments, and like all play a huge part. When you're active on Twitter, try posting at the best possible time of the day, bearing in mind that a number of individuals might be using it at that time.
So can you guess when I am going to log into Twitter as a software engineer? Here’s a study to support this strategy: Best Time to Post on Social Media for the Highest Engagement (optinmonster.com)
3. How often do you post on Twitter?
Now that you know when you should you be posting on Twitter. The next question is how often should you post per day?
It is recommended to post 1-2 times per day. There are many accounts that post several times every day. So, if you have the time to tweet a lot, I am not going to stop you.
Also remember that, however frequently you’re posting, the best practice is to cover interesting topics that would catch your audiences’ attention. Some of these topics are:
- Tweets to promote your services - ex. Blog promotion, Hosting services, Product launches
- Share personal stories - ex. How your day at work went, Perks of working in tech and Life as a Black Software engineer
- Retweet from other influencers - ex. Book recommendations, Blog created by other people and Sharing other podcasts you like
- Coding tips that motivate and encourage- ex. How to be more productive, How to fix bugs and solving other field-related problems
- Create Entertaining content - ex. This could be a tech humor or even a media containing tech facts and trivia.
4. Use the right Twitter hashtags
Tweets with hashtags get twice as much engagement as those without. With that in mind, including hashtags in your Twitter marketing strategy is a surefire way to expand your reach.
- Use hashtags unique to your field/industry so your followers can find you more easily.
- Use Twitter Analytics to find which hashtags perform the best and use them in future campaigns.
- Avoid overusing hashtags. Too many can look spammy so stick to 1 or 2 hashtags to ensure the best engagement.
Once again — But don’t abuse hashtag! I love using data to build software and to understand how my social media analytics. Even though the data shows hashtags are great, visually people don’t like seeing them everywhere. Twitter search engine has improved greatly over the years, so don’t worry if all your post don’t have hashtags.
5. Post more visual content
Tweets with images were found to be better than text messages, while videos were 6 times more likely to receive engagement than tweets without them.
Videos and images provide an eye-catching and engaging aspect to your content that can make people pause as they scroll their feeds. Moreover, you can use visual content to promote products relevant to your audience and user-generated content to increase your brand’s authenticity.
Road to Tech Fame on Twitter
There you have it.
Being tech famous on Twitter as a software engineer is an attainable goal. It requires an active presence, and a willingness to engage with people in your industry. With the right strategy and perseverance, anyone with a passion for coding can make their mark in the tweetosphere.
Yet out of all of these strategies the number one tip is to put yourself out there.
You must also be willing to be vulnerable and share your progress and failures with the world. As you gain more followers, create valuable content, and interact with other experts, you can unlock the potential of Twitter for career growth. Finally, don't forget to keep track of your successes and failures so that you can adjust your strategy if necessary.
Hopefully, my blog has helped you understand how to create an effective Twitter marketing strategy and locate some superb Twitter marketing tips for your brand.
Still thinking about what to post? Here’s 5 topics you can use to start posting on Twitter. Click here to download for free