Think of Twitter as one big conversation. When you're talking to a friend face-to-face, you try not to do all the talking, right? You listen, too. So when you're on Twitter, you don't want to just talk, you want to listen, too! To do this, you can't just send out tweets, you have to actively engage with your followers and other Twitter users. If you're trying to gain more followers, try these tips.
Follow Others
Following someone else is a great way to let them know that you're on Twitter, too. Start with people you know and companies that are relevant to your pharmacy, like the NCPA (@commpharmacy) and RxWiki affiliates (@RxWiki, @dailyrx, and @dailyrx_news). It's also a good idea to follow any of your on-staff pharmacists that have Twitter accounts or other colleagues. This doesn't mean that you should follow everyone you see on Twitter. You want to keep your follower/following ratio to where you have more followers than you are following.
Engage!
To "mention" someone, incorporate their Twitter handle into your tweet. When you mention someone, they will get a notification directing them to your tweet. Just make sure that what you are tweeting has value to the person or brand you're tweeting to. Also note, it's not Twitter-acceptable to tweet to several people asking them to follow you.
An easy way to engage with your followers is by favoriting and retweeting other user's tweets. You don't have to favorite every tweet you see but if you do like it, let them know! Just click the star and the user will receive a notification letting them know that you liked it. When you retweet something, it's a great way to let the other user know that you found their content valuable enough to share with their followers. For more info on retweeting and favoriting, check out our other solutions.
Participate in a Twitter Chat
This is one of the quickest and easiest way to gain followers. A Twitter chat is one big conversation, identified by a specific hashtag. Many chats are weekly "gatherings" that have a specific topic each week. By participating in a chat, you engage with others, find more relevant people to follow (who will hopefully follow back) and demonstrate your expertise in the industry. Some good chats to join are #RxChat (put on by @RxWiki and @PharmacyPodcast every Wednesday at 12:30pm EST) and #ReThinkPharmacy (put on by @CommPharmacy every Tuesday at 12:30 EST).
Post Great Content!
While this may be easier said than done, we do have a few tips for you to keep in mind. For starters, post things your patients and followers want to see and will want to share with their followers. Tweet about things that are up and coming in the health/pharmacy industry, like a new vaccine or procedure for a disease. But keep in mind, you want to keep a positive spin on your tweets. You can also add images to your tweets to illustrate them or add a humorous spin (check out @dailyrx and @dailyrx_news for some examples if that's your style). Also consider tweeting in-store coupons - because who doesn't love a good deal?
While Twitter isn't always the easiest social media platform to understand, once you get the hang of it, it's a lot of fun! The best way to learn is by just using it and by scrolling through your timeline and seeing what other people are doing. Happy tweeting!