Engaging Tweets Examples [10 Tweets To Learn From]

When marketers and content creators start thinking about strategy, Twitter is talked about less than other social media platforms.

Source: Statista

93% of marketers use Facebook and 78% use Instagram, yet only 48% use Twitter.

I don’t understand why.

With the exception of Tiktok, it’s easier to go viral on Twitter than it is on other platforms. Further, a few viral Tweets can lead to a RAPID increase in followers.

Take it from digital writing expert, and founder of Ship30for30, Dickie Bush, who writes, “I went from 900 to 125,000 (Twitter) followers in 12 months. But 90% of that growth came from 9 threads - which on their own generated 20,000,000 views.”

What’s the key to going viral on Twitter? High engagement.

How do you write a Tweet that users will engage with?

Let’s look at 10 examples and see what works.

Live Tweeting Current Events

This is the oldest Tweet on the list, but it’s an all time great. During the 2013 super bowl, there was a power outage. In the midst of the blackout, Oreo tweeted “you can still dunk in the dark.”

Activity on Twitter always increases throughout major events such as the Super bowl, Grammy’s, Oscar’s, etc. These events provide a great opportunity to say something witty capitalize on the traction.

In the Tweet above, Twitter itself uses this strategy. On October 4th, earlier this year, Instagram, Facebook, and What’s App all crashed. Knowing social media users could not use these platforms and had likely migrated onto Twitter, the platform’s account tweeted, “hello literally everyone.” The Tweet generated an astounding 3.3M likes.

Replying To Tweets That Already Have Momentum

More often than not, when Twitter users come across a Tweet they enjoy, they’ll open it and scroll through the replies to the Tweet. As seen in the Tweet above, adding something of value to the conversation started by a viral Tweet is a great way to take advantage of all the eyeballs, capture some of the momentum, and generate engagement.

The Tweet above uses this same technique. TMZ reports that Kanye buys a house across from Kim Kardashian. The user replies to the post with a picture of the character, Joe, who stalks women on the TV show, You. It’s relevant to the Tweet that’s already generating buzz and actually ended up generating 20x more retweets (20k vs. 1k).

Sharing Something Relatable

Sharing something relatable is a great way to generate engagement. Naturally, people want to retweet or like these tweets to let their friends know that they also “do the thing,” which in this case happens to be shaking a cup of iced coffee. It’s best if the action is something people don’t typically think about, or know that others also do. Those conditions lead to Tweets that generate a feeling of connection, which in turn, leads to high engagement.

A couple years ago, in 2019, there was an entire hashtag trend that focused on these types of Tweets. Users shared lies their parents told them growing up. Again, these Tweets have high engagement because there’s a, “OH MY GOSH, ME TOO!!” moment that makes people want to interact with the Tweet.

Stories Detailing The Path To Success (With Lessons)

People love to hear about someone who took a risk and had it pay off. These types of stories typically do well on Twitter. If you can pass on a few insights you pick up along the way, even better.

Again, the story is accompanied by lessons. People aren’t reading the story because they want to hear about how great you, or your business is. They’re reading it because they want to learn from both the mistakes you made and the things you did right along the way. This Tweet does a great job of succinctly qualifying the author as an expert and promising the reader value.

Contradicting The Status Quo

Tweets that claim the opposite of what people accept as truth tend to receive high engagement. They’re shocking, which drives conversation and interaction. We think of working hard for a long time as disciplined, but Julian Shapiro calls this lazy. Naturally, people are going to have something to say about this.

I don't treat my calendar as a blank surface to pile events onto. I think of it as a ledger of how many times I've traded my time away.

— Julian Shapiro (@Julian) October 24, 2021

A full calendar typically signals someone who is hardworking, respectable, high status, etc., but here, Julian points out that a full calendar means you don’t have any time for yourself. It gets people thinking and sparks engagement.

Engagement On Twitter

Twitter is a conversational platform. It’s not uncommon for the replies to a Tweet to perform better than the original Tweet themselves.

The guidelines for writing an engaging Tweet are extremely similar to the guidelines for sparking an interesting conversation.

Say something thought-provoking, and chances are engagement will follow. Julian Shapiro (author of the two tweets above), listed the following framework for Tweets that tend to explode:

1) Counter-intuitive - never knew the world worked that way

2) Counter-narrative - not how I was told the world worked

3) Shock - That's crazy

4) Elegant explanation - couldn't have said it better

5) Make someone feel seen - exactly how I feel

There it is! All the information you need to start drafting engaging content. Happy Tweeting!