Twitter is an effective social media platform to help build and bolster the brand of startup founders and business executives. While it may not have as many users as Facebook or Instagram, Twitter is hands-down the best social network for sharing opinions and news with a large group of people. In short, it offers the best opportunity find, follow and engage with influencers, customers, bloggers, reporters and more.

Unless you’re already famous, building a significant following on Twitter isn’t easy. The thing is, getting people to pay attention to your content isn’t just about tweeting interesting content, although that certainly plays a major role. It’s also a question of learning how to get other people’s attention, either by interacting with them or sharing their content — preferably both.

What should you be tweeting about?

Post about topics that are relevant to your brand. That doesn’t mean you should you shy away from posting content relating to other interests or events, especially those in your own life.

While your primary offering to the Twittersphere is indeed your knowledge and expertise, people actually enjoy experts they can relate to on some kind of personal level. So don’t be shy about sharing a more personal side — your favorite coffee or tea, a view of you networking at an industry conference, even a favorite food truck when you’re traveling on business. Just be sure that those personal moments convey a coherent identity and personality that aligns with your corporate brand.

Caveat: No sense in showing a trip to a tattoo parlor if you happen to be a CEO of a staid financial services company handling retirement accounts for seniors. But if you’re a founder of a BMX accessories company in Boulder selling mostly to a younger customer base, go for it!

What should your content look like?

There are three distinct categories of Twitter content (Production, Curation & Aggregation), and your Twitter content should feature a mix of the three. That said, always strive to put a personal touch on as many of your tweets as possible. Retweeting another person’s content will often be noticed, appreciated and sometimes reciprocated. For the most part, however, that serves their brand, not your own. The ultimate goal is to have others do the same for your original posts. Hence the need to share valuable content in the form of insightful opinions about trending topics.

About Lauren Usrey: Lauren is a student at the University of Texas at Austin and a marketing communications intern at Swyft. She supports clients with social media, blogging and tech PR activities. Swyft is a PR and tech marketing agency rooted in Austin for tech companies all over seeking rapid, sustained growth. Some of the services provided include content marketing, social media strategy and ad buys, email marketing, and media relations.