These are the 10 things I wish someone would have
told me when I first started using Twitter:
Start with the right Twitter name
Think before you leap. It could be your full name,
first and last. It could be your company name. Whatever it is, keep it simple.
Make sure it’s easy to spell. Don’t use a series of numbers and other
characters such as a Twitter name like @Me2987632. It needs to be catchy and easy to remember.
I suggest you also need to keep the name as short
as possible while also being unique and descriptive. While Twitter gives you 15
characters, those 15 characters will slice into someone’s 140 character limit
when sending a tweet.
Finally, decide the purpose of the account. Building
your company brand, make it your company name if possible. So in essence, short,
descriptive, unique, easy to spell and easy to remember. It’s not easy. Spend
some time on it. Remember, you can always change your name, but it not
something I would recommend doing.
Find a niche then find 100 good people to follow
One of the main tips given by Twitter users is to
go to a Twitter directory, search by category and find all of the most
“influential” people in that category. I believe it is more important to keep
it simple at first. Think of the one person who influences you most in a
particular niche. See if they are on Twitter. Just a simple Google search will
find these people. The truly influential people will not only have a lot of
followers but only follow a few hundred people back. These few hundred people
are Twitter gold.
Think about it. You’re famous. You don’t have much
time. You’re followed by hundreds of thousands. So if you follow only a couple
of hundred, you make those count. So go to that person’s profile and click on
the link to view their followers. Take a look at their profiles. Think they
look interesting? Follow them.
Along the lines of following, be careful about the
people you choose to follow down the road. You’ll get new followers and the
instinct will be to follow back. First look at their profile. Look at their
recent history. If they interact with others and generally
look interesting, feel free to follow back. It’s important to know at this
stage that if you follow spammers, they will spam your inbox. This is not a
good option.
Create a descriptive bio
Twitter allows 160 characters to describe yourself.
Make them count. Use key words that describe the things you are passionate
about. People will find you in searches based on that description.
Also, if you have a blog, make sure to put it in
the URL portion of your profile. Easy traffic.
Choose a
unique and scaleable profile photo
It could be as easy as a close-up photo of
yourself. Or maybe it’s your company logo. Whatever it is, you’ll want it to be
unique and eye catching. When someone sees it in their feed, they’ll know it’s
you. It should be clear and easy to see when it’s a 60×60 thumbnail. But when
you upload it to Twitter, it should be large and it should be square. When
someone clicks on the small thumbnail, they’ll get a close-up. It should be of
high quality, and square because otherwise the photo you want to
represent you will be cropped and become misshaped.
Whatever you choose, you’ll probably want to stick
with it for a while. You’ll be amazed how people will scan their timeline for
images, not names, for picking out what to read. If you change your photo, you
may actually cut back on eyeballs reading your content.
Find a
popular hashtag in your niche, follow it and use it
People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant
keywords (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them
show more easily in Twitter Search.
Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows
you all other Tweets in that category.
Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet – at the
beginning, middle, or end.
Hashtagged words that become very popular are often
Trending Topics.
Included the hashtag #FF. Users created this as
shorthand for "Follow Friday," a weekly tradition where users
recommend people that others should follow on Twitter. You'll see this on
Fridays. Don't #spam #with #hashtags. Don't over-tag a single Tweet. (Best practices recommend
using no more than 2 hashtags per Tweet.)
Use hashtags only on Tweets relevant to the topic.
So find a hashtag that is important for your niche,
follow it, and use it when appropriate.
Use a desktop
and mobile app
There are several software programs that can be
used such as Hootsuite or TweetDeck. Decide on which program you wish to use.
Ensure you use this app. On your mobile phone
device as it will allow you to keep up to date with your timeline and make
tweets on the go — including photos from your phone which helps you be more
interesting.
While it may seem less necessary to use a desktop
app if you have only one Twitter account, I’d still advise it. Very good for
separating all of your content (replies, direct messages, specific search
terms) and getting alerts. It can also link to other services, like photo
sharing services and a link shortener.
Supplement
your daily tweets with photos, links and video
You want to be more than a person who tweets streams of consciousness. You want to tweet interesting info, and that often comes in
the form of a photo, link or video. Again, this is where a photo sharing and
link shortener tool will come in handy.
Every day, share some links. It could be retweeting
something someone else said or it could be simply finding a great article and
sharing it. But it will make you interesting if you can share valuable info
with others. And also make an effort to share photos when you’re at an
interesting event. Are you at a local fair, has your local community organized
fund raising? Great opportunity to share some photos.
Set a goal
for number of unsolicited replies and retweets per day
When I decide whether or not I’ll follow someone,
one of the characteristics I like to see is whether they interact with their
followers. If all you do is tweet out your personal thoughts, you’re probably
pretty boring. If someone replies to a tweet or retweets something you did, absolutely
respond to them. And while you’re at it, send a direct message personally
thanking the people who follow you. But even more importantly, follow your
timeline closely and find good information to either retweet or start a
conversation.
Get into the habit. If that means setting a goal
every day, do it.
Be brief,
descriptive and articulate
This is an art form. You want to be brief. They say
to try and keep tweets under or around 120 characters so that a follower can
manually retweet the message and add their own voice. If you take up 140
characters all the time, that’s impossible.
But you can’t just focus on brevity, you need to
actually be descriptive and interesting. I know, that’s hard. It takes
practice. But make sure that whatever tweet you’re putting out there has value.
Be articulate. Avoid cursing. Avoid shortening
words. Whatever you do in 120-ish characters, try to follow typical spelling
and grammar rules. It still needs to make sense, and studies have shown that
tweets that are easy to read and don’t butcher the English language are more
likely to be retweeted.
Be active,
but don’t overdo it
Inactive people are boring to follow. So make an
effort to share something interesting every day. It doesn't have to be a lot,
but just share something. Be consistent.
But don’t overdo it. If you follow 50 people, you
might not notice how annoying an extremely active person can be. Once you
follow 500 or more people, you’ll get it. Don’t get into back-and forth
conversations with someone that have no value to others
listening in. Move it to a direct message. Before you tweet anything, ask if it
will have value to those reading it.
There is no right or wrong number of tweets. I
definitely wouldn't suggest anything more than 50 in a day. And you can easily
get away with five to 10. But the number can also be more — or even less —
depending on the value of information you’re sharing.
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