Twitter for Dummies – Part 2: how to “get it”
Once you enter into the Twittersphere you will hear a lot about people who “get it” on Twitter and people who don’t. To a certain extent, these are arbitrary, made-up norms that are used to separate the newbies from the veteran users. But, just as you don’t walk into an elevator and face the wall or sit directly next to a stranger in an open movie theater, if you want to join the community you have to play by their rules.
- Interaction, interaction, interaction. It is called a social network for a reason. And nothing will make me stop following you quicker than if all you use it for is to push out your information and you never initiate a conversation. This applies to business accounts as well as personal.
- Do not have a protected account. Twitter is different than Facebook in that it was not designed to be a private profile for only you and your friends. It is meant to be a public stream for people to get insight into your business, personality and daily life.
- Keep it even. Keep the number of people who are following you and the number of people you follow relatively close. If I go to check out a new follower’s page, and I see they are following 500 people, but only have 100 followers, I will assume they don’t know what they’re doing.
- Mix it up. Don’t stick to one kind of tweet. If all I ever get from you is links to health care news, even if it is interesting health care news, eventually I’m going to get bored and tune you out.
- Mix it up (2). Switch between @-replying with someone and sending a DM. People want to know you are interested in forming a connection with them personally. Not just using them to grow your popularity.
- Download a desktop application. If you really want to be successful on Twitter you have to tweet frequently. A desktop application such as TweetDeck and Seesmic help make this more manageable. Mobile applications also help you to keep up and tweet on-the-go.
- Don’t ask me to re-tweet your information. Now, this is something that many seasoned tweeters still do, so it may be more of a personal pet-peeve. If I like the comment, I will re-tweet it. You asking me to do so will not make me more inclined to re-tweet your content. If anything, it will make me less.
- Don’t give up. I have gone through stages where I am overwhelmed, frustrated or just plain bored with Twitter. But, it always manages to suck me back in because to put it simply, it’s awesome. If you do a good enough job building your network, you will end up with this group of amazing people who can provide you with an answer to any question, give you advice on how to become a better professional, keep you up-to-date on the latest breaking news and make you laugh at any time of the day.
- Never stop developing your network. Eventually, a day will come that you will find yourself thinking in Tweets, and you will know you’re officially hooked. Now is the time to stop hiding behind your icon and meet your network IRL (in real life). Set up a coffee meeting with one of your tweeps or attend a networking event such as SMBMSP or YPCTC.
Strait from the Twittersphere – I asked my network if they had tips they would give a Twitter newbie and Gregg Litman came back with these gems.
- Keep Tweets under 120 characters for easy retweeting. – You want people to retweet your content, right? Make it easy for them to add “RT @yourtwitterhandle”.
- Use a URL shortner – If you’re posting a long link use a URL shortner such as bit.ly or TinyURL. If you register for a bit.ly account, you will receive insights into how many people have clicked on the link.
Again, if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and come back again for part 3: measuring your impact. Likewise, if you’re well-versed in Twitter rules (you’re probably not still reading), but if you are and I’ve missed any, please let me know in the comments section.
Photo credit: Cambodia4kidsorg on Flickr
[...] Natalie Wires posts Twitter for Dummies, part 2 [...]
Yes — all of you Tunheimers need to come to the next YPCTC!
Yes Ryan, Team Tunheim agrees that we need to get to YPCTC. The pictures always look so fun. Unfortunately, I am out of town during the March event, but I will make a definite point to come in April
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Excellent post. Very helpful and insightful and something I will refer to as I pass 200 followers. This should be required reading for nweeters – {new tweeters
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Great post, Natalie! Lots of good advice I can pass along to some Twitter newbies I know. And thanks for the YPCTC shout out – hopefully you can make the next one!
Thanks for posting this, and including my minor suggestions. It’s easy to forget how imposing Twitter is for most newcomers, and this is a wonderful list of tips and guidelines to help. I will definitely share it with the rookies in our newsroom, and look forward to your post on measuring impact.
Typically I am opposed to people’s guidlines for using Twitter, but all of your points are good advice; more of a framework for operation than a strict use methodology.
I completely agree a lot of “rules of Twitter” posts are ridiculous. While reading them, I often think “who made you king/queen of the Twittersphere?” But, whether we like it or not, we do expect people to behave a certain way on Twitter and can be quite unaccepting of newbies. I’m glad you didn’t think my list came off as too authoritarian.