For some, Twitter can be an easy way to find relevant and targeted audiences to expose your story to and ultimately drive sales. For others, it can be daunting and overwhelming to manage. If you're a beginner, there is good news, it doesn't need to be hard. In fact, it be a fun channel for just about anyone. Here are 10 killer tips on how to use this very unique platform. Some are applicable to other social media channels, but all can do wonders on Twitter. Let's begin:
- Provide value. It sounds obvious and straightforward, but if you want to build an audience and create new and existing relationships, your followers must find your activity valuable. If 1 in 5 of your tweets is not getting retweeted (or "favorited"), you are not providing value. You should circle back and re-examine your content strategy. Don't worry, some of the following tips should help fix your seemingly boring tweets.
- Leave room for the Retweet. A great differentiator of Twitter is ease of sharing content from anyone, anywhere at anytime. That can't happen if your content isn't easy to share. Leave enough of the 140 character limit to let ithers include “RT” and “@” and “your user name character length”. People typically want their tweets (or in this case retweets) to be special and have a little of their own personality.
- Show your personality. I've found that twitter users tend to gravitate to others with similar interest. By allowing your personality to shine a bit, you'll find that organic growth of you audience will follow suit.
- Embrace the hashtag. Getting found can be a challenge and down-right difficult, especially when starting out. Many tout Twitter as the nosiest social media platform on the planet, which can be a positive or negative depending on how you look at it. Personally, I feel this is a positive as my feed is - for now - unaltered. What does that mean? If I tweet something, as a brand, all 100% of my audience will see the tweet (in theory). I can not say the same about Facebook. Let me choose what is "relevant". That said, find relevant and/or popular hashtags related to your content and integrate them in your tweets. Hashtags help your content get curated and discovered in searchable topic areas.
- Add links. When you tweet about content, inserting links is always a smart move. Facilitate a path to more related information on the tweet you shared with your followers, such as a blog, YouTube video, etc.
- Shorten your links. 140 characters can be limiting and challenging for some tweets. Using a link shortening service such as Bit.ly or Goo.Gl will provide more room for your tweet(s). It will also help you track clicks and provide insight on the effectiveness of your messages.
- Share your handle - here is mine @digecomm :) - like there's no tomorrow. How will friends, followers or clients build a relationship with you on Twitter if they don’t know you are active there? Don’t limit Twitter to the Twittersphere – share your handle on your business card, website, email signature, blog, other social media channels, etc. Raising your presence awareness is up to you and only you.
- I love memes. Visuals are all the rage, leverage that insight. Consider starting your own meme or hashtag to empower people to add to the activity stream and become active in conversations. This could be helpful, serious or even funny. The point is to make it memorable - an engaging topic will spread faster and much more easily.
- Don't forget to say thank you. I'm still at fault for missing this opportunity at times. When someone mentions you give a little gratitude.
- Look for questions being asked related to your industry. Do your best to provide valuable answers as quickly as you can for anything pertaining to you or your space. Offer to talk more via other channels if users prefer different forms of follow up.
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