How to get the most from your Twitter Account

Here are some ideas that you can use to get the most from your Twitter Account!

The more you tweet and the more active you are when using your Twitter account, the more likely you are to have someone find you from within Twitter and start following you. Every Tweet you do comes up on the Twitter Public Timeline - so the higher your Tweet numbers are, can help you to appear more often there.

Notice - Tweet too often and about nothing worthwhile and you run the risk of loosing followers. If you are more talkative on some days, there may come a point when your followers don’t have any time to respond. Twitter can actually become quite confusing once you have too many tweets going all at once, so you should try to stick to one topic at a time and create pauses between them to let others respond.

Tweeting on a personal level is fun and for many that’s as far as it goes - but if you’re interested in growing your Twitter influence you need to provide your followers (and potential followers) with value. It’s the same principle as growing your blog - if you help enhance people’s lives in some way they are more likely to want to follow you and read more of what you have to say. As a result your tweets should ‘matter’ on some level and actually have something to say. Sure you can throw in personal tweets and have some fun with it - but unless you’re providing something useful to people (information, entertainment, news, instructions, etc) they probably won’t follow you for long.

Currently, it appears that I get the most new followers on those days that I interact with other Twitter users and promote my Twitter account. Every time you reply to someone and have them reply to you your Twitter ID appears in the feeds of others which exposes you to potentially thousands upon thousands of other Twitter users. Asking questions is perhaps the best way to get conversational on Twitter. Get a few people to answer a question you’ve Tweeted and if even just one person follows you from each of those people’s replies to you you have several new followers. Just as important is to participate in other people’s Tweets also - reply to their questions and ideas as much as possible.

The key with this approach is to be conversational about topics that will interest others. For example if you ask a very general question like ‘What word processor do you use?’ and get a lot of answers - but i suspect you’ll get more answers AND new followers if the question was more relevant to people’s lives in some way or another.

Another thought on the ‘art of conversation’ on Twitter is that I find I do better when I’m not talking about me. No one likes to hang around with people who just talk about themselves - so get the balance right between talking about yourself and talking about others and other topics of interest.

Do you have an existing online profile somewhere outside of Twitter (big or small)? Use it to springboard into Twitter. If it’s a blog, mention that you’re using Twitter in a post and link to it from your profile and contact pages. If you’re on Facebook use one of the numerous tools available to drag in your Tweets to facebook. Add it to your email signature, business card, mention it in interviews or guest posts that you might do…. etc. The same applies with any online (or even offline) presence that you have - link to your Twitter page and link to it often (if you’d like to connect with me on Twitter, my Twitter feed is here).

Last time I tracked when I had new twitter followers add me, I found that this was primarily during business hours. Tweeting during these times only increases the chances of someone finding you and adding you as someone to follow.

I was a little slow getting onto Twitter last year (when so many other bloggers embraced it). To be honest I didn’t think it had much to offer me - I’m beginning to see how wrong I was.

I want to show you how I’m using Twitter to:

• improve the quality of my blogs
• network with other bloggers
• widen my readership
• grow my profile
• drive traffic to my blogs

One of the main things that I’ve discovered about Twitter is that no two Twitter users are using it in the same way. Almost every Twitter user that I come across tells me that they have a different objective when it comes to using it and are benefiting from it differently.

One of the things that I’ve come to enjoy about Twitter the most is the way that it can be used when you’re researching an article to post.

• Stuck for inspiration? Twitter an idea and see what others add to it.
• Need an example for a point you’re making? Twitter it and you might get some good ones.
• Got a question that you’re stuck on? Ask it to your followers to see what they think.
• Need to test a hypothesis? Do a straw poll on your followers.

The beauty of Twitter is that it’s quick, is used by a wide variety of types of people and because of the 140 character limit to messages it keeps interactions concise, manageable and productive (usually).

There’s been a great deal of articles on how Twitter can be used for marketing purposes and I think most of them can be condensed to the simple aim of tracking and directing attention. Twitter allows you to monitor how influencers think or feel, you can also get into their attention zone via active networking.

For businesses, Twitter is another channel which connects current and potential customers with your product or brand. It allows deeply infiltration into the lifestyles of interested participants, which helps to build brand persistence/loyalty.

In its most obvious form, Twitter can be seen as a traffic generation tool. The placement of links within profiles and conversations can direct visitors to a specific website and is especially powerful if you pitch to early adopters and influencers.

As a lead acquisition tool, it doesn’t always reach the audience you want. Most Twitter users are somewhat web savvy and it is extremely difficult to target a specific subset of the general demographic and determine their level of potential interest.

As there isn’t an option to advertise within Twitter (unlike Facebook), Twitter marketing is a task that involves two-way audience engagement, on the part of the marketer or business owner. In a way, this is a good thing.

Twitter is not a difficult tool to use so there’s a low barrier of entry; Anyone can pick it up. What really matters is how it impacts your online habits and daily life. For many, Twitter is a distraction, albeit one that is very much welcome.

I had signed up for a Twitter account a long time ago and used it sporadically because it never really did appeal to me. I started using it actively and gradually developed an avid interest. I think Twitter is a manageable process that can be adopted for all types of lifestyles, busy or inactive. You’ll just need to integrate it within your normal workflow. It’s addictive but once you understand how to use it, it’ll be a very effective tool indeed.

Having read a great deal of other articles on Twitter, I decided a do a quick summary of all the ways you can use Twitter for both your professional or personal life.

1. Personal Branding. Twitter is a social media platform you can use to build your personal brand. It has the primary benefit of developing a casual persona and establishes you as a social personality that is connected and approachable. As Twitter adoption increases, new users will be drawn towards well established Twitter personas.
2. Get Feedback. Need an alternative perspective on how a website looks or the right course of action to take? Blast out a message asking for advice and you’ll receive replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used as fodder for articles or projects.
3. Hire People. Need a good logo designer, marketer or programmer? Send out a message asking for recommendations. This is a very quick and easy way to hire freelancers or even companies based on familiar recommendations.
4. Direct traffic. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your websites or the sites of friends. If you ask your friends to tweet about it, the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up. There is a viral nature to all types of news, even on a site like Twitter.
5. Read News. Twitter users often link to useful sites or articles and can be a source of scoops and alternative news. You can also subscribe to Twitter feeds for specific websites/conferences, which allows you to receive and view content quickly. This is very useful for active social news participants.
6. Make New Friends. Like any other social network, Twitter has a built-in function for you to befriend and track the messages of other users. This is an easy way for you connect with people outside of your usual circle. Make an effort to add active users you find interesting. A Twitter acquaintance can be developed into a long lasting friendship.
7. Network for benefits. Twitter can be used as a socializing platform for you to interact with other like-minded people, especially those in the same industry. It can be used to establish consistent and deeper relationships for future benefits such as testimonials or peer recommendations.
8. Use it as a ToDo list. Use Twitter to record down what you need to do while you are away from the computer. Mark the tweet as a favorite to file it for referencing. Another alternative is to use an Online task management service that is synced with Twitter.
9. Business Management. Twitter can be used as a company intranet that connects employees to one another. Workers can liaise with each other when working on group projects. Particularly useful when certain workers go out often in the field. Updates could be set to private for security reasons.
10. Notify Your Customers. Set up a Twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new products come in. Customers can subscribe via mobile or RSS for instant notification. Twitter can also be used to provide mini-updates for one-on-one clients.
11. Take Notes. Twitter provides you with an easy way to record important ideas or concepts you want to explore further. Include links relevant to ideas you want to explore. Note taking can also be done offline via mobile applications.
12. Event Updates. Businesses can use Twitter as a means to inform event participants and latest event happenings/changes. This is a hassle-free way of disseminating information, especially when you don’t have the means to set up a direct mobile link between you and the audience
13. Find Prospects. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online. Do a search for keywords related to your product on Terraminds and then follow users. Tweet about topics parallel to your product and close prospects away from public channels by using direct messages or offline communications. Discretion and skill is needed in this area.
14. Provide Live coverage. Twitter’s message size limit prevents detailed coverage of events but it can allow you to provide real-time commentary which may help to spark further discussion or interest on the event as other Twitter users spread the message. Very useful for citizen journalism.
15. Time Management and Analysis. Twitter can simply be used to keep a detailed record of what you are doing every daily. This might be boring for others but this type of usage is useful when you want to analyze how you spend and manage your time.
16. Set Up Meetings. Twitter can help you organize impromptu meetups. For example, you can twitter a message while at a cafe, event or art gallery and arrange to meet fellow users at a specific spot. It’s an informal and casual way of arranging a meeting.
17. Acquire Votes. Send a link to your stories you’ve submitted in other social news sites like Digg. Sometimes your followers will vote up the stories because they agree with it. This allows you to acquire more support for your efforts on other social media websites.

Well, I hope you got some use out of this information. Twitter is up and coming and will only get bigger and bigger! If you want to follow me on Twitter, you can find me at http://twitter.com/robwhiteus

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