So you just signed up for Twitter, but have no clue what to do next.
No worries. Keep reading.
With over 550 million users and counting, Twitter is the second largest social network on the planet (after Facebook). When used right, Twitter is extremely powerful and effective, and able to help any company, organization, or person.
As much as I like Facebook, I must confess I prefer Twitter way more. It’s simple, helpful, not time consuming, and effective. With Twitter, I’ve won free books, talked with famous authors and speakers, purchased travel deals 40-60% off original price(s), and even landed numerous jobs.
Twitter is great, and once you learn how to use it purposefully, you will like it A LOT. Here are 4 tips to help you get started on Twitter:
Clean up your house
On Twitter, your “house “is the first thing people see when they visit your profile, which consists of:
- A bio that includes your name, who you are, what you do/what you offer, and includes your website.
- Your Twitter Username (if possible, use your first name and last name, as this is easiest to remember.)
- Backgrounds image (a good quality image, preferably a professional looking one that includes information on you and your business.)
- The content that you’ve been posting. (Make sure to tweet helpful, relevant, and quality content, and engage in conversation with others. It’s ok to be yourself, but don’t only talk about yourself. Give your followers something to read that they will enjoy and find valuable, and enter into conversation(s) with them. Also, don’t be a negative, nagging Nancy who only complains about life.)
Ask yourself: “What do I want to get out of Twitter?”
If you don’t know what you want to accomplish with Twitter, you’ll never know if you’ve succeeded or not.
Set some simple, easy-to-remember goals, such as: I want to find out more information about health services, or I want to reach and connect with 5 new clients this month, or I want to find out about sweet new travel deals, or I want to engage in conversation more with family, friends, and meet new people too.
Having goals for Twitter will give you a direction to sail towards, rather than aimlessly wandering around and not knowing what to do. (If you haven’t done this yet, you’ll be surprised at how helpful setting some simple goals for Twitter will be.)
Follow your interests, target market(s), and friends, and engage in conversation with them
One of the best parts of Twitter is that it easily connects you with people you couldn’t/wouldn’t otherwise meet. (It’s also a GREAT way to stay in contact with family and friends!)
If you like books, you should follow your favorite authors, pastors, publishing companies, and retailers. If you’re into sports, follow your favorite athletes and teams. If you are trying to market skateboards to teenage boys, find teenage boys on Twitter who are interested in skateboarding, as well as the people and places who are connected to teenage boys.
Find and follow your interests, target market, and friends. Reach out and engage in conversation with them.
Post helpful and valuable content that your followers may enjoy reading. Be a real human too, and talk about yourself and your life (but not too much, and not in cynical, negative ways either. Doing that is a sure road to Twitter failure).
Promote people and products you care about. Contribute to the Twitterverse in meaningful ways, posting valuable content and engaging in conversation(s). Reach out to prospects and potential customers you’d like to do business with, and strengthen existing relationships with customers.You will get much more value out of Twitter when you do this.
Follow Scott Stratten’s Twitter advice
Scott Stratten, author of the book UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging., once tweeted that the key to Twitter success is to Tweet, Retweet, Follow, Reply, Repeat.
I’ve never forgotten that advice; I’ve followed it ever since, and it’s actually worked – I recommend that you follow his advice too.
Follow these four tips and you will find Twitter to be much more valuable and fun.
Question: What have you found to be the best use of Twitter? Please share with us in the comments!
Image: eldh
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