I love Twitter, I really do. I think it is a really great tool for professionals who rely on a extended network for their extended business. I have been doing business development in mobile for over a decade and with the emergence of Twitter my reach and insight gotten a significant boost. Today I see Twitter as essential to do what I do and connect with people I need to get the work done.
But the thing with Twitter is that it has no real manual and many people in my network come to me and say that 'I like Twitter, but I have a hard time getting started' or 'This Twitter thing is not working out and I can't seem to be able to connect with it'. And I agree that it took some time for me as well to get to grips with how I could get Twitter to work for me and maybe sharing some of my experience can help others.
Getting started
Have the Basics Covered. That means an avatar with your picture (which you don’t change very often), a nice Twitter background and a strong bio with their real name listed in the name field. You won’t find a true Twitter badass that doesn’t have these things done.
Tweet Consistently. We all get busy, on days when you don’t much time, just send a tweet to say hello to your followers or send a quick RT. To build your Twitter platform, you have to be committed to Twitter and your followers. That being said, it is not about tweeting all the time, it is about regularity and staying true to your niche.
Tweet interesting and relevant content for you. Unless you want to take the time to always find that content on your own, you must start filtering your tweets. This is how you filter Tweets: create a List specifically for those peeps that tweet great content so that you won’t miss their tweets. By doing this, in addition to finding your own content to tweet, you will always have great content that you can RT at your fingertips.
It’s all about the relationships you build.Iit isn’t about how many people follow you, it’s about how you interact with the ones that do. It’s important to be personal and get to know your followers. If you don’t do this, people will not view you as a real person. For example, @GuyKawasaki has over 200,000 followers, but to me, he is a robot (I mean, is he a real person?). He rarely interacts with anyone, and as a result, a lot of people don’t consider him a real part of the Twitter community.
Find a Niche. This is not essential but it helps establishing you, your experience and what you're passionate about. Passion builds your following and connects you with other people that have similiar passions. Fin that crowd and work it. For example, @JennaLee is known for tweeting about PR and digital related things, @krystynchong is known for the music she tweets, @Nerde tweets about mobile and digital trends mainly. Do you have a niche?
Show Twitter acts of kindness. Do be successful on Twitter you need to understand that your power is in your kindness. Go out of your way to perform Twitter random acts of kindness, and people will love you for it. This is truly what makes Twitter the warm and fuzzy place that it is for so many of us.
Twitter acts of kindness
1. RT’s
The first and maybe the most graceful kindness you can see on Twitter is if someone retweet you a lot. Retweet is a way of saying -”I like what you share and I want to pass it along to my own followers for their viewing pleasure.” Retweets are also one of the most valuable assets one can get on Twitter as it also makes sure that what you share gets passed along to someone that really needs to see it. More than often it leads to people starting to follow the source of the information just because they find it useful and most likely will enjoy the rest of your tweets.
2. FollowFriday
This being the most obvious act of kindness but maybe the most discussed one. FollowFriday has become a huge hit on Twitter and everyone uses it to further promote or share their friends or good sources of information. But, the sheer load of FollowFriday mentions has become a spam event in itself. People in general just add up people in a long string of names and add either #FF or #FollowFriday to it. There is people who are against it and people who want it that way. But telling people why they should follow a specific person is far more kind than just adding their name to a long string of other names.
3. Replies
It has long been a thorn in most people sides and can easily be considered rude and obnoxious if someone doesn’t reply to your tweet. But the fact is that when you have a load of about 40.000+ followers it becomes somewhat a full time job to answer everything in time. You simply have to choose where to put your time. However, for someone that has a lot of time it is definitely an act of kindness to reply to every single tweet that is directed at them and just the fact that they try to do that will come across as good manner. So, always reply to the tweets that are directed at you and in some cases try to DM back instead of just tweeting. For the person being DM’d it will feel way more personal and is definitely an act of Twitter kindness.
4. Lists
Lately “Lists” has become the new cool on Twitter and it has become a way to measure your reach or the strength of your brand. But it’s much more than that. It also measures the strength of your personality and the weight people put on you being on Twitter. Also how much they value your opinion and the influence your personality has. Each time you get added to a list (depending of course on the title of the list and it’s purpose) you should really feel humbled. After all the person adding you has shown you one of the ultimate acts of kindness on Twitter to actually value you and share you with his or her followers.
5. Introduction
One of the more rare acts of kindness on Twitter. To introduce someone to another follower of yours is a real nice gesture and can sometimes lead to amazing things. We are all not working, doing or are into the same things and to introduce the ones that do is a true act of Twitter kindness. Who knows, your introduction can lead to the next big thing in Social Media or just about anything really. If we could just do this more frequently I am sure we would all profit from it.
6. Auto DM’s
The pest of Twitter. No really it is. Everyone has gotten them and they are just annoying and frustrating to get. How less personal can you get when you send someone an automated direct message when you have just started to follow them. The really sad thing about it is that even real people are doing it. Just not only twitter bots or spammers. No, real people who think they will gain time from doing it automated. But what they are doing is really just losing followers and respect. So people, if you really want to show yourself from your good side, stop with the auto DM’s. Instead write a more personal direct message to the person who just started following you. If you feel you are getting too many new followers a day then you would do best in considering not sending any direct message at all to these people. Instead thank them for following you in a tweet. Much more personal and it shows that you really noticed them starting to follow you. True act of Twitter kindness.
7. Research
This one happens more and more over time. It has nothing to do with researching who someone is or anything like that. No, it has more to do with kindness and giving your time to someone. I get people asking me for some sort of tutorial, article or anything that people might think I know on a daily basis. A true act of Twitter kindness is really to help. Help them by using your skills to actually go and find what they are looking for. Spend the time to make someone else happy. The time spent will be returned ten fold in time. You caring about your followers shows you are truly a great and true source of inspiration no matter what it is. So start helping. Start searching and try to find what people might ask you for.
8. Reciprocate
Here’s probably the one that no one thinks about. The one that people just take for granted somewhat. To reciprocate, or to follow back is a kind of Twitter kindness. To show you share their time in true space. Sure, having 40,000+ followers can be quite hard to keep up with. But following everyone back is still a really way to show your Twitter kindness. But, there are far from everyone that spends 10+ hours on Twitter each day but if you use some of the Twitter clients available today it will enable you to really structure your followers. Do it by online time, personal connections or plain topics. But to reciprocate is definitely a true way of showing Twitter kindness.
9. Continuity
One of the hardest to keep up with. To stay in touch with people and care about them. To give back the time they spend on following you. There’s a lot of people that continuously follow people each day and read everything you write without you knowing about it. Sure you have a way to find out if they follow you but there’s really no way of telling if they saw your very latest tweet or not. But be sure there are tons of people that read them and never say anything. Reach out to them and make them be a part of the chain. Help them to be a part of what’s going on. A true sign of Twitter kindness is to continuously stay in contact with people and not let them fall into the shadows of your new followers. If there is a will there’s a way, right?
10. Smile
The last and most common way of showing your appreciation and to project kindness is to use smileys. A smile can brighten up your very darkest day if it comes from the right person. Never forget that. And you never know if you are that very person so always make sure to keep up your sunshine. It’s never a profit to shed out and spread clouds over someone’s Twitter stream. There is several ways to create smileys on Twitter nowadays. Some are nice and some just annoying but always make sure to show your brightest mindset and kindness. A simple yet a very effective act of Twitter kindness.
What makes me successful on Twitter?
| Follower Count | Lists | Retweets | @Replies | Follower Ratio | Tweet Volume | Favorites | Quality of Connections |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Follower counts are an indicator of influence, but not a very good one. And yes, followers can be and are gamed frequently with the assistance of shady web services. |
Being included on lists gives us two clues. One: Being included on thousands or more signals that you are visible. Two: The categories people use to classify you tells you something about the topics you have influence in: This is known as “topical influence” and it’s really what counts in influence.
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These tell you something about how willing people are to amplify your messages and help them spread. A retweet essentially says “this is something I want my network to see”. It’s Twitter’s version of viral loops.
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These signal how much others want to talk to you or intentionally tag you, and also serves as an indicator for how willing you are to engage and tag others. Less replies signals less social interactions and more broadcast.
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Generally, if a user on Twitter follows a disproportionate amount of users than follow them, it signals their desire to accumulate followers. Not always, but often. A 50/50 ratio translates to someone following back anyone who follows them, which includes spammers. Twitter users who follow significantly less than are followed indicate some selection process.
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This simply indicates how prolific a user is. Those with high volumes who retain high levels of engagement, list counts, retweets, and a healthy ratio are likely providing some type of value. High volume Twitter accounts with suspect ratios, low engagement, etc may have a high noise to signal ratio.
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Getting favorited frequently does mean something, though because Twitter users leverage Favorites so differently, it’s nearly impossible to discern exactly what, other than you triggered a behavior (the action to Favorite) for some reason.
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The most difficult to quantify and probably THE most important indicator is the quality and RELEVANCE of who follows you on Twitter and who you follow back. Targeting the right audience and earning their attention (and Trust) is ultimately the best (and softest metric). Follower counts (and ratios) are an indicator, but only one of several and one of the easiest to game.
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Who to follow
Services that will make it sing
Further reading
