Feb 11
19
Still so many people ask me this when I am out teaching and sharing the joys and ROI of Social Media Marketing. And with all these applications to increase activity and tweets, many have just lost the plot so I thought today I would produce a real
‘Twitter for dummies.’ So is our lap top on? You are sat in front and the screen (the bit with the picture on) then we will begin.
TwitterBird
Twitter is a social media marketing tool, however it is different from Facebook or Linkedin in that there are no pictures or videos in the basic site, and a very limited profile. You have a box wherein you can post a message which is 140 characters or less. Your main aim is to have many people following you so that they listen to your message herein known as a ‘Tweet’ Imagine for a second you have just wrote the God of all blogs and you are desperate for people to see it, if you had 10,000 followers on Twitter then you would just write
“I have a cure for the common cold <link to your blog> “
That’s it! Twitter (when you have many followers) is like putting an advertisement in your local/National newspaper. However this is ‘instant and the good thing is you can put as many tweets as you like.
So how do you get many followers on Twitter?
So many applications promising this, promising that, at the end of the day if you want a job doing properly do it yourself, and I am here to tell you if you are not Justin Beiber or Obama or someone Famous or infamous, then you are up against it there really is no quick fix like anything!
Justin Bieber Twitter
You start by following others and this is the pivotal point
Only follow people whom you feel their posts would be of interest to you!
The Twitter etiquette is that birds of a feather … people will get a message from Twitter informing them that you have followed them, most, not all, but most will take a quick look at your profile to see who is following them, and follow you back after all you are in a similar interest sphere! This is essentially Twitter!
If you do this then each day, all the Tweets from the people whom you are following will appear on your wall, and you should find them of interest, and you will more that likely want to follow a link or retweet (Retweet means their tweet will appear on your wall, so your followers can see it. Imagine your Tweet you did earlier for the common cold, some guy with 50,000 followers likes your article (he has a cold and feels rough) and retweets, then your link will explode with one click, see where this is going? And all this is FREE!! Premium is TIME!
When you start Twitter there is a handy Search box at the top where you can add keywords, so if you for example are a ‘Bird watcher’ put in ornithology in the search box, and anyone who has that keyword in their profile or recent tweets, will show up, there may be many and you can try many different keywords for your interests. Open up each one, read their profile (If you don’t you may end up following people who consider bird watching as eyeing up the local talent in the pub!) if their profile sounds like someone who’s tweets you would be interested in, click the follow button, and all their tweets forever more you will see on your wall if you are logged in at the time!
One more fine thing is try to make your tweets of value to your followers, they read your profile and they expect just that, don’t tell people you are on the loo or going to your Yoga class unless you want to reduce your followers remember it’s just one button to un-follow as it is to follow!
Broadcast
That really is it.
It’s taken me 18 months to scrape near to 1000 followers but that is growing and not going down. and when I am struggling for a topic for my blog, I go to my Twitter and as I have followed only people of my interest sphere I find myself on Twitter following many links and retweeting others as it is a world of useful info for me, and it shall be for you if you ignore the hype of thousands of followers from various applications and do it yourself, that way you will know who you are following and they will be so much more inclined to follow you back!
