5 Steps To Unlocking The Power Of Twitter
Twitter is what I like to refer to as a social media darling. It’s slim and quick and sexy when it’s running. When it’s down, it seems the whole world runs a bit slower!
For those of you who haven’t had a look at twitter.com, check it out now.
[This is going to be a long one. I apologize. I've published it here in case you need to refer to it later...]
You Have 140 Characters…
The basic premise is that you have 140 characters to do what you want. You can send a message about your day, what you’re doing, what you’re working on, or whatever else catches your fancy.
You can follow people and people can follow you. For example, if you want to keep up with what I’m doing throughout the day – follow me @jasondrohn. I’ll make sure to add you to the people I follow as well!
Following people is how the game gets played. It lets you participate with the community, which is a must for any social networking.
Twitter as a community is unlike anything I’ve seen on the web. It’s not quite as sticky as Facebook or some of the other social networks. It is very powerful in it’s own right, though.
You’re not going to be able to develop full blown relationships in Twitter alone, either with a single person or a particular segment. What Twitter is very good at is raising awareness of your brand.
Tip #1 – Build Your Network
Unless you are an Internet celebrity, your personality is going to get lost in the noise. You have to start out by following people.
This might be people in a local area or those you see on podcasts. A lot of bloggers are using their Twitter ID’s like they use email, so it’s pretty easy to find people to follow.
One of the things I did at first was to go into some celebrity’s follower page and follow the people that were following him. My target was Darren from Problogger.
A lot of the people you follow will follow you back pretty quickly. So building a little clan isn’t as hard as it seems.
Tip #2 – Participate
Make sure you are participating in the conversation. Don’t just continuously spew forth all your promotional messages. If people don’t get to know you, they will disregard all your links and your messages. They’re probably cap that off by pressing the dreaded ‘unfollow’ button!
Grab a Twitter utility like TweetDeck (my favorite as of right now) or Twhirl and start getting involved.
You’re first couple tweets will be akward, much like your first blog posts. Have a look at how other people are using Twitter and run with that.
Tip #3 – Promote In Moderation
Everyone hates spam email. It takes forever to delete. It’s vulgar and takes time away from other more precious tasks.
Twitter spamming is similar.
I follow close to 1400 people. I get more news faster than through any other medium on the planet. The last thing I want to see is someone incessantly spamming the Twitter-sphere with links to their own stuff!
It gets old really quick.
The best way to structure your Tweets is a bit like business blogging. Talk about your brand and your business for about 50% of the time. Engage in conversation about 25% of the time. Talk about your personal life for the remaining 25%.
That way people can see you for what you are. They are also more inclined to find out more about you (clicking the links you give them!)
It’s not about ‘take, take, take.’ It’s about joining the conversation.
Tip #4 – Monitor Your Brand
Lately, there have been a lot of talks about Facebook or Google picking up Twitter. Both are looking at the service for different reasons, but the one I find most fascinating is Google’s.
Google wants to archive the data in a real-time fashion. In order to do that most effectively, they need to tear apart the engine that makes Twitter tick.
There are services already built such as TweetLater.com which allows you to define a keyword that you want monitored. If that keyword pops up, you get alerted by email!
Personally, I have all my sites tracked, as well as my name. So if someone talks about me or MarketingHackz or Traffickd, I can almost instantly reply to that person thanking them for helping me promote stuff.
This works equally well for businesses. In fact, one of my clients is a college in the area. I have been helping them put a Twitter/Social Media strategy in place and they get alerted every time the college name is ‘tweeted.’
This helps them put out fires and give props where it’s needed!
Tip #5 – Take Your New Buddies With You
In my opinion, one of the most powerful parts of the Twitter interface is the direct message. With direct messaging, you can directly interact with anyone that you follow. If you send them a DM, it usually gets sent to their email inbox which helps to move interaction away from the Twitter interface.
If you find a business partner or a client on Twitter, you’re going to want to take them out of the interface to continue interacting with them. Send them an email. Say hi. Twitter is great for introductions, but not so good at detailed communication!
BONUS Tip #6 - Be Different
I can’t take credit for this, but I like it. The college I was working with, Mercyhurst, has started doing all their Twitter messages in first person. For example, if someone is coming to do a presentation, like Oprah, Mercyhurst’s tweet would be:
And tonight, I’m pleased to announce a special presentation by Oprah Winfrey!
It’s simple. It’s elegant. It’s a bit different.
The point is to join the conversation but stand out from the crowd. Develop a personality in 140 characters and your business could reach a height you haven’t yet seen!
Enjoy the road,
Jason Drohn
traffickd.com
