Hello fellow tweeters. Welcome to Twitter tip Tuesday.
Although myself having had a twitter account for several months now, I am still learning and discovering it’s wonders. My newest discovery was that there is a way to reply to someone, without making it your visible tweet. Yes my friends (or in Twitter’s case, ‘followers’), perhaps you’re smarter than me and have known this long before, but instead of @replying in your What’s Happening bar, or clicking a little button ‘reply’ under someone’s tweet, on your home page in the right side bar, there is a button that says ‘Direct Messages’. Click it, and in the status box-like appendage, write your private note to whomever you chose to put in the ‘send’ box. It’s completely personal between you two and will not show up on either of your homepages; the catch, however, like with all things Twitter, you must keep your love to 140 characters.
The InSights Group works with entrepreneurs, small businesses and dental practices on successful social media marketing strategies.
Now that you’re on Twitter, let your followers know where else they can find you. Include your website when you first make an account, or go to settings-profile-web and insert it there. This will make your website known to those who click to see your homepage, they shall find it in the right hand column of stuff that includes your name and location.
After that, make it official by clicking on the ‘goodies’ at the bottom of all Twitter pages and follow the instructions to put a ‘Twitter’ button on your website to make it easy for others to find you the other way around. Now you’ve just created a full circle for your clients, friends and family to find you no matter how they approach the Internet.
InSights is a group that works with entrepreneurs as well as small businesses and dental practices on how to effectively use social media marketing strategies.
After the visit from our Twitter Birds. Thanks Marcy for being such a great adventurer during the show. We also love Betsy and Galina who helped us out day 2 and day 3. Way to be “Tweet”!
Another one of our favorites is Gary Vaynerchuk. Check out this debate on whether Twitter’s strategy to monitize and analytics makes sense. Watch the debate from CNBC here.
Remember, when you ask a question about whether or not something will work, the short and long answer is usually yes.
In the world of social media, remember to keep your message simple. We recommend crafting the message as if presenting it to a fifth grader. Just because we know everything there is to know about our product/ service, it doesn’t mean that our prospects needs to know all of it. Keep your ideal client in mind. Craft the message in a style that they would like to receive it, not the way you would like to receive it. Be sure to entice them into checking out your website or blog. Never deliberately sell in social media, just tease people.
Finally, be sure that your website has an email capture form above the fold on the home page. Make it easy for people to get your future information. Happy Tweeting!
You will want to check out the site screentweet.com. It’s a site that you can use to link photos, videos and pdf files into your tweets. Use your twitter username to sign in and give it a try. A neat feature is also the count of how many views your post has had…we met the company at the MCC Birthday Bash on Friday-if I were you, I’d give it a try.
How do I start?
It’s really easy. If you have a Twitter account then you already have a screentweet account. Simply enter your twitter account on the right and start sharing your videos, screen shots, photos & images. Also works with YouTube, Hulu and IgniteCAST. Show me how
Recent polls at InSights show that about half the people in the room at a local networking event have at least heard of twitter. The other half laugh at the word. You have to admit, at first it sounds kind of silly. For the purpose of this discussion, let’s start with what twitter is:
Now that you’ve seen the video, here are my top five tips to using twitter.
1. Identify the reasons you are going to twitter, once you have a goal, you can work out a twitter plan, otherwise you might use all of your time surfing and playing, without getting closer to your purpose
Are you hoping to connect with friends and family?
Do you want to promote your brand or blog?
Do you want to meet new people?
Use it for netwokring?
Keep tabs on your brand, image, or company?
All of the above, and more, are great reasons and uses for twitter.
2. Tweet
Jump in with both feet. You will build a great twitter network through your activity. If you post interesting things, people will be inclined to follow you. Share useful information, fun facts, and add some of your personality. That’s what it’s all about! Give people a reason to follow you. Be interesting, not overly shamlessly self promoting.
3. Follow other Twitter users. Follow people because of their interesing posts. Target conversations near you if you are looking to grow in your geographic area. Expand your reach if you have a futher reaching goal.
4. Reply, Retweet, and have those conversations!
Reach out, share information, and let others know that you find them interesting. Asking questions is a great way to get some answers! Respond to others. Use the reply feature or the @username to have those two sided conversations.
5. Practice restraint and Twitter Etiquitte
Avoid spam. Promote content that is interesting. Don’t bring in the band and banners declaring yourself the next best thing since sliced bread. Insert your personality, interests, and yes promote yourself, but do it in balance with everything else. Share other’s links and information. Be the person in the party that listens as well as they talk.
I could go on and on, but would love your opinion. What is your best advice for the next Twitter user?
