How To Use Twitter; 5 Steps To Growth

Twitter can mimic the Facebook status depending on how you use it, but it is a much more robust platform and tool for communicating.  I personally would not add my entire friends list on Twitter and shoot the breeze with them daily.  But again, that is not my intended use for Twitter.  I use Twitter as a way to control my brand online and drive traffic to my websites first and foremost.  That is why I do not link my Facebook and Twitter together, my motives between my Facebook and Twitter statuses are on opposite ends of the spectrum.  80% of my Facebook friends could care less about my take on the iPhone, while 95% of my Twitter followers would care, two very separate audiences.

• Figure out what you want to get out of Twitter

Why are you joining Twitter?  What do you expect to get from it?  Twitter is actually quite simple on a macro scale.  It allows you to connect with like minded individuals who share professional or personal interests and share information.  Twitter in my opinion is most often used by individuals like myself to manage a brand, whether it be themselves or their company.  Secondly, it is often used to drive traffic to websites; blogs being the most common destination.  Thirdly, most Tweeters share introverted thoughts, opinions, personal views and advice with other users.  You need to have an idea where you want to take your Twit presence from day one and build you following around that idea.  There is some leeway for overlapping with random personal tweets once in awhile, but a focused and purposeful Twitter feed will be much more likely to flourish.

• Plain Jane isn’t cool anymore, this isn’t 1972

Twitter offers its user the ability to customize their Twitter home page, and I highly suggest you do it.  Nobody likes a plain page that is boring and uninformative.  There are many free layout generators for Twitter, and even with basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop you can create one yourself with your own unique flavor.

Be sure to fill out your profile information once you create an account.  Most people will not follow a user without their profile filled out.  This includes:  Name, Location, Web Site (if you have one), and bio with short details and keywords about yourself.

Tweeters really like imagery.  They want to see you!  Add a photo of yourself on your profile’s ‘Picture’ tab under Settings.  Again, users sometimes won’t follow you because your profile isn’t detailed enough and doesn’t contain a self-photo.  If you really dislike every photo of yourself, put it in Photoshop and turn it into a cartoon like image or have it look like a painting!

• Get engaged in the Tweetsphere, put your voice in the conversation

Here is where one stark difference between Twitter and Facebook will emerge.  You can track what is happening on Twitter by using many, and I mean many 3rd party applications available.  Here are some software applications I recommend for the ‘hardcore’ Tweeter.

• Tweetdeck
• Twhirl
• Twitterific (iPhone App)

You can use these 3rd party applications to monitor what topics are hot (rising) and trending upwards.  These applications make tracking breaking news on Twitter a breeze with graphing keywords and displaying interactive tag clouds.  You can track conversations that matter to you by inputting ‘tags’ you want to track.  If you want to track all tweets about ‘HP laptops’, just input that term and your application will fetch all tweets with those words appearing in it. Find the topics that interest you and tweet about them, put your voice in the conversation.

As other users see your tweets pop up, they will browse your profile.  If they think your tweets are very profound hold great value or are just plain good, they will follow you.

You don’t need to download a 3rd party application to follow certain topics or see what is trending upwards.  Check out search.twitter.com which is like a Google search engine for all tweets that are on the network, starting with the most recent.

Don’t be afraid to friend other Tweeters, if you think their tweets are great, ‘Follow’ for goodness sakes!  It is common courtesy to follow back someone whom follows you.  Many users are now using auto-follow software applications that will automatically follow you back and send you a thank you message.

Write compelling and interesting tweets.  Wan’t to get tons of RT (Re-tweet) action?  Write compelling and interesting tweets that would be found interesting or intriguing by many people.  Some users are tracking their Twitter metrics and have reported that:

Most clicked tweets start with:  The best, the worst, how to

Best time to Tweet (based on research):  Late afternoon

Sarah Evans over at Mashable.com suggested these ‘netiquettes’ for using Twitter.

• Sending personal information like a phone number or email address. (It may seem like common sense, but I encourage you to NEVER post personal information like your social security number over ANY public forum.)

• A conversation which will consist of multiple “tweets” or a lengthy discussion with more than three posts. (Many people on Twitter will “unfollow” someone who sends multiple “tweets” in a row. Trust me.)

• Asking multiple questions to the same person or the same question asked to multiple people. (Your content becomes less valuable when people see the same thing repeated too many times…especially right in a row.)

• Correcting a mistake you’ve identified in someone’s blog post or “tweet.” (This isn’t required, but it is considered a common courtesy. The person who made the mistake will thank you.)

• Thanking each of your new followers. (It’s a nice concept to thank each of your new social media connections, but keep in mind how many responses you’re sending out each day or within a 10 minute period.)

• Making a request to someone. (Want to ask someone to write a guest blog post or partner on a project? Don’t put them on the spot in a public forum. Once you agree on a partnership, then by all means, tweet away!)

• Constructive criticism…this is your call. (If you have some pretty serious feedback to give someone, consider the most appropriate venue.)

• Getting someone’s attention! (Want to make a connection with someone, send them a direct message to get things started. A lot of people on Twitter get direct messages sent to their email or mobile phone.)

• Connect em’ if you got em’

If your a blogger or maintain your own website, be sure to inform your demographic that your on Twitter.  You can add a simple logo with a hyperlink or even use some neat widgets available on various blogging platforms to display your latest tweets on your website.   Put a hyperlink to your Twitter on your e-mail signature or even fax signature.  Place it wherever is appropriate; this type of thinking goes back to branding 101.  Don’t be confused, I’m not telling you to have your Facebook status and Twitter replicate, but I would encourage you to provide a link to your Twitter page in your Facebook account for friends who do care about what your doing on the network.

The real question is, how do you use Twitter?