A Beginner's Guide in Using Twitter

I asked my colleague if she has been getting responses from her job ads in Twitter. She said no one ever replies to her. I checked out her tweets and saw what seems to be the problem.

Now, I’m no Twitter expert (if ever there is one) nor do I have thousands of Twitter followers myself. But I saw a rise of followers, feedback and traffic visits on my account upon doing the following:

1.) Personalize your page.

Twitter is like having a Facebook or LinkedIn page, no one wants to connect with you until they’ve seen either a picture or some descriptions. So fully utilize your Twitter page by adding a picture, a short bio and a background. You can even use the background to market your company or services, although the new Twitter page will make that hard to do. 

new Twitter page

old Twitter page

 

It's easier to view the our company website and my other sites 

on the "old" Twitter page, compared to the new Twitter page.

Nevertheless, play around your profile, make it more interesting to look at.

2.) Follow people.

My first Twitter mistake was waiting to be followed and wondering why my followers weren’t increasing. To have more followers, follow people! That doesn’t necessarily translate to having more leads or increased traffic to your site but who knows? You might have followed a future prospect who might follow you also then he/she might find your tweets interesting and will eventually open more doors for your business.

3.) Use hashtags.

  

The main reason why my colleague doesn’t get any replies from her tweeted post ads, aside from her having only a few followers, she doesn’t use a hashtag on her tweets!

Here’s a definition of a hashtag from Twitter Help Center:

Definition: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

Hashtags: helping you find interesting Tweets

Hashtags are actually quite helpful. Use the more popular ones which are relevant to your tweeted link and someone will bound to discover them.

4.) Join in a twitter discussion

I basically join discussions to learn more about the relevant topic but it’s also a great way to communicate with the experts and also to have a bit of an exposure in your chosen community. Remember to use a hashtags when you want to participate in a discussion. Some discussions that I've only recently discovered are on #blogchat and #leadershipchat

5.) Retweet

It’s similar to spreading the word around or word-of-mouth, only you do it on Twitter. You retweet. 

I do it mainly because:

• I find the tweet interesting and I want to check it out later.
• I find the tweet helpful and I want to share it to my followers who might also benefit from it.
• A sign of gratitude which translates to “Thank you for following me on Twitter. I’ll help you spread around your links.”
• A sign of respect and admiration. Hey if Seth Godin or Guy Kawasaki or Pete Cashmore is tweeting it, you bet I’m gonna retweet it!

6.) Avoid spamming

When you’re tweeting non-stop, at only a few seconds or minutes of interval, that would be considered spamming. I have to admit, I kinda’ do this often. There are just so many articles I want to share, I sometimes forget that other people, my followers for that matter, are receiving my tweets on their feed which could mean clutter on their part which could lead to them “unfollowing” me.

So as much as possible, don’t spam. If you really want to send out multiple tweets, be considerate, wait for a few minutes before you send another one again.

7.) As much as possible, don’t use multiple Twitter accounts

I initially thought of having a separate twitter account, one for personal use and another for business matters. Big mistake. Now I find myself shuttling back and forth between my personal and “business” Twitter account. I decided to just tweet a message on my personal account saying to just follow me on my other account if they’re still interested. Hopefully, I’ll be able to gain all of my followers on that personal account again.

I’m slowly gaining followers and hopefully, most of them will benefit from our B2B contact database site. If not, I wish they’d stick around so we can learn more from each other and get to spread the word around about what we have to offer. 

Got anymore tips on maximizing the use of Twitter? Share them by commenting. :)