How To Work Twitter: Part I

¬Part I

By now you have all read about Twitter. Everyone from the mom and pop business down the street, to your local news station, to your 17 year-old niece has a Twitter account. You might even have one for yourself or your business. But, do you really know how to work it? Well, if you’re reading this blog I’ll go ahead and assume you’re not a Twitter whiz. But, don’t worry…by the time you get done reading this you will be armed with enough tips and ideas to become an expert.

Let’s begin at the beginning. What is Twitter? Quite simply, Twitter is a micro-blog. Why is it micro? It is a micro-blog because Twitter only gives you 140 characters (including spaces) to share your message with the world, whereas a typical blog is much longer.

The Twitter community is broken down into two major groups: people you follow and people who follow you. How do you follow someone? Look for the little picture of the gear/sprocket and click to see the dropdown menu…the ‘follow’ option lives there. When you follow someone on Twitter, you are subscribing to his/her Twitter content. But, instead of getting an e-mail to alert you that the blogger has posted new information, you get a ‘Tweet’ sent to your ‘Twitter Feed’. A tweet is simply a post on Twitter. The Twitter Feed is what you see when you log into Twitter and hit the ‘Home’ link. Your feed is home base, and where all of the action happens. You see people’s tweets, and its where they see yours. The more people you follow, the more tweets you will see popping up on your feed and vice-versa.

So, there are the basics. We know that a tweet is a Twitter post. You follow people who interest you and you get their tweets in your feed. People who are interested in you see your tweets in their feed. So, why the heck should we be doing this? And, how do I decide who to follow and how do I get them to follow me?

The answers to those two questions contain the beauty and the power of Twitter. I’m going to assume that if you are reading my blog, you know what a blog is. I’m also going to assume that you are somewhat savvy with social media. Otherwise, you would not have found my blog. So, I don’t need to go into the importance of social media marketing as a way to extend your company’s brand awareness or build your own personal brand. I’m guessing you get all of that. But, you just might need some help on understanding exactly how Twitter can help you accomplish all of this.

The answer to ‘why the heck should I be doing this?’ is easily expressed. The answer will likely make all of the mothers in the world cringe, but I think it’s 100% accurate. You should be on Twitter because everyone is doing it! That’s the answer to the social media question across the board, too. You’re not jumping off of a bridge because it’s the cool thing to do. You’re making the choice to embrace the way marketing is headed. The sooner you master it, the better. But, social media is not just about sales and marketing. Tools like Twitter can be used to find resources on anything from building a birdhouse to making tonight’s diner. Twitter is an outstanding tool for marketers, shoppers, recruiters, job seekers, and information lovers alike.

How do I decide whom to follow? This really depends on your goals. For our purpose here, let’s say you want to use Twitter to promote your nonprofit organization. After you set up your account and your profile (which can be pretty easily figured out using the ‘Settings’ link placed on the top, right of the home page), it’s time to start searching. The first place you want to look is anywhere you surf on the web. You should be looking for links and buttons that take you the individual or organization’s Twitter page. If you want to consume the information they share, follow them. The next place you should go to find people to follow is the website ‘search.twitter.com’. This is a Twitter search engine that will deliver everyone who is talking on Twitter about the search criteria you enter. If your nonprofit deals in human services, type ‘human services’ and search. Hundreds, if not thousands, of tweets will come up. Comb through them to see what relates to your nonprofit. If you see something interesting, visit the profile of the tweeter and learn more about what they are talking about by looking at other tweets in their feed. If they are tweeting valuable information, follow them. Also, take a look at whom they follow and who follows them for more ideas by clicking ‘following’ or ‘followers’ on the right side of their home page. Repeat the process above until you can’t stand it anymore.

The above practice will build you a nice list of people you follow. What it will also do is plant the seeds of your own following. Typically, the common practice on Twitter is to follow someone when they choose to follow you. When I have a new follower, which you can evaluate by watching the number of ‘followers’ (right hand side of the home page) go up, I visit that person’s profile to make sure they aren’t a spammer or a weirdo. If they seem OK, I’ll follow back. Maybe I’m not interested in anything they have to say, but it still builds a network. Plus, you never know where a good resource lives. Never assume that someone you follow or who follows you can’t become a donor, volunteer, employee, employer, business partner, or fountain of information and ideas.

If you have read this far, you know should know the Twitter basics for finding and attracting a following. There is much more, but I’ll save it for Part II of this topic. But, remember this: it’s not magic and it’s not overnight. And, don’t forget to be generating content that people are interested in or they won’t be following you for very long. Content can be something like a link to your new blog entry, a link to an article that you find interesting about nonprofits, and everything in between. My rule of thumb with content is this: would I be interested in this? If you ever answer no, then rethink the tweet. Twitter followers can be fickle, so always strive to tweet out good content. Like mom always said, if you don’t have something nice to say then don’t say anything at all! (Does that one make up for telling everyone to jump off of that bridge, mom?)

Tags: beginners, blogs, how to, nonprofit, social media, twitter