How To Work Twitter: Part 2

So, by now you have the basics of navigating the world of Twitter.  Let’s take it a step further. This post will talk about two specific practices that I have learned for growing and attracting your following.  They are part of what I like to call: Twitter PR.

What is Twitter PR?

Imagine that you are at a party alone and you are trying to make a friend.  Suppose you see another person standing alone by the punch bowl.  You walk over and say:

“Hello, my name is John.”

The person responds, “Hi, my name is Matt.”

And then you stare at each other for the rest of the party.  Fun!

Sounds silly, right?  Believe it or not, the equivalent of this exchange takes place daily in the cyber world.  While the beauty of online socialization often lies in anonymity, its an absolute plague to a social media strategy.  If your goal is to attract customers, donors, business partners, or even friends, you have to recognize and utilize the give and take options available on Twitter.

How do you do that? It’s really not that hard.  Whenever you notice that you have a new and interesting follower, follow them back.  Once you do that, you can now send them what’s called a ‘Direct Message’.  You can find the direct message (DM) option under that same little sprocket on the person’s profile page.  This is basically a private e-mail.  Only you and the person can see this, and its still limited to 140 characters.  So, just say something like, “Thanks for following. I look forward to reading your Tweets.”  Be creative with this and let your personality shine.

The DM isn’t the only Twitter PR tactic.  They also give you the ‘Mention’.  This one is a little tricky to figure out, but you’ll get the hang of it.  Let’s go back to our party scenario.  Assume that John and Matt decided not to stare at each other, but actually started a conversation by the punch bowl.  John tells Matt that he is a rocket scientist and explains his job in great detail.  Matt thinks that is really cool and wants to tell a few of his friends at the party about John.  So, he shouts over to his friends to come and meet John.  You can do the same thing on Twitter with a mention, like this:

Matt’s tweet:  Hey everyone.  My new friend @John is a rocket scientist.  Isn’t that cool?

By putting the ‘@’ symbol next to the exact Twitter ID of a person, you create a link to that person’s Twitter profile right into your Tweet.  And, as we learned, a Tweet goes out to everyone who follows you.  So, everyone who gets Matt’s tweets will have a direct link to John for as long as Matt’s Tweet stays on their feed.  If they are interested by rocket scientists, they’ll visit John’s profile and maybe add him.

As a way of thanking and acknowledging Matt, John might reciprocate with something like: Thanks to @Matt for the mention!

How do you know if you’ve been mentioned?  Look for the @(your Twitter ID) link on the right hand side of your home page.  Hopefully, you’ll see a sub-feed of Tweets that mention you!  If not, stop staring and start talking.

Along the same vein as the ‘Mention’ is the ‘Re-Tweet’.  A re-tweet acts very much like a traditional e-mail forward.  When you re-tweet someone, you are sending their tweet, in total, as your own tweet to your following.  And, their name is attached as a link (like a mention).  Typically, people will re-tweet good quotes or thoughts, good articles, or a link to a great blog post.  The re-tweet is just another show of appreciation and could land you a new follower if you re-tweet someone who does not yet follow you.  How do you re-tweet, there’s is an invisible re-tweet button in the bottom right corner of a person’s tweet.  Roll your mouse over that area and you’ll see it.  Say yes when prompted and you’ve sent a re-tweet.  Odds are you’ll see a thank you in the form of a mention sometime soon.  By the way, to see if you’ve been re-tweeted, look for the ‘retweets’ link 3 links under the @(your Twitter ID) link.

Bottom line, you have to give more than content to build a solid network.  Your best weapon in the Twitter arsenal is what you have to say in your tweets, but you can’t ignore the ‘social’ aspect to social media.  So, mention and re-tweet good content and interesting people and do it a few times a day.

Part 3 sneak preview: hash tags and lists!  Stay tuned.

Why Moving Too Fast On Social Media Can Lose An Audience

I learned a very valuable lesson as a result of my last blog post, and it might just be one that I won’t read too much about in the ‘how-to’ articles and e-books on social media. This is a lesson you have to learn by making the mistake.  But, maybe my blunder can help you avoid this social media pitfall.

I was very proud of my last blog post, entitled “Finding Success On Twitter”. If you haven’t read it, I ran down the functionality of Twitter and the strategy I employed to quickly gain some followers and make some great connections. I was so proud because I had mastered the tool. My very triumphant-sounding blog post was full of the terms and jargon that I had learned, and I cut right to the core of what you have to do to find success on Twitter.  I sounded like an expert (at least in my mind!)

So, what mistake did I make?  Two days ago I was having a conversation with my father-in-law about my blog.  He is a very accomplished entrepreneur who is also in the process of learning and embracing all that Marketing 2.0 and social media has to offer for business.

He said to me, and I paraphrase, “John, your blog is great.  I enjoy reading it and I am learning a lot.  But, your last entry about Twitter was so full of jargon that I couldn’t follow it and I learned very little.  If I wasn’t your father-in-law, I probably would have stopped following you.”

Talk about a wake up call!  Upon re-reading the ‘Twitter’ blog post, it was painfully clear that my approach did not take into account the audience who I had originally set out to attract.  Someone who knew very little about Twitter would not have received any benefit from that post.  Two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have learned everything from that post because I had no idea what things like a “hashtag” or a “mention” were.  I wasn’t mapping my route to learning social media like I had set out to do.  I was just telling everyone what I learned and expected them to just understand how I got from point A to point B.

Ultimately, what I learned from this exchange is this: as easily as you can find an audience, you can lose them if you don’t bring the type of content you promised.  It is apparently very simple to get off track and confuse your audience.  I was thrilled to have so many new followers to my Twitter feed and my blog.  So thrilled was I that I forgot to give them what they were looking for in the first place!  If they were customers, I would have seen them walking out my door as quickly as I saw them walk in.  If I was to employ this kind of strategy with my non-profit, the plan would probably fail.

So, now it is time to get this blog back on track.  My next post will interpret my previous post about Twitter.  And, future posts will focus less on being an expert and more on becoming an expert!

Many thanks go to Tom Wolf at identityanddestiny.com for the valuable feedback.