At the end of 2010, I did a pretty deep analysis of where my clients were coming from, based on the all-important question, “How’d you find me?”. While personal referrals and blog write-ups/posts/ads rated high, the #1 answer that beat them all (Are you sitting down for this?) was…
Twitter!
I kid you not. I was shocked and amazed, too.
Once you’ve picked yourself up off the floor, follow my lead and get started on the path to becoming a Twitter expert with these 15-minute tasks. Hey, I don’t call Twitter “my boyfriend” for nothin’.
BEGINNER
- Read a post or two or three that explains the basics of twitter and how to be a helpful, authentic, non-spammy member of the Twitterverse. There’s also the twictionary that explains common twitter terms. Yes, really.
- Sign up! I know, it looks easy, but spend some time choosing your username. While you are able to change it at any point, you’re not gonna wanna, as you want people to follow you and then recognize your tweets.
- Add a picture of your pretty mug to your profile. That freakin’ egg is a telltale sign that you’re spam/new and might not lead to many follows. And don’t be tempted to upload your logo! Tweeple wanna interact with other people, not companies.
- Change the background by clicking on Edit Your Profile followed by Design. At the very least, select one of the themes that’s there. At most, add your logo (I did, and chose the “tile” option so it repeats) or another “signature” piece that customizes your page.
- Write your bio! You only have 160 characters to do it, so think of what you’d want a potential new friend to know about ya. Make sure you add a link to your website/shop/blog, so your tweeps can learn more about ya and follow/friend/fan ya in other ways.
- Send out a tweet! It’s OK to tweet that you’re new or don’t know what you’re doing yet, but if you don’t wanna advertise it, tweet a link to something you read and enjoyed.
- Find your friends (and follow ‘em!). Use the @ sign to tweet at least one of ‘em. Celebrate!
INTERMEDIATE
- Add a Follow / Tweet Button or Twitter Widget on your blog/site.
- Use a social media organizer to create twitter lists, send out updates to multiple social media platforms, and schedule tweets in advance (plus much more!). My favorite is Hootsuite, although some love TweetDeck and others CoTweet.
- Spend a few days learning the social media organizer you chose. It’s gonna be your new best friend.
- Create an intro page just for those that come to your site from Twitter, and add the link to your profile.
- Fight back the temptation to auto-follow or send out automatic direct messages to new followers. I’m not even gonna elaborate on why or link to what those are, in case it encourages it. Just trust me on it. I’m begging you.
- Have a good mix of self-promotion tweets and non-self-promotion tweets. If you’re struggling with the balance, aim for 5 non-promotional tweets for every 1 tweet about your blog post/product/service. Yeah, we don’t want ya to be a spammer, but we wanna make sure people know the help/services/products you provide, too!
- Commit to following 10 new tweeples/day! To make sure they’re the like-minded prospective twiends and clients you’re looking for, you can:
- Search by interest
- Go through the Following lists of your friends and, um, follow their lead
- Follow your favorite bloggers by, um, following the Twitter buttons in their sidebars.
ADVANCED
- Create a custom background, or hire someone to do it for you.
- Use relevant twitter hashtags to drive/find like-minded tweeples or to be cheeky.
- Join a tweet chat, or create one yourself!
- Connect your Twitter account with your Facebook page (Fan or personal).
- Sign up for twitterfeed to automatically feed your new blog posts to your social networks.
Now you can start annoying people by adding “tw-“ to the beginning of most words, calling your twitter friends “tweeples” and correcting people when they say they don’t get “twittering”(it’s “tweeting”, please and thank you!). Oh, don’t thank me. Thank my boyfriend, Twitter! He’s the dreamiest.
