5 Steps to Help You With Twitter
The reason I’m writing these 5 steps to help you with Twitter is that I’ve recently started roaming the world of tweets, retweets, hashtags, mentions, and URL shorteners, and I’d like to share some of the information that I’ve found. I am by no means an expert, I’m just sharing the things that I’ve learned, and they seem to be working.
1. Focus On Individual Tweets
The number of tweets out there everyday can be overwhelming, it is reported as being over 340 million tweets per day! When I first started on Twitter I didn’t pay much attention to, and didn’t understand, what was being said. While the number of your followers, and those you are following, is important, it shouldn’t be you primary concern. My suggestion is to focus on individual tweets. Follow the links in the tweet and read the posts that they link to. If you find it interesting let the author know, by retweeting or replying to his tweet.
2. Retweet Like You Mean It
When you retweet something you are saying, “I agree!” If it is done properly, then everyone will see the tweet, but if the beginning of the retweet starts with @username, then only the person mentioned, and any followers you share with them, will see it. There is an automatic way to retweet, but when you do that you can’t add a personal touch. Here is the old school way, thanks to Laura “@Pistachio” Fitton. Instead of repeating it here I’m just going to link to her article, “How to Retweet the Right Way in 4 Easy Steps” on HubSpot Blog.
3. Hashtags #
The # sign is your friend. It is used to mark keywords or topics. Use it before a relevant keyword in your tweet to categorize those tweets and make them easier to find in a Twitter search. Here is an article on Hubspot Blog by Magdalena Georgieva, “How to Use the Hashtags on Twitter.”
4. Mentions
“Mentions” help you communicate with people on Twitter. When you tweet “@username” that creates a link to their profile and they are notified that they’ve been mentioned. You are drawing attention to them by putting their name out there for others to see. It is a great way to reach out to people and start a conversation with them.
5. URL Shorteners
You are limited to 140 characters in your tweets, so you don’t want to use up all of your available space with a long link. If you go to bitly.com you can set up a free account and then you’ll able to shorten those long links. How does it work? Bitly changes the link to a “bity.ly” address on their site and sets up a “301 redirect” to the link. Here is Bitly’s explanation.
I hope that these 5 steps to help you with Twitter have been helpful.
