Getting started with Twitter
If you haven’t discovered Twitter yet, then it is about time you did!! Twitter can be a fantastic way to network with your customers or other service providers. There is a heep of help resources on Twitter out there to help you get started. We found this great how to video by Howcast which shows you all the basics.
Twitter Power Tips
Make it easy for yourself
There are a number of great applications out there to help you twitter direct from your web browser, mobile phone or desktop. We love twitterfox which is a plugin for Firefox web browser.
Shrink your website urls
Obviously you want to drive traffic to your webiste so you need to link to your website address in the post. Make the most of your character allowance and shrink your web address using Tinyurl.com
Follow the right crowd!!
We learn a huge amount from what other people post. We follow people that talk about web design & development, graphics and so on. Follow people that do what you do or provide a service to you.
Get followed
Post good content that focuses on what your business does. keep an eye on your followers and make sure they are your target market. Cull serial tweeters (follow thousands & post nothing).
Make it useful or you get culled!!
We follow a number of feeds and receive in excess of 2-300 tweets aday. If a person we are following doesn’t post stuff that is useful we cut them!! In other words only post content that will be informative or target your market directly.
Twitter is a search engine
People now use Twitter as a search engine. The main reason is, its up to the second. Updates on your website may take a few days to appear online, twitter is instant. With only 140 characters to play with make your words count.
Use search key phrases
Like web content think how would someone be searching for my business through Google. The answer is logical key phrases or questions. Use this method to attract people to your Twitter feed.
Tag your content
To make it easy for people to find you and follow you, tag your contents key words. Its simple just place the # symbol before the word. People specifically search and target keywords on Twitter.
example:
top 10 #luxury #accommodation special offers in #CoffsHarbour http://tinyurl.com/r2wjaf
The content is simple to the point & says it all and is tagged luxury, accommodation and Coffs Harbour. I would click it if I was searching for a deal on a Friday night in Coffs!!
Re-Tweets with #tags
If you find content posted by someone else that you think your followers would like then re-tweet it. Most twitter applications will do this automatically. Its a great way to spread good content as well as giving credit to the source (make sure you visit the link!!). To do it yourself simply copy a tweet and paste it, then add RT@ before the username of the content for example:
This is the post we want to ReTweet:
smashingmagThe Importance Of Wireframes In Web Design And 9 Tools To Create Wireframes – http://tr.im/sl9r
This is our post:
RT@smashingmagThe Importance Of Wireframes In Web Design And 9 Tools To Create Wireframes – http://tr.im/sl9r
The post will automatically start with your username
Don’t let it take over your life!!
Twitter is a tool so use it effectively and like anything in moderation!!
