15 top Twitter tips for beginners

Posted: December 14th, 2009 | Author: Chris Norton | Filed under: General Twitter, Tweasier | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments »

I am often asked how do I get the most out of twitter? My first response is have you listened to Twitter? Many business owners have very little time to tweet and need it to work for them and not be a time vacuum. I have pulled together 15 easy to follow tips which should help you get more out of Twitter.

  1. Always treat Twitter like your own personal community not your local advertisement. In other words share stuff don’t push too much.
  2. Make sure you set up a Twitter search to monitor for your company name, competitors and other relevant businesses. If you monitor first you can see how people interact in your sector. Tweetdeck has a great search section.
  3. Be polite and thank people when they help you out with useful information and point your followers to other people who have good information too.
  4. Any person with half a brain won’t follow a complete stranger so make sure you complete your one-line bio and include your website or blog link in it. If I don’t know who they are I won’t follow them simple as that.
  5. Try to use a picture of yourself rather than a logo. OK I know Tweasier uses a logo but it’s often better not to do this. Also why not add a bespoke background there are loads of free services out there like Twitter Backgrounds.
  6. When tweeting think quality over quantity. Who cares about what you are having for lunch apart from you?
      • Try to offer advice or share your own tips (like these) on your area of expertise
  7. Don’t expect to get instant results or sales from Twitter. Twitter is a tool for pleasure as well as business – so treat it that way and relationships will build as part of it.
  8. Actually click the RT or @ buttons when someone you are following says something interesting. Twitter is about conversation not just broadcasting your own stuff. You may also find that person says thanks – you have started to build a relationship. Why not say thanks when others RT your messages?
  9. As a rule try not to tweet more than 10 times in a day as too much tweeting can become a bit irritating to your followers and on the flip side this will save you time.
  10. Make sure your content is balanced, so only tweet about your business 10% of the time if at all, people don’t follow you for that, they follow you for the added value they get
  11. Try to keep your ratio of followers to followees around 1:1. Don’t go out and try and follow millions of people in a day in order for others to follow you back. Sur,e follow a few people and then relook at your account. If you follow too many people Twitter could block your account for a while and you don’t want to be seen as a spammer. Make sure you stay away from Twitter spam sites as they often like to tweet all of your followers without you knowing.
  12. Use a Twitter client to group your followers, so you can follow different groups on different topics – the best Twitter client out there in my opinion is Tweetdeck.
  13. Offer something exclusive to your followers – e.g. a voucher offer or a free something. This is a great way to add value but to also track how successful your twitter campaign is.
  14. Ask your followers for advice, everyone loves being asked for advice – keep it on message though!
  15. Share news and links on things going on in your industry.

You can follow me on Twitter here.

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