Twitter-licious : The Best Twitter Tips

Help your Twitter Birdy rake in the cash!!!

Are you Twitter-licious?

There are hundreds and thousands of twitter tips out there…I was astonished to see the plethora of assistance there is with regards to Twitter! But which ones actually work??

Well have no fear – I have scoured the internet and compiled this list of some of the best Twitter Tips out there!

• Make Your @username Your Calling Card – Attracting followers is an important part of maintaining a high profile on Twitter. One of its biggest advantages is the simplicity of its username system and the ease of following and communicating with a user once you know how he or she identifies him- or herself. So promoting your @username in an e-mail signature, in fan correspondence and anywhere you’d normally mention a Web presence is helpful.
• Create a great Twitter username – Be creative and imaginative, use something someone will find easy to read and remember. Try not to look like a bot!
• Read the Twitter blog. Just book an hour and do it. And check back now and again. It feels like the people at Twitter can’t keep up with all of the noise and growth (love that problem) but they bring some good info together here. It’s worth a wander; enjoy…subscribe if you like it.
• Tweet early, Tweet often. Show up. Post Tweets. Ask questions. Join conversations about things that interest you. Comment (using the “ @ “, of course) on smart things your Twitter friends say. Say “thanks!” when others share good info. Just engage in the whole Twitter thing and you will figure each other out.
• Make noise beyond the Twittosphere. Only way to build a following is for people to know you’re there. Add your Twitter address to your email sig, your online profiles, even your business cards. Add a Twitter RSS feed to your Web page or Blog (details in my Business Twitter Tips). Here’s how I added a Twitter “friend stream” to my WordPress blog.

Stuff to Tweet About

There are no rules about what you should tweet out, here are a few suggestions for you. It is important that you balance the ‘outbound’ with the ‘inbound’. In otherwords, the announcements with the conversations:

1. Personal thoughts and reflections that suit your brand – this helps people feel more trust towards you and your brand and strikes up conversations
2. Events (both your own and other events your audience may find interesting) – this makes things interesting and, perhaps, gives you a way to meet your followers
3. Contests (”The first three people who answer this trivia question get….”) – they drive more followers and interest in what you tweet
4. Replies (@twittername) – this comes from listening to your followers (you have to follow back to see their tweets). The more personal the reply, the higher the impact.
5. Direct replies (d twittername) – this isn’t in the public timeline, but it helps build deeper bonds to talk directly to someone like this. This is helpful to answer people when it is a private matter or when you want to show concern (i.e. someone reports an accident, etc.)
6. New blog posts – you should keep these to one per day at the very most and you should also promote other people’s blog posts that are of interest
7. Announcements – if it is interesting, tweet it
8. OH’s (overheard) – someone say something in the office or when you are out and about that cracks you up? Type OH: “well, if you don’t mind, im trying to work on my love life” or something else funny (sometimes used to offset potentially racy comments…if you didn’t say it, but are just REPEATING IT, then it’s okay)
9. Rickrolls or other fun internet games – this shows you are a bunch of fun and has people trying to do the same for you. Spreading as many internet memes as possible is good.
10. Lyrics and quotes – especially fun are the lyrics: ♪Never give the game away | Try to keep me entertained, baby | Don’t make it too easy | Leave something for me and my imagination♪ as the musical notes make for lots of questions
11. Links to media you create – video is fun, podcasts, perhaps interviews that are posted online about you, etc.
12. Shout outs – @twittername rocks! Thanks for the great link: http://insertlink.com These make people feel great, too.

• Become known as an Expert or Resource. Essentially, Twitter is a shorter and more viral form of blogging, so the same rules actually still apply, and by constantly writing or tweeting about your expertise on a specific topic, you’ll become known for it and people will gravitate to you and follow you. If you already have a blog, then I recommend using Twitterfeed, so you can syndicate your posts on Twitter automatically.
• Establish a Twitter Marketing Plan. You need a precise plan on how to market or promote your brand online using Twitter.

Elements of a Twitter marketing plan:

• Email signature: You probably already place your blog or website URL and contact information in your email signature, so why not add your Twitter handle? It’s free promotion and every email you send can turn into a new follower.

• Personal/corporate website: If you already have a website for you and/or your company, then you have a platform on which you can promote your Twitter address to people who will probably be interested in following you.

• Blog homepage + posts: Your blog is a great place to promote your Twitter account because most people who read blogs know what Twitter is. You should take a two pronged approach. First, put your Twitter address in one of your sidebars and second, promote it discretely in posts every once in a while.

• Email newsletter: If you have an email newsletter, you can write about Twitter and link to your profile or put it at the bottom of your template, so that each email has a link to your account.

• Presentations: Do you do any public speaking? Why not include your Twitter account on the last slide of your presentation and tell people that they can follow you on Twitter?

• Business Card: Try including your Twitter handle on your business card. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, did this with his card.

• Article writing / guest blog posting: Whenever you write an article for a magazine, news website or guest post on a blog, try to include your Twitter handle in your byline.

• Networking on Twitter: By using the “@” symbol and either retweeting or communicating with other people, you’ll have some of them responding to you, thus promoting your Twitter account to many of their followers.

• Promotional products: Some people take Twitter promotion to the next level: Ted Murphy, for example, created custom Twitter shirts that have your Twitter handle.

By following these tips you can easily promote your brand using twitter!

Sadie

Establish a Twitter marketing plan