May 21, 2009
Make Twitter Valuable for You
So you joined Twitter – now what? That ran through my mind, too, the first couple of months I was on Twitter. But I stuck with it and just spent some time watching. After a while I found people whose Tweets were useful to me, and I started following them. Slowly I learned how to make Twitter more valuable. Here are some suggestions to help you get more benefit from your Twitter account.
1. It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality.
Some people use Twitter to stroke their ego by seeing how many people they can get to follow them. While a big audience might benefit them, it doesn’t guarantee any value for you as a follower.
2. When you get a message that someone new is following you, thoroughly check out their profile before following them back.
Read their bio, check out their URL and scan the messages they are sending. Ideally they’ll have a nice mix of original messages, Re-Tweets and @replies. If they don’t, it’s a red flag. This helps you quickly skim off the spammers and ego-maniacs.
3. Use Twitter Search.
Search key phrases you’re interested in, and when you read an update that’s good, follow that person. This helps you sample new Tweets to learn whether the person’s topics, attitudes and ideas are worth your time.
4. Use an application like TweetDeck to help you be organized.
Create groups with the people you’re following so they make sense to you. For example, I have a group for local Tweets, a group for @replies and a group for DMs, on top of the Twitter stream that contains all my followers. This helps me keep conversations going by making them easier to follow.
5. Use TwitterLocal to see what local Twitter users are saying and connect with them.
It’s a great way to learn what’s new going on around you, and meet cool people you’ve never met before. I highly recommend attending at least one TweetUp. They are great fun if you enjoy networking and meeting new people!
Hopefully this will help you out. I promise, I really didn’t get Twitter at first, but it WILL get better.
@alissasheley
Filed by Alissa at 11:47 am under Social Media, Trends, Twitter, online marketing
Comments