Twitter can be confusing especially for those new to social networking. There are lots of things to consider: Whom do I follow? What do I tweet? What on earth are hashtags? Finding the answers to these questions can take a bit of trial and error before you get into the swing of things, but, when you do, it is easy to think it is plain sailing from there on. Unfortunately, you will soon discover that starting out on Twitter was the easy bit.
After you have been using Twitter for a while and have started to follow other users, you will probably find that you have started to accumulate followers yourself. As such, you may soon be drowning in mentions, links and retweets. This is a good thing, right? But attempting to sift through it all to try and find the information that is of interest to you can make it seem like managing an active Twitter account is a full time job in itself. But, thankfully, there are plenty of tools and tips that can make managing your account a lot easier and less time-consuming. Below are a few of the best ones to get you started.
Getting Followers
By now you should have a good idea of the sort of content that your followers like to see from you (as indicated by the amount of engagement on your tweets). The temptation may be to start churning out lots of tweets in a similar vein, however, the great tweeter must always be conscious not to become overly repetitive. Remember to provide your followers with good information, links to interesting content, and engage them in conversation. You will only get retweeted if you share things of value. Think of a retweet as the equivalent to a friend’s recommendation, but on a far larger scale. It is an independent endorsement of your business.
If you have not done so already, be sure to include links to your Twitter account everywhere from your email signature to your website and blogs and your printed materials. Customers need to know you are on social media to follow you. Never assume that they will automatically seek you out.
Whom to Follow
When first starting out on Twitter many people tend to follow back anyone who follows them. Although this is a good way to retain followers when starting out, you will soon find your news feed clogged up with information that is of little interest to you, causing you to miss what is important.
After Tweeting for a while you will soon discover what content is of interest to your followers, and this should be enough to sustain them without following them in return. Consider whom it would be beneficial for you to follow. It is always safe to assume that colleagues in your field will be producing current and useful information. It may also be beneficial to follow relevant journalists, and share with them any business information that may be of interest to them.
Twellow
is a good resource for finding relevant Twitter accounts to follow. You can search their directory for people and businesses in your area of expertise.
Managing Information
When your Twitter account is in full swing it can seem like a bit of an information overload. The sheer number of tweets you have to sort through can be overwhelming. Although hidden away under ‘settings’, Twitter does have the capacity to sort the accounts you follow into lists. These can be anything from the individuals’ locations to their professions. The problem is, Twitter separates these lists, meaning you cannot, at a glance, see what is current with each list. The navigation is quite long-winded and not ideal for efficiently managing your Twitter account. The best way to sort this content is to use an online application such as Tweetdeck.
This dashboard application allows users to connect to as many Twitter accounts as they require, which means that you can manage both your business and personal accounts through one application. Be careful, however, over which Twitter account you set as your default – it is unlikely that followers of your professional account will want to see an Instagram photo of what you had for dinner.
Tweetdeck is primarily an organizational tool. It enables users to add columns containing lists of followers, mentions, messages, interactions, trends, etc. Organizing your Twitter feed in this way lets you go directly to the section that is of interest to you and retrieve information quickly and effectively.
The application is very customizable. It allows you to adjust the size and color of columns, as well as the size of the fonts. This enables users to arrange their columns into a hierarchy of key information.
Managing Time
It is often difficult to keep up with social media while still effectively running your business. Most professionals allocate an hour a day to their Facebook, Google+, and Twitter accounts. However, retaining followers when you only Tweet for an hour after lunch can be difficult. This is where Tweetdeck is really useful. It has a tool that allows users to compose tweets and publish them later. This scheduling tool conveniently lets you decide when you want your tweets to go live, which is especially helpful if you have customers in different time zones.
Now you have organized the people you follow and are able to schedule your tweets, you can spend some time keeping track of what people have to say about your business. There are search bars on Twitter, and other applications, that allow you to see what people have been tweeting about you, although this too can be time consuming. Instead, it is worth considering setting up alerts using sites like Social Mention. These let you know when someone has tweeted about the key words you have chosen – the name of your business, for example.
Applications such as these reduce the time taken to reply to mentions and thank those with positive comments. They will also give you an accurate indication of how your business is being viewed, which is especially important after new product launches or conferences.
Keeping up with social media is always going to be something we have to dedicate time to, but there are tools we can use to make sure the time we do spend on them is used efficiently. Using these will not only make social media less of a chore, but will also give you a better insight into what people think of your business.
Kerry Butters
Kerry is a published author and writer on all things tech, corporate tech, data centres, SEO, webdesign & more for some of the world’s leading sites.