How to use Twitter!

Introduction to Twitter

& how to use it

Iain Fenwick – Twitter Induction - 2012

Setting Up Your Account

• My Twitter Name: choose something relevant to your profile.@Scotsman_Iain @ScotOnSunday @ScotsmanDigital

• My Profile: say who you are and what you do.

• My Avatar: remember you are human!


Sign up @ www.twitter.com

@MyTwitterName

• This is important! Be sensible with your Twitter name as changing it later on down the line will lose you credibility and followers.

• My name is @Scotsman_Iain, why? My name is Iain and I work for The Scotsman!


Choose something relevant to your profile.

My Profile

Say who you are and what you do.

• It is important to have relevant info on your profile. Keep it simple. Say who you are and what you do.

• @Scotsman_Iain

“Work East Lothian, Dumfries & Galloway and Scottish Borders for The Scotsman & Scotland on Sunday newspapers. Will RT all things Scottish!!”


My Avatar

Remember you are human!

• Your avatar should not be a cartoon or logo (unless general business account). PEOLE WANT TO SEE YOU!!


How To Use Twitter

• What should I Tweet? • Useful Jargon• Twittiquette • Who to Follow/Follow back • Block and Report• Lists • Direct Messaging


What should I Tweet?

• Anything you want...

• Remember, Twitter is a “social” networking site!

• Share stories with your followers, show an interest in their interests (even if it bores the hell out of you), become their friends.

• Today’s friend could be tomorrow’s client.

• Do remember to KEEP IT CLEAN! All Twitter accounts should maintain the same corporate policy as any other correspondence. Whilst sharing personal information is important, common sense must prevail.


Tweets...

tweets


Useful Jargon

Re-tweeting is a way to massively increase the reach of content.

You may have only a few hundred followers but one of your tweets could be re-tweeted by 10 people all with a few hundred followers each.

Suddenly thousands of people are reading your Tweet.


RE Tweet (RT)

Useful Jargon

You can start trends yourself to encourage your followers to share your Tweets with others you may not have access to. This could be to generate attention to a future supplement, feature or event etc.

E.g. I started #EastLothianGolfFeature and as a direct result made 2 sales into the feature I otherwise would not have had.


“Trending” is an important part of Twitter. You may have heard this term on TV and Radio. If there is a topic that large numbers of people are talking about, the way to ensure your opinions, comments are read by more than those that follow you is by trending your Tweets. E.g. #LondonRiots.

Trending #(hash tag)

Useful Jargon

Friday is a worldwide Twitter day to give a shout out to your favourite tweeps! Those that you think others should follow.

Is a bit of fun but is without doubt very important for increasing your following.

DO NOT FORGET #ff day, people get offended when they give you a shout out and you don’t acknowledge it or reciprocate.


Follow Friday #FF

Twittiquette

• Be Polite. Answer Back if someone tweets you (tweeps are real people).

• Don’t feel you have to follow people back.

• Feel free to un-follow someone If they direct messaged you a spam or a sales pitch.

• Ignore Trolls (or as they say “Don’t Feed the Trolls”)


Who to Follow/Follow back

• Use your judgement. Whilst you want to increase your following you need to remember what you are doing and why you are on Twitter.

• You don’t need to know who can make you a millionaire in 1 year or who can give you tens of thousands of new followers!!

• Social Media “Gods”, SEO “Gurus”, Marketing “Experts” etc are of no use to you.

• Still follow randoms though to maintain your own numbers.


Block and Report

• Spamming happens ALL the time!

• If you get spammed, block and report the account, simple. Same goes with abusive or unnecessary tweets.


Direct Messaging

• DO NOT SPAM OR PITCH on direct messaging!

• Focus on a soft sell, compliments work well.

• Keep one on one business private.


Lists

Lists are a great tool to cut out the Tweets that don’t interest you.

Rather than un-follow people and risk cutting your own followers, you can list those who you wish to actually follow.


Twitter Tips

• Being human is OK!!

• Try to vary your tweets, one sales tweet to one reply or RT.

• Ideal ratio is 1 sales tweet in 6 Tweets.

• Keep tweets and tweets with links short if possible. Using the full 140 character limit has much less chance of being RT’d (Re-Tweeted), If someone has RT’d your tweet, it’s polite to thank them.

• Keep your follower/followee ratios inline, equal followers to followees is fine, following many more people than following back is not! Not following enough people back is also not recommended (People are less likely to follow you if they think you might not follow them back.


Important Twitter Tools

Either of these apps will make your life so much easier. They both display Twitter so you can clearly see what is going on in your Timeline, your mentions and your direct messages.


www.tweetdeck.com www.hootsuite.com

Summary

Twitter is a commitment but not one to fear.

It is a Twitter misconception that you have to be “on” all the time. It’s ok to reply later, it’s nothing but sales people/chit chat on Twitter. As long as you are active a few times a week that is fine. Any longer than that and you run the risk of people un-following you and alienating yourself. To increase your profile on Twitter you must engage with your community.

Liken Twitter to a singles club you have gone out to. If you sit at the bar all night and speak only to the barman then the chances of you pulling are virtually zero. You have to work the room and get yourself noticed, only then will you get what you want out of it!


Summary

From a direct sales perspective, Twitter is a perfect tool to engage with the area you represent.

Build a community starting with your active clients and lapsed clients. Follow those who they follow, Tweet about the successes of those who advertise with you so to generate intrigue and curiosity with those that don’t.

Build a rapport/relationship with potential new business by RT’ing their stories and engaging them in general chit chat. This will build a trust and credibility between you and them which will in turn increase the chances of them becoming an active client.

Happy Tweeting :)


Documents

How to use Twitter!