10 Quick Twitter Tips

Need a little more twitter-savvy? Use these quick tips and have fun!

1. Save hashtags you like. I save them for offline events and tweetchats so I can go back and review the discussions I like. Think of it as building your own transcript.
2. Build lists so you can target specific tweeters, and make sure you have lists for local tweeps, tweeps in your industry, and target clients to start. Lists will make a big difference as your following and timeline grow. Want to use an automated list builder? Try Formulists.
3. You already know to get rid of that egg pic. Use a human picture, not a logo. Logos can’t tweet and we want to know who we’re talking to. Make sure it looks like you. Suppose we cross paths? I want to recognize you.
4. Use your location in your bio. You’ll be found when people perform searches more often.
5. Complete your bio – otherwise you’ll look like spam. Make it keyword rich too. Again, people perform searches to find interesting people to follow. Can you make sure your bio somewhat relates to what you tweet about?
6. Tweet in 120 characters and you’ll increase your chance of being retweeted. You’re leaving room for a person to retweet and/or include a comment.
7. Some people just tweet sales pitches, and we don’t like it. So don’t do it. Engagement is the name of the game.
8. Don’t go backwards in your timeline. For the most part it’s a waste of time. Want to know why? Read my previous post on this.
9. Don’t autofollow people simply because they’re following you. Not a good strategy if you’re on here to engage for business. Find people with whom you would like to engage, be proactive.
10. Post at different times of the day to increase your visibility. We’re all in different time zones, regions and countries. If this is problematic for you, consider scheduling tweets throughout the day.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I occasionally tweet #TwitterTips. I figured I’d make it easy on us and compile an ongoing list of these #TwitterTips, and I’m sure this will become an evolving tip sheet. Do you have any #TwitterTips to share? Comment and let me know!

Until we tweet again…

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

3 Quick Tips for Marketing With Paper.li

We’ve introduced paper.li and what it’s useful for. Now I want to dig a bit deeper and suggest 3 simple ways you can use your paper.li newspaper as a marketing tool.   

1. Promote people you follow. I’ve notice people will often retweet my paper.li tweets when they’re mentioned in the “today’s top stories via” tweet, and I do the same. It’s a nice way to give a mention, and it lets people know you’re paying attention to their tweets. Who wouldn’t like that?

2. Provide a content source that directly relates to your industry, thereby demonstrating your understanding of the power players in your industry. For example, I’m in marketing – a rather extensive industry. So instead of creating a “Marketing Daily”, I created a niche paper called Social Media Minds that’s a compilation of the social media managers and marketers I follow. I follow them, they get to see me, and we build an online rapport. It’s that simple. Next I just might create a paper.li entitled “Brand Builders” or something along those lines, based on a list of branding experts, yet another niche within the marketing industry. Be creative and apply this concept to your own industry!

3. Show your personality. Who says it has to be all business? If the whole point of our revolutionized marketing industry is predicated on building relationships, why not show off your personality a bit? You can do this by creating specific lists that interest you  on a personal level (think cars, sports, music, etc.) or by simply giving your paper.li a funky name. There are millions of Twitter users, you can certainly find people who tweet about things you like. Your image/personality/uniqueness can shine through your paper.li, putting you one step closer to your goal of unique branding.

Bonus: You just might look like you’re on the ball with social media when you incorporate different platforms and apps into your profile. Definitely a professional win-win wouldn’t you say?

Is paper.li for everyone? I don’t think so – I’ve read various articles about people who dislike paper.li, who think users are too lazy to create original content blah blah blah… However, as with any new concept, you can think about your industry, your interests, and decide if paper.li works for you. I’ve learned to mix personal and professional interests on Twitter and paper.li is an easy way to catch the highlights in my Twitter stream. Quite frankly, it doesn’t have to be that deep, but it should be fun. Hence the term “social” media.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

Quick Tip: Stay In The Know With Paper.li

Do you publish a paper.li newspaper? If not, do you subscribe to someone else’s paper.li? If you’re scratching your head wondering what I’m talking about, a paper.li is a free service that basically takes links from the people you follow on Twitter and organizes the links into a virtual newspaper.  You can create your own paper.li based on a list, hashtag, a user, or a custom setting with advanced features.  Once you choose your source, you can name your paper and set it to generate daily or weekly and receive the latest editions via email. Just like a newspaper, there are sections for Headlines, Business, Arts & Entertainment, etc. and popular hashtags.

So go ahead and create your own paper.li newspaper or subscribe to one you like. I’m sure you follow someone who has a paper.li you’ll find interesting (hint hint). I particularly like paper.li because it keeps me in the know when I don’t have time to “check in” with Twitter often. I can read a newspaper and stay up-to-date on the day’s topics. I currently publish 3 newspapers, feel free to read and/or subscribe to stay in the know!

1. The Miss Kemya Daily is a myriad of interesting tweets from people I follow
2. The Social Media Minds Daily is a collection of tweets from great social media guru’s I follow
3. The Cool Atlantans Daily has all kinds of goodies from my Atlanta and surrounding-area tweeps. Of course I have to stay in touch locally!

Just another quick tip to manage your social media activities. Stay tuned, I’ll be exploring ways to use paper.li as a marketing tool…

Ciao,

Miss Kemya

Seize the Tweet Chat Opportunity

I’m writing this post as though you are familiar with Twitter. If you aren’t, take a look my previous blog post “Why Aren’t You Tweeting Yet?” Then come back here and finish reading…

I recently participated in an awesome tweetchat with THE CEO Mamma Network via #theceomamma. Let me tell you, these are some energetic ladies that are wonderful at sharing tips, info, and insight with each other! During the chat I learned several of the participants had never participated in a tweet chat, it was their first time! I’m so used to tweeting that I took the “tweet chat” concept for granted. In keeping with this month’s topic – social media – I thought I’d give a brief overview of a tweet chat.

A tweet chat is a Twitter conversation with a group of people, it might be 10, it could be 300. I like to think of it as a group meeting. Using a designated #hashtag, a person(s) sends out a tweet as an invitation to join the chat, and he/she will include the #hashtag to follow, along with the designated date, time and topic for the chat. When the tweet chat “meeting” begins, you can follow along using the basic Twitter platform, a social media dashboard like HootSuite or TweetDeck, or by using Tweetchat, which is probably the most popular way to follow and join the discussion. If you’re not familiar with the different platforms, post a question as a comment and I’ll give you some pointers.

Tweet chats are a goldmine! Think about it: a tweet chat provides an opportunity for exposure to a group of people who are interested in a particular topic. Can you say “target market“, “demographic profile“, “networking opportunity“? You can participate in a number of ways: you can lurk and observe the discussion, you can tweet a “hello I’m here” to the participants, ask questions, provide answers, learn more on a new subject, get to know the people interested in certain topics, find new people to follow…the list goes on and on. Your objectives for participating will vary; sometimes I lurk, other times I’m in the q&a, but I always find new people to follow. Often times the twitter stream is so rich in content I save the stream so I can go over the info I learned and make notes (which I did for the #theceomamma tweet chat).  So be on the lookout for tweet chats in your field, and when you arrive at the meeting announce yourself, and if you’re ready, join the conversation! Seize the tweet chat opportunity!

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

Why Aren’t You Tweeting Yet?

Many professionals are still apprehensive regarding social media outlets.  I run into so many business owners that simply don’t know how to join the social media conversation, so they stay behind, falling further and further into the abyss with the dinosaurs. For those of you that don’t know how to join the conversation, I’m here to get rid of all the excuses you’ve been using as to why you can’t “get on” social media.  Read on to learn how I joined one of the major social networks: Twitter.

How To Get Started on Twitter For Business Purposes 

Learn the Basics. Go to http://business.twitter.com/ and learn Twitter basics. Just because you don’t know what you’re doing doesn’t mean you have to look like a novice late to the party  – that’s the beauty of the internet isn’t it?

Complete your profile. When choosing a username, make it something easy to understand, and related to your name or company name. Use a real picture as your avatar (aka the picture that shows up next to your username). People want to converse with humans on Twitter; we know logos and robots don’t tweet! Complete your bio as well, otherwise, we (business people) won’t take you seriously.

What to Tweet? You don’t have to “rush” to join the convo. I started by “lurking” – aka reading other people’s tweets and not commenting or retweeting. Then, once I understood the lay of the land – aka “twitterverse” – I started retweeting others’ professional posts. Then, when I got comfortable, I would add a brief comment to the retweet. Then, again while getting more comfortable, I would find original articles and topics to tweet. Over time, I became confident enough to add my personality and personal tweets in the mix. This is my rebuttal to the “I don’t know what to say” excuse!

Who to follow? Since you’ve already learned about hashtags via the Twitter basics, think of a few keywords that relate to your business and search for them as hashtags.  You can also seek out fellow business owners, prospects, and clients that are already using Twitter and follow them.

Consistency Counts. You have to tweet to be seen and build a following. I always recommend starting out with 5 tweets daily for a few weeks, then 10 daily for a few weeks. I tweet Mon-Fri, and rarely during the weekend. Mon-Fri is pretty acceptable for business purposes. This allows you to get the hang of it.  I  know you can spare 20 minutes 3 times a day to read tweets and find interesting posts to retweet or comment on. This is my rebuttal to the “I don’t have time” excuse!

BONUS: Perform searches at http://search.twitter.com/advanced to find tweets based on a myriad of criteria. This method is still elusive for many, so if you’re reading this post you’re ahead of the game! Thank me by commenting!

This is exactly what I did when I got serious about using Twitter, so I know it works.  This formula is simple enough to prevent any excuses. I understand how overwhelming social media can be, and when you hear tips from “experts” with a huge fan base their advice doesn’t seem practical. Been there, done that, moved on, and so should you! Building your following and your level of comfort will take time, but you will get there if you follow my tips. The longer you wait, the more you sink into the abyss. If you get lost or need help, find me on Twitter @MissKemya, leave a comment, or send me an email at kemya [at] phiscomarketing.com. I’m glad to help.

**For those of you already deep in twitterverse, please send this post to your reluctant colleagues and let me know how it works for them. I’ve had this same conversation numerous times to get people started on Twitter.**

Ciao,
Miss Kemya