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iNHouse Mini Guide to Twitter
iNHouse Mini Guide to Twitter
1. Building your brand
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Getting Started
Strategy
Recognising you
Making your brand known
2. Twitter Terminology
3. Marketing yourself
o Email signature to networking
4. Using Hashtag
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What is a hashtag
How to use a hashtag
Useful tips for using hastags to support an event
5. Top Tips
6. Neat tricks
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Access shortcuts
7. Measuring your success
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Followers and Retweets
Klout /Peerindex
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iNHouse Mini Guide to Twitter
1. How to build your brand
Getting started
Go to Twitter and create an account: www.twitter.com
You can give yourself any username you like but it’s best to choose something that
people who know you will recognise: it will make it easier for them to find and follow
you.
Strategy
Before you start actively using Twitter, you need a strategy, are you raising your
personal profile or are you helping to promote your company. This needs to be
reflected in your bio, twitter name and avatar.
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Lead with your company
Put your company ahead of yourself on Twitter as the account name, but use
your personal avatar and bio. This is a smart approach if you want to build
your company’s brand, while associating your own name with the company.
Mutual branding
More and more companies are realising that their employees are on Twitter
and that they can be tapped to help promote their initiatives. Some of these
Twitter accounts are mutually branded, so that the avatar has the person’s
picture and the corporate logo. Two examples are (@kodakCB) and Allison
and (@CareerBuilderPR).
100% personal branding
If you’re trying to build a strong personal brand, then focus your Twitter
handle, avatar and bio information 100% on you, instead of your company.
Recognising you
One of the goals of having a Twitter account is to gain followers and few people
want to follow an account that doesn’t look genuine and active. Just as importantly
you want people to be able to recognise you so make sure that your brand is clear
and appropriate to you and your company.
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You can create a Twitter background that resembles the colors, format and logo
from your personal or corporate website. When you create your background, add in
additional information that isn’t covered in your Twitter profile, such as pointers to
more websites, contact information, or information about products or services you
sell. There are many sites that you can use to help you develop a custom
background, such as Twitpaper and Twitterimage.
Making your brand known
Essentially, Twitter is a shorter and more viral form of blogging, so the same rules 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 use Twitterfeed, so you can syndicate your posts on
Twitter automatically.
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For many people, Twitter has become a filter. Trusted experts are relied upon
to send their followers interesting and relevant links. You can subscribe to
blogs and keywords using Google.com/alerts, and then act as an arbiter for
your topic, constantly pushing out the best content.
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The best thing you can do for your brand on Twitter is to take your current
interests and activities and establish a feed on Twitter to deliver that content
to your audience again and again.
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Make the most of your expertise and hold a Q & A sessions, where you answer
questions from your followers. The more you tweet about the topic you want
to be known for, the more people will remember you and when they need
your expertise, they can contact you.
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iNHouse Mini Guide to Twitter
2. Twitter Terminology
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Tweet
A Twitter single update of 140 characters or less, which can include
@Mentions to other users, hashtags, external links, or simply regular text.
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Retweet or "RT"
Taking a tweet from one user and posting it yourself, automatically crediting
the source, so that all of your followers can see the tweet. The original
Retweeting style would take a tweet and re-post it via your own account in
the following format: 'RT @(username of person who originally tweeted the
tweet you're retweeting): (contents of tweet)'. The current system does away
with this format, and instead directly re-posts the tweet, crediting the origin
underneath. For example, 'retweeted from @username'.
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Modify Tweet or “MT”
These could include:
o Changing a hashtag in order to share the content with another Twitter
chat community
o Indicating that you have added (or perhaps deleted) an element of the
tweet, usually indicated by placing the altered element in [square
brackets] to offer another angle, challenge an assertion, or confer
approval.
o Correcting a typo or factual error (be sure it is actually an error; again,
flag up the change you’ve made)
Ultimately, there are a plethora of reasons why an admiring user may wish to
tweak the content of a tweet in order to boost the value it delivers whilst still
ensuring a respectful attribution to the original poster, MT facilitates this.
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TweetUps
Using Twitter to meet with other Twitter folks online and in person.
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Trending Topics (TTs)
Trending Topics are a range of subjects which many users across Twitter are
talking about simultaneously. Initially, Trending Topics would include the
matters of interest people across Twitter had been talking about throughout
the entire week, but the refined algorithms made it easier to keep up to date
with the latest most-talked-about subject, by only displaying Trending Topics
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related to things thousands of people across the whole of Twitter are
discussing at any one time.
Clicking on a Trending Topic in the list will bring up a range of tweets
mentioning the matter of interest, and for each Trending Topics, there will be
up to three 'Top Tweets'. These are tweets which are relevant to the Trending
Topic, that have been Retweeted more than 150 times. You can view a list of
Trends in your area in the right column of the home page.
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Lists
Users can organise the people they follow into 'Lists' of businesses or
personalities which are related in some way. For example, a user could list all
of the NPOs and charities they follow into a single List, for easy reference.
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Promoted Tweets
A single Trending Topic which a company or organisation can pay to 'trend',
as to gain attention and traffic from Twitter users worldwide.
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DMs
DMs are Direct Messages. They go straight to the intended person that you
are messaging. The DM feature utilises an inbox and outbox system, but you
are still limited to using 140 characters; you are also limited to sending DMs to
only those users who follow you. DMs cannot be seen by anyone other than
yourself and the chosen recipient, and are thus more personal. To send a DM,
go to the page of the follower you're sending one to, and click on the
"Message" box.
Be warned not everyone likes direct messages – twitter is supposed to fast
and interactive! but it is another useful tool to be used sparingly. There have
also been a number of high profile mishaps with DM- it is easy to accidentally
send a DM as a tweet – if you are sending personal information in particular
this way make sure it is sent as a DM. Best practise would be to avoid using
DM unless a) you are 100% sure where it is going, b) there is no other way of
contacting the person.
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iNHouse Mini Guide to Twitter
3. Marketing yourself
Just like with any other website or blog, just because you build it, doesn’t necessarily
mean people will come. You should have a marketing plan in place to acquire new
followers.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Presentations
If you do public speaking include your Twitter account on your opening and
closing slides of your presentation and tell people that they can follow you on
Twitter. If you are joining an event where the hashtag has already been
decided, make sure you find this out in advance and use it to promote your
presence at the event through your twitter account.
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o
Business Card
Try including your Twitter handle on your business card.
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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.
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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
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Promotional products
Some people take Twitter promotion to the next level: Ted Murphy, the
founder of IZEA Inc, for example, created custom Twitter shirts that included
his Twitter handle (www.ted.me/custom-twitter-shirts)
Just like with any social network or blog, the more people who follow you, the easier
it is to grow your already existing community. Retweets and following other people
are two essential ways to get new followers. However, content is king on Twitter, so it
is vital to make sure you produce consistent, quality tweets.
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iNHouse Mini Guide to Twitter
4. Using Hashtags
What is a hashtag?
In essence, a hashtag is a way for Twitter users to organise themselves ie. if everyone
agrees to add a certain hashtag to tweets about a topic, it becomes easier to find
that topic in a search, and more likely the topic will appear in Twitter’s Trending
Topics.
How To Use Hashtags
To use Hashtags in your tweets, # is added preceding key words. It can be helpful to
do a little research first, to find out if the subject you're tweeting already has an
established hashtag.
You can track other tweets on the subjects you're interested in (ie: those containing
the appropriate hashtags) by browsing/searching at Hashtags.org, TwitterGroups,
TweetChat, TweetGrid, Twitterfall, etc. You can set it up with RSS feeds as well.
Useful tips for using hashtags to support an event
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Choose a single hashtag early
Choose a simple hashtag that is appropriate to your organisation and the
event. Short and concise is normally best.
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Remind attendees of the hashtag constantly
Make sure the hashtag can be found on your website, on your Twitter feed,
during the opening and closing remarks, and throughout the day.
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Provide a website widget
Twitter is still a new tool for most people so it is helpful for anyone who isn’t
familiar with using Twitter to provide an easy conversation tracker tool on your
website. You can make one via Widgetbox or Tweetgrid.
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5. Top Tips
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Try to use just one tweet to get your point across. If it carries on to another
tweet it should be shortened.
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URL shorteners are sites you'll learn to love as a Tweeter: it shortens your long
URLs into things that will easily fit into the 140 character limit.
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If you're looking for big follower totals, find a niche for your Twitter account.
Tweet about your sector, your area of expertise, or whatever interests you.
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Look on websites you frequent for Twitter accounts; this can help you
populate your Twitterverse with people whose opinions and insights interest
you the most.
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If privacy is a concern, Twitter offers an option to make your tweets only
visible to followers whom you have previously approved of (this can be
changed in Settings > Account > Tweet Privacy).
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You can download Twitter onto smart phones.
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6. Neat Tricks
There are a number of different keyboard shortcuts that you should start using to
save you time and make you a more efficient tweeter.
How To Access Shortcuts
It’s easy to access these shortcuts. To check out the key, just visit Twitter.com and
then type the question mark [?] key on your keyboard. Make sure your cursor isn’t on
the Search or What’s Happening field though. Give it a spin by trying to post a new
status update using just your keyboard. Go to the Twitter, hit the [?] key then the [n]
key. Side note, the retweet key [t] will only work when you are on a profile that’s not
your own.
The Guide
Below are some of the many keyboard shortcuts now available to all users. Just use
them while browsing Twitter on your computer. From “favoriting” to replying to
finding new users to follow, these shortcuts are real time-savers.
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iNHouse Mini Guide to Twitter
7. Measuring your success
Number of followers and number of retweets
These are a good indication of your twitter ‘reach’. The number of people who
actively follow you and retweet your posts can be used as a tangible measure of
your success. For example, a steady increase in the number of followers and
retweets shows that you are extending your social media persona.
The number of retweets of your posts illustrates your relevance to a discussion and
the subsequent responses are a good litmus test for opinion on your work/ subject
matter and perspective.
Klout /Peerindex
Klout, and the UK equivalent, Peerindex, (www.peerindex.com) enable you to
monitor your social media presence in a more quantifiable way. Klout
(www.klout.com/home) assigns people a score of between 1 and 100 - with 1 being
someone who's never seen social media, and 100 being…Justin Bieber. The average
person has a score of 20; anything higher means that you're at least moderately
influential in your area of expertise. Everyone with an active Twitter account has a
Klout score, though they can opt out of the system if they wish.
The Klout Score currently incorporates more than 400 signals from seven different
networks including:
o Facebook:
o Twitter
o Google+
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o
LinkedIn
Your Klout score combines all of these and issues you with a number. It is not only
your Twitter presence.
The importance of your Klout score is growing for example, at the Palms Casino
Resort in Las Vegas last summer, clerks surreptitiously looked up guests’ Klout scores
as they checked in. Some high scorers received instant room upgrades, sometimes
without even being told why. According to Greg Cannon, the Palms’ former director
of ecommerce, the initiative stirred up tremendous online buzz. He says that before
its Klout experiment, the Palms had only the 17th-largest social-networking following
among Las Vegas-based hotel-casinos. Afterward, it jumped up to third on
Facebook and has one of the highest Klout scores among its peers.
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