Over 30 Great Twitter Tips by an Expert of Connecting.
or variously titled “how to win friends and influence people on #twitter.”
1. First thing, stop following anyone with “hashtag follow back” or, as you will find it, #Followback. In particular, BLOCK anyone selling friends, The price is cheap at usually a few thousand followers for a fist full of dollars. Yes, the blocking of them takes a few seconds of “YOUR” time but do it, just do it. This may seem contrary to advice you have been given like, “they are harmless and/or effective”. They are “effective”, but they are not harmless. They are effective because this “trick” only s
erves to get people who are mindless robots, marketers or worst of all trolls. Real people don’t want the BS* but should have the sense to be interested and follow PEOPLE they actually are interested in. Otherwise you end up with something useful to “them” and not YOU! Twitter and social stuff in general are fun wonderful places to entertain and be entertained. Pass a comment, forward stuff on you like and connect with real people whom you like. Sure you don’t need the advertising, but that is a part of it but no one needs feel harassed online. What we certainly don’t need is the BS*. Let’s as the commnity (if you are reading this then you are certainly an important part of OUR community.) Get rid of the robots etc., if social is going to be an improvement then it needs to be useful and enjoyable to everyone.
2. Do use a few hashtags by preceding words with a # as in #Hashtag or #DidYouKnow!
3. #To #Many #Hashtags #Are #Not #Enjoyed #By #Anyone #No #Matter #How #Short #It #Is!
4. Don’t communicate in Twitter shorthand either. Its bloody annoying. ICYDK**
5. Put a picture on you avatar. Anything is better than nothing but your actual face works well as does a company logo. Crop the face close. You do not need to include your chest and the legs…well, no!
6. Just go along, read, like and retweet (RT) what YOU like. Many RTs makes you many friends, two many makes you weird. Find a balance but probably not more than 100 retweet, posts and interactions a day. At most 200 might still be ok but that is not my advice. And trust me, I’m an expert when it comes to this. Anything more and you look like a parent in full kit at a little league game. Everyone is rightfully scared of weirdos whom seem overly keen and a lot out of place from the norm.
7. Imagine Twitter was not visual and was rather sensed through smell. Well then great smells would be the thing. Do you get it, great visuals always help.
8. You will soon enough also meet people on Twitter whom you already know in the “real” world. This is awesome and still gives me the thrills of serendipity each time it happens. It may seem like the chances of this are even less than a one in a million chance but it is higher than you think and does happen as interests and worlds collide.
9. If I must advertise myself or services consider only doing this every 9 or 10th post. I never do the hard sell in social marketing.
10. Read widely and don’t get stuck in your information bubble and just read or interact with confirmatory ideas. Try every now and then to actually read something you don’t think you agree with. So learn something, share something, teach something and let yourself be surprised.
11. Perhaps the most surprising thing is that the vast majority of people in this world are nice and want to like you and see interesting things on your posts that they like. Perhaps it is the golden rule. Be nice, kind and generous with yourself
12. Overtime Twitter may give you power to influence. Be a force for good!
13. Who cares about the celebrities online, if you like them, fine, follow, but don’t just be a mindless fan. Be your own STAR and over time, if you feel like it, go ahead and follow Justin Bieber or even @potus. I follow Taylor Swift! Blah so what.
14. No mater who you are you will soon enough need to manage those you follow and get rid of your mistakes. Manage flitter is my advice! Use it from the time you start following more than say 1000 people. Just to thin the heard so to speak. When you reach 2000 people you are following you will know why I said this.
15. Don’t waste your time with TrueTwit that makes followers fill out a captcha to authenticate if they are real. Well at first at-least don’t add it, add it later if you like once you think you need the imaginary protection. It is not really to bad (and ultimately it is there, and there are some reasons for it) but it does get annoying when you come across tweatcheck. Plus it is basically ineffectual at solving the real problem, getting rid of spamming bots. Plus if, step one works then there is no need. Just real people getting use out of some modern information tools.
16. If you want more followers think about what might interest them. It is very seldom about talking about yourself. Talk about their (their being your ideal audience) interests. If you are marketing topsoil for example, we’ll then talk about gardening as well as your topsoil.
17. Short and sweet is better than long and bitter. So don’t even use the 140 or so characters you are given.
18. And you often don’t need to attack ideas although you can, but the best way to get your voice actually out and heard is to promote what you love and ignore as much as you can what you are indifferent or in opposition too.
19. This next bit is actually quite difficult online. Be yourself. If you can have the courage, you will see there are plenty of thousands of people who will just like you. Not some politically correct intentioned facade, but YOU, beautiful you. And you may find you like them too!
20. If the best friendships tend to be with the people with whom you can openly be weird with then online might or might not be the best place for you. Remember, it is still very much in the public, even if you are hiding behind an avatar. If you are being unsociable to the point of bad taste, then the avatar is not hiding but revealing you. Don’t be that person even if sometimes you are just a little bit. And if this rule is seeming to conflict with rule 10, well then good. Like life, Twitter has a lot of “grey” but if you go back and read it again it should start to make some sense.
21. Don’t be a jerk but also don’t rush to soon to assume someone else is too. Sarcasm is in short sticky sweet supply with irony dripping into the swirling smooosh! Best to read their feed a bit before slating them or offering a short sharp reply.
22. Twitter is not really for kids just yet, it’s a big pipe and some of it is a sewer. Leave it for the teens and up age group at least!
23. Use your head! Don’t follow rubbish people, only the people you like or at least don’t immediately dislike. It is most meaningful to be real and authentic in this new world connecting deeper than ever before. There are more connections than you could ever need to get your unique voice out. You will find it much easier if you are discerning.
24. Trust is very important online so you will not get far if you cruelly mislead or blatantly lie or make up stuff. As in life, your word should be your bond. I once retweeted some unusual and interesting fact only to find out as I went down their timeline, they just made stuff up and added the word fact to make it sound better. As the queen of England often says when commenting on my Twitter feed, “I was not amused!”
25. Consistency counts. 30 minutes a day for 10 days online is better than 10 hours in one day over 5 days.
26. If you really want friends, then give a little extra, of your time and yourself. Don’t give money, give value.
27. There are at least 7 secrets to getting people’s attention when communicating with them online, and those rules apply to Twitter too!
28. Always leave them wanting more, then give it to them later.
29.
30. See my advance tips here to get the most out of your time and the most out of your content
31. Always give extra. Like that you still get 30 fantastic tips on making friends and gaining influence on Twitter.com.
32. In short, follow me.
Signed #FollowBack
#Followback is an established expert in social media, and you will see their adverts everywhere. People just love posting them. Still, always remember, only follow the real #FollowBack as the rest are all BS*.
PS, *BS* stands for BullShit!
**ICYDK stands for In Case You Don’t Know!
And anything in between two** is a verb actually experienced. *sigh* YKWIM!