You have signed up for Twitter, learned about Twitter Etiquette here from me, and NOW WHAT? You are an emerging brand trying to establish yourself. You know that Social Media, namely Twitter, plays a role in this process. BUT, you do not know what to do next? How do you connect, engage, and share with the right Tweeps?
No worries – I am here with 5 easy steps to establish yourself and get started with content on Twitter:
- Does your profile reflect your brand AND is it inviting? It is super easy to spice up your Twitter profile page. Simply go to Settings (top right hand corner under user name) and then click on the Design Tab. You have the option of choosing a ready made theme for a background OR you can choose Change Background Image, and upload your own pattern/logo. Next, click on the Profile Tab and insert your catchy BIo and add your profile picture. Two things on this: 1) Be real in your bio and give a quick essence for who you are/what you do & 2) Put in a nice photo of YOU because people want to know WHO they are tweeting with (exception to this rule would be something like “The Team” at StartupNation which is a collaboration of people
- Use the Lists function! As you gain followers and build a base of tweeps you are following, go to your lists of Followers or Following (on your profile page) and click on the icon with the person & arrow, and then click Add to List. You can create lists of tweeples making it easy to group people based on subject, how you know them (or don’t know them), or whatever you want. Remember that unless you submit that you want the list to be Private, it will be set to Public and everyone on the Twitterverse will be able to see your lists (and what you name them).
Now you are all set up…Moving on to the good stuff…Think about why you are on Twitter? To establish a brand? To position yourself as an authority? Well, to do this…you have to speak to particular verticals. For example, I am a mompreneur/writer/blogger/editor who inspires others while living in a household full of chaos, drinking coffee, and developing a product. So, while I sometimes send a tweet about my love for a particular cup of coffee or that my house is vibratng with craziness, mostly I tweet about start-up biz, small biz, tech & social media for mompreneurs, life for mom entrepreneurs, product development for women, and the space that I am inventing in….SO, you ask, “how do I find this information?”
- Lists are helpful to you because it a great way to curate content and find good tweeps to follow! For example, I have a list called “momma bloggers” and this is where I can look for other awesome tweets/content to RT and share about momma-hood and being an entrepreneur. I also have a list of the other women entrepreneurs that I met here in the Women Entrepreneurs group on SUN. This is another important list for me to pay attention to for women in biz info. NOW – if you are in the same space as me, you can look at my list “Start-it-up Friends,” and find some amazing tweeps to follow. See how it works?
- Another fabulous information gathering tool is Google Alerts. This is an awesome tool that allows you to set alerts for topics, keywords, YOU, & specific urls that are delivered right to your email inbox! You can set your google alert to search just in the news or the whole web and lots of other options including when they alert you, etc. I love this! Obviously, I have a Google Alert set for “Mompreneur,” and when something is in the news for mompreneur, I get an email with a link to the article. This allows me to read it first thing in the morning, and share it with my Twitter audience. Google Alerts are so quick and easy, anyone could do it, and a fabulous way to find relevant content (of course…you have to decide what your vertical, keywords, hot topics are).
- Finally, use a dashboard for viewing Twitter, like Hootsuite or TweetDeck. I use Hootsuite, This allows you to set up columns of content, like your lists or specific searches for topics/hashtags on Twitter. This is a total time-saver, and helps you to view your different groups of people and content sources along with what is going on all of Twitter-ville for a topic. It saves you searching around time with automatically uploading the content in the columns that you have set up on your dash.
There you have it – my 5 easy ways to engage, connect, follow, and generate on Twitter.
Stay tuned for next up on my list – using #hashtags and Twitter searches relevant to YOU.
Until then, if you want to connect with me and hear more…visit me at https://backngroovemom.com or follow me on Twitter at @backngroovemom
AND, thanks for motivating me to run and work a bit on my Twitter Lists!
