Posted by New to Twitter? Or do you use Twitter often but are not sure how to make it work in your favor?
Either way, this article can be your one-stop shop for tips and tricks to help you gain as much as possible from using Twitter.
Twitter is a super cool platform that’s as casual as a platform can get, while still delivering updates, and news, interacting with your audience and customers and also driving traffic.
I’ll be sharing some pointers that could save you from making embarrassing social mistakes or even help you understand what to post and when.
These will be broken into 3 different parts here; The Set Up, The Publishing, and The Engagement. Think of them as the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion of using Twitter!
Are you ready to go from Noob to Pro? Let’s go!
1. The set-up
This segment will include everything from setting up your account up to the moment you want to publish your first post.
Account
Creating your account is fairly easy. There are 5 steps.
– Fill in your name, email address or phone number, and your date of birth.
– The next step is a permission request
– After that, your details from the 1st step will be displayed so that you can reconfirm you’ve entered the right details. Click the Sign-up option if you’re good to go.
– The fourth step is verification. There will be some riddles or simple math to answer.
– And the 5th is setting your password
Once you’re done with this, your account is created. There are just a few more steps to select topics and sub-topics along with options to follow relevant accounts. Once done, the sign-up/set-up pop-up disappears and you’re now free to edit your profile and bio.
Profile
Now you can move on to setting up a profile so good you attract a big audience. First, select a profile from the menu on the left, and then select Edit Profile. Here you’ll be asked for the following:
– A profile picture
– A cover image
– A bio
– A location
– Your website link.
If you also have a blog, or newsletter or hope to create multiple Twitter accounts, you can also include links to these in your bio. The space is available, why not make use of it?
But remember not to overcrowd the bio too. It’s a game of balance.
When creating your bio, and adding your profile and cover pictures, try to make it relevant to your business or if you’re a creator then relevant to your showcased personality.
You can change your name at any time from your profile, but to change your username or handle, you’ll need to go into account settings and information.
There is one more thing you can set before you start tweeting. And that is your Twitter circle. You can add up to 150 people in your circle and make changes at any time. The tweets you share with your circle will only be seen and replied to by the people added to the circle.
2. The Publishing
Now that your account and profile have been set up, you can get ready to publish to your first Tweet!
You can post images, videos, GIFs, text, emojis, and polls. Twitter has a character limit of 280 characters and you should always make use of as many as you can. Web links also take up characters so it’s important to understand and plan your tweets accordingly.
When you use social media platforms like Twitter for marketing, you must formulate a good content strategy. This can be done using content pillars. The most basic ones are Educational, Promotional, Entertainment, Community, and Engagement. I’ve written more about this in another article you can read here — How To Create Content Pillars For Social Media.
You can start off by publishing some introductory tweets. Introduce yourself and what you do. Community content like on-goings in the industry or educational content about your industry is a good way to start as well. In the beginning, you should post at least 3–4 times a day to rack up some followers. This obviously means that what you post in the first few weeks is the key to getting your followers.
Not only should you NOT fall for fraudsters that offer to sell followers, but you also need to pay more attention to the quality of your content. If the quality is at its peak, you can be sure that people will follow anyway.
Now, scheduling of course makes posting tweets much easier. This way you can plan for a whole week ahead and it’ll give you more time to complete other tasks.
After a few weeks, when you have a good idea about the times when engagement is high, schedulers like Crowdfire can help you post at the Best Time.
The best time is calculated on the basis of the engagement you received on your previous post and also the times your audience is most active. How cool is that? 😃
Crowdfire also has a super cool Content Curation feature that helps you when you find yourself in the middle of a content block. You can connect sites you like with RSS feeds, or simply enter topics of interest or relevance and the app will list relevant articles and images.
If your focus is on engagement, which it should be, you must publish quality content in a balanced manner. You need to make sure you’re not spending more time on content creation and curation than you do on tweet engagement. This brings us to the final part of becoming a Pro at Twitter.
3. The Engagement
When it comes to engagement on Twitter, you must make sure that you reply to as many comments, re-tweets, DMs, and mentions as you can, if not all. One way to keep track of all mentions and DMs is by using a tool like Crowdfire. The app will not only bring in mentions from Twitter but also from Facebook and Instagram, all in one dashboard.
It’s good practice to answer questions and respond to concerns or complaints by replying to a tweet, but to avoid an embarrassing situation, you must learn when to move the conversation over to DM. Over time, you’ll understand who from your audience tends to be difficult and you can add them to different lists. This makes it easier to keep an eye on the tweet and tackle any issue brought up by them on priority.
Twitter Lists help you manage your engaging audience as well as others. You can make lists to add potential influencers or customers that like your brand and share good reviews.
Even though engagement is very important and you must respond to as many users as possible, it’s best to stay alert for tweets from Internet trolls. If you’re unsure about whether the user is a troll or a legit customer, it’s best to give a professional response asking for details over DM. If they’re a customer that wants a solution, they will DM you. If not, you can deem them a troll and stay away from tweets by that user.
If you make and build your Twitter account according to the points I’ve mentioned here, you can become a pro quicker than you’d expect! Remember, engagement is as well important as quality content. If you respond to your audience and customers on high priority, it will show that you care about them and they will like you all the more.
That’s all folks!
Already a Twitter Pro? Share some of your own tips in the comments below!