Chapter 2

Working with Twitter

IN THIS CHAPTER

Following and reaching out on Twitter

Using Twitter etiquette

Socializing on Twitter

The people who do nothing but drop links on Twitter are missing some amazing opportunities. That’s because Twitter is not just a useful promotional tool but also an important networking tool.

Before the Internet, most people had to join professional organizations and attend networking events on a regular basis. While that’s still the case now, all that in-person networking can be expensive. Many people who are just starting in their fields can’t afford to put out the money to attend a lot of events or join many professional groups.

The beauty of Twitter and other social networks is the capability to reach so many people without spending a lot of money. With millions of people on Twitter at any given time, you have ample opportunity to reach out and be reached out to. Make no mistake, Twitter may force you into brevity (280 characters), but the opportunity to grow your professional network is there.

In this chapter, you take a look at how to use Twitter as a networking tool and a few best practices for making the most of your experience.

Finding the Right People to Follow

The first step in your Twitter marketing journey is to spend time with the people who make up your community and enjoy their company. To do that, you have to build up a follower base.

The best way to find followers on Twitter is search Twitter for the people who are most likely to support your brand. Here are some ideas for getting started:

• See how many of your existing customers are online. If you’re already in business, you probably have a list of people with whom you do business. They may also be on social networks. Use your mailing lists to find people to follow on Twitter. You can also use Twitter’s search function.
• Find your friends and followers from other social networks. If you already have a Facebook or brand page set up on one of the other social networks, see whether those same friends are on Twitter and give them a follow.
• Follow other professionals you know from your respective space. If you share tips or interact online with other professionals, follow them on Twitter, as well.
• Use Twitter search to find people with similar jobs or brands to yours. Use the search function located at the top of your Twitter page or Twitter app, or go to http://twitter.com/search-home. Search for similar brands and interests.
• See who follows brands similar to yours. When you find brands that do the same as or close to what you do, follow their followers.
• Use your keywords in Twitter search. Take the keywords you use to optimize your pages and search for them.

Starting a Twitter follower base is as easy as following someone first. Once you start following people, some will follow you in return.

Be careful with randomly following dozens of people at once. Twitter has tools to detect a huge bulk following and can suspend your account pending further investigation. If Twitter checks your history and feels you’re adding people only so they’ll follow back so you can spam them, they’ll close your account. Conversely, Twitter also prohibits mass unfollows. So if you’re only following for the follows, and plan on unfollowing people after they follow your account, you might get banned.

Finding Out Who Is Talking about You on Twitter

Nothing is voyeuristic or wrong about observing conversations on Twitter. Most people who tweet are hoping others will notice and join the conversation. If they didn’t want a public conversation, they’d send a direct message (DM) or use some other form of communication. They also wouldn’t mention or @reply you unless they wanted you to know what they’re saying. So if you see a complaint or @reply (see Figure 2-1), it’s in your best interest to respond, even if it’s just to say, “Thank you.”

FIGURE 2-1: To get someone’s attention on Twitter, use an @reply.

As a brand (personal or professional), you always want to keep your ear to the ground. With Twitter, you can easily monitor the conversation and respond to comments and queries.

Many times, if someone is talking about or to you, he will @reply you. This means that person is putting an @ in front of your Twitter screen name to get your attention. Without the @, there’s a chance you won’t see the tweet, unless you do a search on your name, your company name, or specific keywords. Also, if you’re reaching out to someone, you have to put an @ in front of his screen name, or the tweet will get lost among the thousands of other tweets.

It’s good customer service to find out what people are saying about you on Twitter. It gives you an opportunity to learn about problems or concerns and shows your customers and community you’re accessible.

Make time each day to explore Twitter and see who is talking and what they’re saying. Don’t shy away from criticism or critique. Instead, thank the other party and take it as valuable feedback.

Responding to Tweets

To monitor the conversation so that you can find out whether people are tweeting about you or your brand, keep a Twitter app, such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or TweetDeck, open on your computer’s desktop. You can set up these apps to ping you every time you receive an @reply or when someone posts a specific search term, including your name or that of your brand. You need to set up these searches to reach out or respond to the people who are talking about or to you. For example, if you work for a restaurant chain and someone tweets a picture of one of your dishes and talks about how much she enjoyed her meal, you want to acknowledge the tweet by thanking the other party and encouraging her to visit again. If someone tweets that a meal was subpar, you want to respond with an apology and perhaps even offer a discount or coupon for another meal to make things right.

Avoid public negativity at all costs. If people are saying negative things about you or your brand, do reach out to them publicly to ask if you can help, but also ask if you can take it private via phone, email, or IM so that you can discuss without feeling pressured to respond to the whole world. Be especially wary of trading barbs or disparaging remarks, or using rude language. This behavior can harm your brand beyond repair and lead to a public relations nightmare. A good rule is to never post anything online you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of The New York Times.

When you @reply someone, the comment doesn’t show up for the masses, only people with whom you’re both friends. It’s not a private conversation — anyone who is searching can find it — but it’s not mainstream, either.

If you want everyone to see comments you make when you @reply people, put a period in front of it; now everyone can see it, as shown in Figure 2-2.

FIGURE 2-2: Put a period in front of an @reply if you want everyone who follows you to see it.

Searching on Twitter

Twitter is an excellent search tool. As discussed in the preceding section, you can use it to discover who is talking about you or your brand. However, you can use Twitter also as an awesome search engine to find people to follow or reach out to, to find similar brands, and to see what’s going on with specific keywords, search terms, hashtags, and news items.

Traditionally, Twitter isn’t considered to be a search engine, but that doesn’t mean you can’t treat it like one. If you’re looking for something, anything, there’s a very good chance you’ll find it on Twitter.

What follows are some of the ways to use Twitter’s search function or the search engine at http://twitter.com/search-home as a search tool. You can find the following:

• People: Search specific names, Twitter handles, professions, or hobbies. Don’t forget to give them a follow so that you can connect.
• Brands: Use Twitter to search for similar brands to see how they’re using the platform.
• Clients: Search terms will help you find potential clients. Also, consider the types of people you seek out offline to drum up business, and search for the same types of people online.
• Jobs: You can search for job-specific hashtags and keywords to find job openings on Twitter. Moreover, many job boards tweet job opportunities.
• Hashtags: The Twitter search engines help you follow your favorite hashtags.
• Search terms: When you use a Twitter search for particular search terms and keywords, you’ll find everyone who is talking about those words and phrases.
• Your brand: Discover what others are saying about your brand.
• Your passion: Search your favorite subjects.
• News: Whether you want to go local, international, or niche-oriented, you can search for the latest news on Twitter.

Take advantage of Twitter’s trending topics: Discussions might be happening that can benefit you or your brand. Simply use the trending hashtag to ask questions or respond to people who are already chatting using that hashtag. Don’t spam or get into hashtag jacking. Be sure to stay on topic if you’re getting involved in a hashtag conversation, and avoid sharing links unless they’re specifically requested.

Find trending hashtags at https://twitter.com/search-home. Also, when you log into Twitter, you also see trending topics and hashtags in the left sidebar.

Tweeting Like a Pro

There’s a difference in the way someone wanting to do business uses Twitter as opposed to a teen who only wants to tweet her friends. Just as you conduct yourself in a professional manner at offline networking events, you also want to conduct yourself as a professional on social networks. People really do pay attention.

Articulating in 280 characters

Text speak, using abbreviations and shortened words to shorten a cellphone text message, is difficult to read and unprofessional when used while representing your brand on any platform. Because Twitter allows for only 280 characters, you may be tempted to use abbreviations or shortened words to fit in everything you want to say, but it isn’t recommend.

What follows are some tips for making every character count.

• Spell every word.
• Use punctuation.
• Practice the art of brevity.
• Let your personality shine through.

Using social networks isn’t a reason to forget you’re a professional. When you’re using your brand account, conduct yourself in the same manner in which you’d conduct yourself at an offline business event.

Using the hashtag

When you put a pound sign (#) in front of a keyword, you’re using a hashtag. The hashtag makes it easy to follow a conversation centered on a keyword or topic. For example, if yours is a sausage brand and you want to create a recipe contest around your world-famous kielbasa, you might use #kielbasarecipes as your hashtag. The benefits to using a hashtag over an @reply abound:

• Hashtags catch the attention of others. Sometimes people aren’t necessarily part of a conversation but join in after espying a catchy hashtag in their Twitter streams.
• Hashtags add longevity to a conversation. An @reply can die in a busy Twitter stream, but following the hashtag will allow you to view all tweets in a conversation at one time.
• Hashtags allow tweets to appear in a stream even if the other party doesn’t @reply you. Often during Twitter chats or hashtag campaigns, participants in the conversation don’t use an @reply to catch your attention but instead rely solely on the hashtag. When you view a hashtag chat using an app such as Hootsuite or TweetChat, you can better view the entire conversation at one time.
• You can measure the results of a hashtag. Several apps and services, such as Radian6 by Salesforce or Hashtracking, offer not only a transcript of a hashtag but also data from all the people who use the hashtag — for example, how many people viewed the hashtag (who didn’t necessarily participate in the conversation), how many people clicked links, and which people are the most influential ones using the platform.

When you use hashtags, you can take your Twitter conversations to a new level. Hashtags allow you to have, keep track of, and measure a conversation, something important to anyone marketing a brand.

Be careful about sharing too many links or promotional tweets on someone else’s hashtag, an activity called hashtag jacking. Hashtag jackers spam popular or trending hashtags to drive traffic to their own interests, and it’s considered a serious breach of Twitter etiquette.

Sharing on Twitter

The beauty of Twitter is how awesome a tool it is for sharing. The people who use Twitter love to discover new articles, videos, and people. They’re quick to offer a recommendation or review, and they especially enjoy when you ask for their opinions. If they like what you say, they’ll even give you a retweet.

Knowing when to @reply and direct message

For the most part, your responses to other tweeters will be public unless someone specifically reaches out to you via direct message (DM). Sometimes, though, you want to take public messages private because you don’t want to expose some things to the entire Twittersphere:

• Long conversations between you and someone else: Yes, Twitter is all about public conversations, but you also don’t want to clutter up your friends’ Twitter streams with a long conversation you’re having with someone else. For something expansive, you may want to offer to take it private.
• Complaints: If someone has a complaint about your brand or is reaching out in a negative manner, let him know you’re sorry for the inconvenience and offer to take it to a phone call, email, or DM so that you can better handle the situation. You don’t want to sweep the complaint under the rug, nor do you want to ignore it. However, you don’t necessarily want to air all your brand’s negativity to the masses, either.
• Personal details: It should go without saying that private email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, and other personal details shouldn’t be available to the public. If you need to share this information or need to request that others share it with you, it’s best to take it private.
• Information that isn’t meant for public consumption: Sometimes you’d like to share some details with people but can’t put it out to the public yet. By all means, use a Twitter DM.
• Something that may embarrass someone: Perhaps a negative situation is the result of customer or client error. The last thing you want to do is shame that person on the social networks. If you need to talk to someone because of a potentially embarrassing error, take it private.

For the most part, your Twitter updates are public. However, use your best judgment. Every now and then, you may need to take things private.

Retweeting and being retweeted

For many people on Twitter, getting retweeted is part of their marketing plan. It may not seem like much, but a retweet can go a long way. For example, if you tweet a link to your latest blog post and someone else retweets it, more people are likely to view your blog post. The more retweets you get, the further your reach.

If you’re on Twitter for any length of time, you may notice that certain famous tweeters and those with the most followers get retweets every time they post something. What follows are some tips for retweeting other people’s tweets and also for writing the types of things people will want to retweet:

• Say something people want to share. If you’re tweeting links to your food or talking about the weather, your content isn’t very shareable. The type of content people share is usually funny, unique, profound, or interesting.
• Share something others want to share. Don’t share for the sake of sharing; share because you think an item has interest or value. Before tweeting a quote or link, ask, “Will this interest my community enough that they want to share it with others?” Think about why you felt compelled to share it and whether your community will feel the same way.
• Don’t write for the retweet. Usually tweets fall flat when people are trying hard to be clever or funny. Retweetable tweets are usually organic and spontaneous, not forced or flat.
• Don’t retweet just because someone famous said something. Many people retweet well-known people in hopes of catching their attention. If you retweet celebrities all the time, it tells your community you don’t care about them as much as you do famous people. If the Kardashians have nothing to do with you and your community, and the celebrities aren’t saying anything all that great, save your retweet for someone more deserving.
• Say “thank you” for retweets. When people retweet something you said or share links to your blog posts, be sure to say “thank you.” It shows them you appreciate the community effort.

Avoid the vanity retweet — when someone tweets something nice about you and you retweet it. Most people think a vanity retweet is bragging and roll their eyes at those who do it.

Blocking people

It’s going to happen. Some people on Twitter are so abusive or spammy that you have no recourse but to ban them. First, don’t feel guilty. Everyone has a list of blocked tweeters, even if they don’t talk about them. Second, understand that no one has to tolerate abuse.

What does it mean to block your tweets? Simply, it means the person you block shouldn’t be able to see or respond to your tweets.

Here are some reasons you might want to block people from viewing your tweets or participating in your conversation:

• Every time they respond to a question or comment, it’s with a link to a sales page.
• Every time you post, they respond with something snarky.
• Someone uses vulgarity and profanity on a regular basis, and that’s not your thing.
• Someone is abusive to you and your followers.

If someone isn’t being nice on Twitter, or if someone is using your conversations as an excuse to sell stuff or drive traffic to his site, go ahead and block that person. Your community will probably applaud you.

Creating a successful Twitter campaign

Your Twitter campaign takes careful planning. It’s not enough to tweet every now and then. You also want to put a strategy in place. If you don’t go into it with a specific plan and goal, your tweets may be sporadic and haphazard, and you won’t achieve the success you were hoping for.

Here are some tips for creating a successful Twitter campaign:

• Plan a follower strategy. Determine the types of people you want to follow and have follow you in return. Consider a mix of people who are customers, have the potential to be customers, and work in similar jobs, as well as brand accounts that may have a tie-in with your community. (For more on this topic, see the section “Finding the Right People to Follow,” earlier in this chapter.)
• Plan a content strategy. Think about the types of tweets you want to post each day. Consider a mix of humor, news, questions, retweets, and a few promotional tweets with or without links.
• Plan a hashtag strategy. Hashtags can be a lot of fun. You can have a regular hashtag chat or use a hashtag in contests, news, and updates about your brand and more. Plan for at least a couple hashtag updates per day. (See the earlier “Using the hashtag” section for details.)
• Don’t make every tweet a sale. Plan a balanced content strategy so that your tweets feature more than selling. Perhaps publish two links or sales for every ten tweets.
• Don’t make every tweet about your brand. Share non–brand-related thoughts and ideas so as not to make everything about you.
• Ask questions. Ask questions not only about your products and services, but also about news items, trending topics, and topics geared toward individual members of your community.
• Share other people’s stuff. Share links to blog posts, images, news articles, and videos by a variety of people.
• With all that said, don’t be afraid to share your own stuff. There’s no shame in sharing your own blog posts, news, and even links to sales and discounts. Again, it’s all about balance.
• Think outside the box. Think about ways to reach your community on Twitter that are different from the same old, same old. Plan content or campaigns that few people are using. Research some unique ways brands are using Twitter, and then put your own spin on them.
• Use Twitter with other platforms. Plan content and campaigns that span the platforms. Use teaser tweets to draw attention to blog posts or Facebook content, for example.
• Call out your community. If someone in your community has a milestone, offer public congratulations. Wish happy birthdays and anniversaries, and offer condolences or congratulations. Don’t forget to use the @reply so that the other party knows you’re offering good wishes.
• Seek assistance. If you have any technical questions or would like recommendations on the latest gadgets and gear, reach out to your community. Try to have at least one question per week because your community appreciates seeing your human side.
• Create discount codes for your community. Although you don’t want to be spammy, offering perks to your community is a nice gesture. Why not create discount codes for only your Twitter members to thank them for their support? Try for at least one discount per month.

• Be transparent. Be honest with your community. If you’re asked questions, don’t tap dance around an issue or fudge numbers — it’s sure to backfire on you.

Using keywords in your tweets

With 240 characters, you need to choose your words wisely, so you don’t always need to use keywords in your tweets. However, you can make your Twitter content more searchable by using keywords in some of your tweets. Your keywords should make sense and work in a sentence, and others should be searching for them online.

Try writing your keyword tweets ahead of time, playing with the words so that they make sense. If you’re using keywords to make announcements, perhaps take an hour or two to write a list of appropriate tweets. When you try to tweet keywords off the cuff, it often doesn’t come out as intended.

To make your tweets even more searchable, use your keywords as hashtags. Using hashtags makes it easy to refer to them later to see who else is using them. A hashtag is different from a keyword; a hashtag is used to hold a conversation rather than make your tweet visible in a search.

Don’t use keywords for every tweet. If your community feels like you’re using Twitter only to drive traffic or sell something, you’re sure to lose followers.

Following the Twitter Rules of Etiquette

Like everything else online, Twitter has certain unwritten rules of behavior.

What follows is a list of accepted Twitter practices. Most of these items are common courtesy, and some are things that aren’t as intuitive to new Twitter users. While most of these items won’t get you booted off Twitter, not following certain rules of etiquette can cost you some followers:

• Don’t spam. If a potential follower takes a peek at your Twitter stream and it’s nothing but preprogrammed links, she’s going to turn tail and run. If you post sales or traffic driving links all day, you’re going to lose community. If you talk only about yourself, your brand, or your product, you’ll never enjoy a good conversation. Balance your promotional tweets with conversational tweets.
• Be positive. There’s a time and place for negativity, and Twitter usually isn’t it. Avoid rants, profanity, and depressing woe-is-me type topics. If you’re bringing down the mood of the community, they won’t feel the love anymore and will unfollow.
• Don’t use all caps. TYPING IN ALL CAPS IS CONSIDERED YELLING. It hurts the eyes, too. Avoid it at all costs.
• Don’t swear unless you’re sure that your community isn’t easily offended by profanity. Some people don’t mind a little cursing, but others do. If you’re going to go the edgy route, make sure that your community is comfortable with it.
• If you’re joining a Twitter chat, let your community know. When you participate in a Twitter chat, you generally have more tweets in your stream than usual. Give a tweet before beginning to let everyone know that you’re joining a chat and will tweet more than normal for the next hour or so.
• Don’t feel you need to follow everyone who follows you. Not everyone who follows you is a good fit. Don’t feel compelled to follow everyone who follows you first. By the same token, don’t be afraid to unfollow someone who doesn’t sit well with you or your brand’s message and tone.
• Give credit where it’s due. If you’re sharing a tip, quote, or link you saw someone else share, give that person credit. You don’t want a reputation as someone who steals other people’s thunder.
• Don’t hijack someone else’s hashtag. Don’t use someone else’s hashtag to promote your stuff. It’s wrong and will turn off both old and new followers.
• Don’t respond to a tweet with a sales push. If someone is reaching out to the community for assistance, don’t respond with a link to something promotional. It makes you look insincere. Instead, reach out with genuine, helpful information.
• Avoid private jokes. If you can’t share with everyone, don’t share at all.

When using Twitter, follow your best practices for business in the offline world. Sure, it’s a more casual form of communication, but you’re still looking to make a good impression.

Hosting a Tweet-Up

Enjoying Twitter? Feel like taking your show on the road? Why not grow your community offline with a tweet-up?

Tweet-ups are Twitter community get-togethers. You see them at many blogging, business, and social media conferences, though they’re also held often in cities, as well. They don’t take much effort to plan, they don’t have to cost much money, and promoting them is as simple as getting everyone you know to tweet.

Many brands host tweet-ups to meet their community offline. They invite the people who follow them on Twitter to join them at a pub or restaurant to meet them face to face. Sometimes the brand buys a round of drinks or provides food, and other times it’s up to individuals in attendance to provide their own refreshments. It’s usually more about the people than what’s being served.

Tweet-ups are easy to set up. Just follow these steps:

1. Plan a time and place for your tweet-up.
2. Contact the venue in advance to make sure that it can accommodate a small gathering.
3. Start tweeting the details of the tweet-up at least two weeks in advance.
4. Invite your community to share the details with their friends.
5. Show up at the designated date and time, and meet and greet your community.

Tweet-ups can be low-maintenance gatherings, or you can invest money in putting on a full-fledged spread. Either way, your community will be happy to spend time with you.