Being a popular and influential person or company on Twitter
isn't as easy as opening an account, yet it's also not as
complicated or straightforward as following a rulebook. A
lot of popularity will derive from who you are in relation
to your followers, including how personable you are and the
connectedness that you create. Here are some best practices
to let your personality shine through, rather than your self
promotion!
!! Steps !!
Understand what Twitter is and what it is not. Twitter is an online
social networking place, like the water cooler of the internet. It's
a place of connection, friendships, and networking. Things that
Twitter is *not* include assuming that it's nothing more than a sales
forum (despite the many people who abuse this repeatedly), an
obligatory add-on to your company's social media strategy without
tending to it actively (daily!), or a place to spar with people.
* The mistake many people make is to dive right into Twitter and
promote their website in nearly every single tweet. Big mistake!
You wouldn't do that in real life, so don't do it on Twitter.
* The balance needs to be: more personal updates and less leads to
things you want people to purchase.
Be authentic. Although the cliche "be yourself" is a bit overdone,
it's highly applicable to Twitter. Followers trust that you are
presenting yourself genuinely and this will only resonate where you
give of yourself to other people. As in real life, it's important to
be interesting, and to be interested in others.
* Provide your real name and occupation or interests. This builds up
a bigger picture of who you really are and reassures your
followers.
* If possible, provide a link in your Twitter profile to work you're
doing online or to something that tells more about you online
(such as LinkedIn or Facebook).
* Customize your Twitter photo and background. Twitter followers
don't like seeing the standard Twitter bird as a photo - use one
of yourself or something that identifies clearly with you. In
addition, add your own colors and maybe even designs or photos to
enliven the background of your Twitter page.
Interact. Twitter is about relationships and friendships. You can
grow to know a lot of amazing people through your Twitter account
just by interacting with them regularly, and many will become firm
friends even though you've never actually met them.
* Be sure to reply to all @ messages. If your name is mentioned, it
means someone cares enough to include you, and it's important to
acknowledge this by replying.
* Retweet (RT) people's information regularly and with consistency.
This is the lifeblood of Twitter, the sharing of information
through retweeting. It's a form of respect and a way of
acknowledging that the person being retweeted is sharing
information worthy of retweeting about.
* Communicate with Twitter users who are already popular. If they
notice you and like what they see, they'll help you in your
"social media climbing" by sharing your information with their
followers, and hopefully recommending you as well.
* Leave your Twitter address with comments that you make on blog
sites so that people can work their way back to the real you and
learn more.
Provide information other people want to know and share. You'll only
be retweeted and followed if you're providing a Twitter-stream that
grabs people's attention. Once you've established yourself as
someone who shares certain types of information, be sure to keep
providing fresh, fascinating, and curious updates.
* Include links to interesting stories, news items, websites,
recipes, etc.
* Also send links to photos, videos, and other visual treats for
followers to look at. Cute animals are often a winner as light
relief!
* Keep the updates flowing at a regular pace so that people know
they can turn to you reliably.
* If a disaster or major event happens in your locality or country,
don't be afraid to switching to it in addition to, or in place of
your normal tweets. Share updates and useful information such as
phone numbers, emergency information, and shelter addresses, etc.
People will readily share this information with your name on it,
and you can easily end up meeting many people who are in the thick
of providing emergency services, grateful for your support in
getting the information out.
* Bake some Twitter cookies and share the recipe link and the photos
of your resulting cookies with your followers.
Build your popularity. To be popular, you will need more and more
followers, people who are retweeting your information, and singing
your praises to their followers.
* Follow people. Do this as a daily ritual by focusing on people you
have things in common with. Use the Twitter search engine to find
people with similar interests; key in words that are likely to
make appropriate returns such as "Super Bowl", "vegan",
"burlesque", "cheese", "mom", etc. Half the fun is in finding new
people "just like you"!
* Follow back those who follow you. Regularly add new people to
those you follow, as well as regularly adding people who have
added you.
* Use automated follower adder tools if wished. If you decide to pay
for more followers, be sure that there is a benefit in doing so,
for your business, brand, or image, etc. For most individuals,
payment is unnecessary; use your time and personal effort wisely
instead.
* Monitor your popularity using tools that tell you your popularity
status. There are many tools available for this, and they can be
focused on country, region, topic (such as "Top LA Tweeters", "Top
Green Tweeters", etc.), or other elements you're keen to know
about.
* Read How to get more followers on Twitter and How to keep your
followers on Twitter for more details.
Reward your followers. There are a number of ways to reward your
Twitter followers that will impress them and have them tooting your
horn with their followers. Some of the ways include:
* Use the #FollowFriday (#FF) mechanism to list the names of your
favorite followers by way of thanks, and as a way of getting their
names circulated. In turn, your name gets circulated when they
thank you or reuse your #FF list directly.
* Tailor individual thanks to your followers. Personalizing thanks
is impressive; it not only thrills the person you're thinking but
it makes other followers think you're someone who cares about
people individually and this is an important impression to make.
One great way of doing this is to pick up portions of their
profile and to say thanks by replicating this person's main
points. For example, "My gratitude to @BilbowikiHow - a social
media guru with a heart of gold who specializes in horticulture,
laughter yoga, & Dr Who memorabilia. Please follow"
* Say thanks to your followers in a blog. Make it really special by
singling out particular followers for your blog post. Write a
small piece on who they are, what they do, and why they rock.
Include their photo and a link back to Twitter. And then let them
and your other followers know via Twitter! This one is always
loved and shows you really do care about them. The added benefit
is that your blog also gets greater coverage as followers share it
on.
* Always focus on the purpose of Twitter as being about
connectedness. Any time you feel like promoting yourself
endlessly, pull back and remember that Twitter is about connecting
and relating, not about selling teeth whitener to your pals. The
networks of friendship created online are as real as offline
friendships for many people. Just it is easy to wear out
friendships by asking friends one time too many to support your
Tupperware or Avon sales, so too this wearies friends online. Keep
the selling to a minimum, and ratchet up the connecting, sharing,
and Twitter loving.
!! Video !!
!! Tips !!
* Understand the difference between making a request and making a
demand. Occasionally asking someone to pass on your message for a
good cause is fine. But asking people to RT your messages as a
matter of course is impolite and demanding. Give your followers
the benefit of trusting their intelligence; they'll work out for
themselves whether or not they want to pass on your tweets.
* Consider adding a Twibbon to your profile photo to demonstrate
that you support certain causes or events. Keep it regularly
updated and remove it when it's stale.
!! Warnings !!
* Do not intimidate followers by sending DMs that insinuate that the
other person is not being a good Twitter friend because they're
not retweeting enough, or not supporting you enough. This is both
demanding and bullying and will cause the other person to withdraw
from you and maybe even to unfollow you.
!! Things You'll Need !!
* Lively Twitter account
* Lots of followers
* Interesting background and profile, plus personal image
* Lots of good things to share on Twitter
!! Related WikiHows !!
* How to Get More Followers on Twitter
* How to Use Twitter
* How to Be a Twitter Celebrity
* How to Keep Your Followers on Twitter
* How to Change Your Background on Twitter
!! Article Tools !!
* Read on wikiHow
*
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