Twitter may look complicated at first, especially with all its jargon and funky symbols everywhere. Who’s following who and what the heck is a feed? I definitely was a little perplexed right after creating my account, as many newbies out there probably experience too. Luckily, since I started working at Postcron I’ve started to get the hang of this platform. That’s why today I wanted to share with you the Top 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners, to help you get your Twitter account up and running like a well-oiled machine.
After all, Twitter is extremely useful for generating brand awareness or promoting your business. It has over 284 million users and can be extremely effective if used correctly. That’s why today we want help you jump right in by giving you some tips and pointers.
Top 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners:
1. Write a down to earth, professional bio
On Twitter, you’ve got 160 characters to explain yourself in a nutshell, ready go! It’s actually a lot harder than it looks, right? Your bio is as important for gaining followers as first impressions are at job interviews. To create an enticing bio show your audience that you’re expert in your field. Instead saying what you ARE, highlight what you DO (action words vs. job title).
It’s also super important to hint at what’s in it for them if they follow you? Demonstrate what someone can expect or gain from adding you. Don’t forget to be fun, this is social media after all! Recheck it every once in awhile. Change it up, especially if you are using any buzzwords that could go out of style. And remember, we are all evolving as individuals and professionals, so should your bio.
This is an example of a bio that is down to earth, authentic, humorous, while at the same time professional and highlights accomplishments. Don’t forget, Twitter also allows you to include a link, so be sure to connect your bio to your website!
2. Use Lists to Organize Your Feed
Wow, was this useful! At first I was so overwhelmed by my feed i was like:
There were so many posts, retweets from random users, and sponsored content, I was starting to feel like I wasn’t able to keep track of anything or more importantly, connect with the people I wanted to. A great solution to this is lists. Lists help you organize your account so that you can use Twitter to your advantage for learning new skills and connecting with your audience, and not go crazy doing it. Some ideas for creating lists for your business might be to make one for each or some of these:
- competitors
- customer relationships
- industry leaders
- trends
- employees/team members
- events
- blogs you like
- your biggest fans
3) Respond, Respond, Respond!
If you are new to Twitter, responding to everything shouldn’t be that big of a hassle. It’s actually extremely important for gaining followers and making connections. Think about it, someone actually took the time out of their day to mention you, retweet you, or favorite something that YOU shared. That’s pretty awesome and they deserve a response.
Furthermore, it’s an excellent way to boost engagement and give your brand or business a personal touch. Also by responding to your followers, you increase the possibility that they might retweet YOUR response to show they’ve been engaged with. In that case, you would actually be expanding your reach to an entire audience, not just a single individual.
Pizza Hut is among the Top 10 Most Engaging Brands, and one the brands with the most replies. Their fans definitely enjoy the personal attention. Take a look at how they reply to so many of their followers. Note the ^AT represents the community manager’s initials. For example, I would put ^TW if I were the one to reply:
4) Tweet your content multiple times
Reposting, especially on Twitter is actually a very effective method. As we talked about how busy your feed can get before, it’s very likely that your followers didn’t catch your tweet the first time around. Remember also that you might have followers from different time zones, so don’t be afraid to repost the same material more than once. Here is an infographic from CoSchedule that outlines an example posting timeline:
If you tweet your content more than once you’ll have higher chances of more people seeing your posts and therefore increasing engagement and ROI. Research who your audience is and figure what times they prefer being online.
5) Schedule your tweets with app like Postcron
Okay, so I realize the previous tip may seem like a lot of work. Well, I want to show you a great tool that will help you automate the process! Remember, it’s really important to be consistent on Twitter, and tweet when your followers on online. However you might have followers in different time zones, or re-posting tweets throughout the day doesn’t fit in to your busy schedule. Fear not! Here’s an easy fix! You can use an app like Postcron to easily schedule all your tweets at once so that they are posted during the best times of the day for your public. Read our Complete Guide to scheduling tweets automatically and professionally.
6) Know How @reply and @mention Work
This was a tricky one for me at first, and I learned that it’s really important to understand. When you start a tweet with @username – not everyone will see it. This is considered an @reply, and only people who follow BOTH you and the person will see the post. If the @username is in the middle or end of the post, it’s considered an @mention and will be seen everyone.
This is great to know, because if you want to engage one certain follower (remember you should be responding to everyone!) you have the opportunity of starting your tweet with their @username to address them, and not flood your other users’ feeds with irrelevant tweets. Also, making sure not to start with an @username if you are directing to your entire audience because it’s likely that people will miss it!
Mentions are great for showing support or thanks for events, products, or people. For example “Thanks @brand1 and @brand2 for making @event a success! Everybody, you should try their products. They really work!”
7) Use Hashtags!
Another thing that new users generally forget to include in their tweets are hashtags. Hashtags are a great way to boost your twitter presence, engage in ongoing conversations, and can help you either create or find online communities. By including the # sign before your content, you will be making it viewable to anyone who is interested in that tag, not just your followers.
Also, tweets that include hashtags are 33% more likely to be retweeted than those without. Click to Tweet!
For more interesting twitter statistics, check out our blog post 8 Surprising Twitter Statistics That Will Help You Get More Engagement
If you’re not sure which tags to use, consider using a chrome extension like RiteTag that shows you which hashtags are trending, overused, etc.
8) Take advantage of Twitter Cards.
Twitter now offers a way for its user to create more interesting and attractive posts that stand out to followers. What we’re talking about are Twitter Cards. They are a great way to get more visibility on Twitter, increase web traffic to your site, make your Tweets more attractive and visual, promote your brand image, and get more followers on Twitter. With Twitter Cards you can show thumbnails and images of your content, embed videos into your tweets, and promote and exhibit mobile apps. Click here for a complete guide to utilizing Twitter Cards.
9) Shorten Your Links
This is a great tip for beginners. At first, it’s sort of a struggle to reduce your statuses down to just 140 characters, especially if you’re used to writing long Facebook posts and including links. Link shorteners are a great way to cut down on characters. You can use sites like wp.me, goo.gl, or bit.ly to do this. Also Postcron allows you to use bit.ly right from the Postcron dashboard so you can do it all in one step!
10) Be Generous
This is my favorite one of the Twitter Tips. 80% of social media is all about us, and it doesn’t have to be. It’s important to share valuable content for our audience. Share things that they would like, that they would find useful, that would help them in their day to day lives, etc.
Remember:
Don’t make it all about you or your product or service, make it about your audience. Believe me, your followers will appreciate it …. and so will your sales team 😉
Your turn!
That wraps it up for the Top 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners!
Is there any Tip that you found particularly helpful?
Are there any other things that you wish you would have known from the beginning?
I’d love to hear about your experiences with Twitter when you first started!