Blog : Crash Course on Twitter
What you need to know to get up and Tweeting
Crash Guide to Social Media: Twitter Edition
Over the past year and a half, I have gone from a Twitter-skeptic to a Tweet-believer, but with several caveats. Used properly, Twitter is a powerful two-way communication tool, especially for individuals and organizations that already have something to say.
I’m not sold on it as a method of discussing the mundane aspects of life. But for your strategic message, or as a way to generate discussion, Twitter is the tops! Of course it also helps that recently
Google and Bing confirmed that social media, such as Twitter, has a direct impact on their search engine results.
So what do you need to know to get up and Tweeting? Here is my crash course to getting the most out Twitter (according to me.)
(1) Twitter is a tactic, not a strategy. Think of it as a tool, like a pen or a typewriter. Before you start Tweeting, think about what your organization’s core message is. The nature of Twitter and its 140 character limit are actually very good at forcing users to be concise. Write down your top 5 (maximum) messages, and rank them in order. Then remember that over the long term, your Tweets should reflect this priority allocation. It’s ok to go off-message sometimes, but as a guideline, stick to what you intended to Tweet about from the beginning.
(2) Use “hashtags”. In Twitter, these indicate topics, allowing you to see what people are talking about and add to the discussion. For example people might add
#music or
#cbc or
#Oilers to their Tweets to indicate the topic of their post.
Here in Edmonton, we use
#yeg for general Edmonton related discussions. This has also evolved to more specific Edmonton topics, such as
#yegarts,
#yegtraffic,
#yegfood and
#yegfed. Click on them to see what these hashtags are all about!
(3) Try to use well established hashtags. Of course you can create your own hashtag about anything, but its best to use ones that exist already. A good well recognized hashtag is location.
#yeg is the hashtag for Edmonton,
#yyz is for Calgary,
#yvr is for Vancouver etc. It's the airport code. You'll find that if you use well established hashtags, a lot more people
will follow you than if you only use your own such as
#ryanscoolhashtag.
(4) Find a balance between broad and narrow hashtags. Really general tags such as
#music or
#sports may be a little too broad, with thousands of Tweets every day from around the world. However, if you make a hashtag so specific that no one else will think to search for it, the conversation won’t go very far either. For example
#whoshouldtheoilersstartingoal may be a little too narrow. A good rule of thumb might be to add a tag for the basic topic of any link or content that you Tweet.
(5) Twitter is a 2-way street. Don't think of Twitter as a distribution channel, think of it as a conversation. When you see a Tweet from someone, whether it's a friend or a celebrity or whatever, and you find it useful, "re-Tweet" it. Don't overdo it of course, but once in a while (say once a day)
you should pass on things by re-Tweeting. In Twitter parlance, this is abbreviated as ‘RT’. To RT, the easiest way is to just click the reTweet icon on the Twitter.com page. However you may prefer to do it manually by copying and pasting the other person’S messages, and adding this " RT:@(theirusername)"
So for example if I Tweet: "The Oilers are the best!" and someone wants to re-Tweet me, they would post this: "RT: @ryanhastman "The Oilers are the best"
(6) Also, along these lines, try to reply to people if they ask you a question. Or just post a question to people once in a while. It may all seem a bit cheesy at first, but getting a conversation going is what Twitter is all about. You may just learn something useful, too!
(7) Last, as far as using Twitter on a computer, use a third party application such as
Tweetdeck. While this could change, right now many third party apps are much easier to use, and more powerful than
Twitter.com, and they allow you to track multiple topics and Twitter profiles at once.
My final bit of advice is to just get out there and start Tweeting!
Follow Ryan's Tweets at
Twitter.com/ryanhastman. Or better yet, RT him and get a Twitter conversation going!