CPAs are Aflutter About Twitter (Part 3)

Okay, you’ve taken the leap into social media and created your Twitter account. You’ve completed your profile and are finding friends and smart people to follow. You’ve got the general idea of how Twitter works and the primary terms you need to know (hashtags, @messages, retweets and direct messages). Now that you’ve dipped your toes in, let’s wade in a little further…

According to the poll on my blog, only 35% of firms are using Twitter while 45% are using Facebook and 95% are using LinkedIn. If you haven’t yet weighed in, please do so (the poll is in the column on the left). The survey is only open for 2 more days…so hurry!

Twitter for New and Learning Users

First, is this for your firm’s account or a personal account? There are very few differences except when it comes to following people. If it’s your personal account, you can be choosy about who you follow. If it’s a firm account, it’s best to be safe and not risk offending anybody (like a potential client) and follow everyone who follows you. So what happens if you’re following 1000 people but there is only a handful that you really want to keep tabs on? Grab the RSS feed from their account page so all their tweets dump into your Outlook. Just click on the user’s name (http://twitter.com/kristingentry) and scroll down a little. On the right, look under the set of “following” boxes and you’ll see “RSS feed of Kristin Gentry’s tweets); click on it and it will walk you through adding the feed to your Outlook. I have several that I follow like that (including all of those I recommended in yesterday’s blog).

Twitter has a basic search function and an advanced search function. The advanced is usually more helpful, so I recommend going there: http://search.twitter.com/advanced. There are 4 very important things you should search for:

• Your name
• Your Twitter account name
• Your company, brand or product
• Your competitors

To keep tabs on these, you can also pull RSS feed of your searches into your Outlook.

One critical aspect of Twitter is the 140 character limit and the value of providing links to interesting and informative websites. Websites URL’s are typically quite long and can take up most/all of you character limit. I recommend using a URL shortener like http://bit.ly to both shorten your links and allow you to track click-throughs. It’s user friendly so just create an account and begin dumping your links (especially to your site or blog) in there. It saves the shortened links and you can go back in anytime to copy them for reuse, and it tracks the click-throughs for you (this is a nice complement to Google Analytics for your website and blog; both are free to use).

There are several reasons to have mobile access to Twitter; it may be the conversational aspect of what you’re doing or interesting/funny things that you come across that people enjoy or catching breaking news (like the Hudson River landing). You can use SMS texting for your mobile phone (in Twitter, go to Settings / Devices to set up), or you can download an application for your Blackberry or iPhone. Examples of apps include Twitterberry for Blackberry (http://orangatame.com/products/twitterberry) and Twitterific for iPhone (http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterific).

Still lots to cover, so we’re going to move into bullet points again:

• Retweet - Add your own commentary so your followers know why you found it valuable (especially when you’re passing on a link). And always give credit to the original poster; if there are several and it puts you over the character limit, you only need to credit the originator and the person you received it from. You are allowed to edit/delete previous commentary if you’re still over the character limit. One more thing; RT your clients whenever you can; it shows respect and builds rapport.
• @messages/replies - Make sure your replies are smart and seen. How? If you reply to someone’s tweet, include enough commentary so everyone knows what you’re referencing (not, “hey, thanks for the info!”). That’s smart. To be seen, you need to be sure to place at least one word before the @kristingentry or only those who are following both of you will see it. What do I mean? Here are 2 examples: (@kristingentry Thanks for the sample Social Media Policy, it was very helpful!), only those who are following both you and @kristingentry are going to see that post. If you post it like this, (Thanks for the sample Social Media Policy @kristingentry It was very helpful!), everyone who follows you will see it; you have a bigger audience that way. Get it?
• Links - Link to interesting and consistent (for your expertise) websites; people will click through and are more likely to Retweet you AND it boosts your reputation as a thought leader in that realm of expertise.
• Spam - DON’T spam anyone! First rule of thumb, don’t set an auto DM (direct message) to go out whenever someone follows you, especially if it contains a link to your site or blog. It’s impersonal and sounds like spam. Also, listen first; Twitter is for holding conversations, not making announcements.
• Follow Fridays - #FollowFridays (or #FF) were created for Twitterers to recommend their favorite followers to others. I make it a point to recommend those people who RT me, because if they enjoy my tweets, chances are my followers have something in common with them and it’s nice to make that connection. Also, try to include some context as to why you think others should follow them.
• Post on the right days – The bulk of tweets happen Tuesday through Thursday. And readership is highest those days; also, try to post during the Eastern time zone business hours.
  

When you’re tweeting, before you hit “update”, stop and think of a more entertaining or informative way to make your point. If you’re not interesting, people will un-follow you (remember, this is an opt-in medium). Make an offbeat observation or poke a little fun at yourself. Don’t always talk about business! People want to connect with the person behind the tweets…people want to do business with their friends. Be friendly and approachable.

REMINDER: Here are the Keys to Success at Twitter

• Add value by holding great conversations
• Get followers, which means be interesting and conversational (Zappos is a great example)
• Follow relevant people
• Reply to your @messages
• Make sure you are findable
• Don’t get overwhelmed; the average number of tweets per day is only 4.22

Got it? Are you still with me? We have one more day to go…Advanced Twitter, or Twitter for Business. It’s easier than you may think, and please feel free to tweet me or email me with questions. I’m here to help you navigate the Twitterverse!

If you plan to make the leap (or already have but are quickly seeing how complicated 140 characters can be), I recommend buying The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein. It retails for $19.99 but you can find it on Amazon for under $14.