Twitter Best PracticesErin Blaskie - www.erinblaskie.com

@ErinBlaskie (Twitter)Hash Tag - #twitterbp

About Twitter Best Practices• Introduce you to Twitter tools, methods, etc. to get

the most out of Twitter.

• The information shared is not the best practices for the entire planet - it’s about picking and choosing what works best for you.

• Although there are tools and methods shared, don’t overwhelm yourself with all of them. Fit it in naturally to what you are doing now.

The Quick Twitter 101

• @NAME - A Twitter user’s handle - how you tag or notify someone that you’ve tweeted them.

• DM - direct message - allows you to private message a user.• RT - re-tweet - when someone’s tweet is then sent to another

person’s followers.• Hashtag or #topic - a way to categorize a tweet as belonging

to a topic, conversation or specific subject.• List - a way to categorize similar Twitter users together. For

example, people from Ottawa.• Favorite - star icon - allows you to favorite tweets.• More at http://www.erinblaskie.com/twitter-lingo-explained/

Manage Your Twitter Self!

• Organizing yourself on Twitter is important - you don’t want to miss out on an @ reply or stop engaging with people.– Threadsy.com– Hootsuite.com– Tweetdeck.com– Co-Tweet– Variety of mobile apps– Twitter.com

Managing Multiple Identities

• Sometimes one Twitter account doesn’t make sense. Here’s when you should switch:– If there is enough targeted Tweets, content, etc. to

warrant a second account.– Example: ErinGames.com, my video game website and

YouTube channel, has its own account.– Anything that you may consider selling later, building a

brand around, etc. should also be separate.• Tools like Threadsy, Hootsuite, etc. will allow you to

track more than one Twitter account.

What to Tweet?

• Be authentic - even if it means deviating from your ‘target market’ or ‘target topic’.

• Don’t over think it - the worst possible thing to do is to become strategic about tweeting.

• Provide value - give your Twitter followers a reason to follow you and to re-tweet you.

• Make it interesting - tweet out relevant blog posts, send a video, post a picture, etc.

Balancing Personal & Business Life

• My rule on Twitter is that I don’t have rules for myself.

• People like to see two sides to a person - it creates an authentic experience for your followers.

• If the account is solely for business / broadcasting / no engagement, make it a separate account and make sure people know.

Sharing Information: Tips & Tools

• Use link shorteners to make it easier for people to re-tweet. Ex: www.bit.ly.

• If you’re a blog owner, install Sociable or Share This to make it easier for people to share.

• Use TwitPic.com to upload and share photos.• When you want someone to see your tweet but you

don’t want to @ reply just them, use (at the end) /cc @name.

The Power of the @

• @ People - when tweeting, always look to see if that company, brand or person is on Twitter.

• Companies will appreciate you giving them publicity and may publicly (or privately) thank you.

• People love to see that someone is appreciating what they’ve done, sharing something they’ve worked on, etc.

• Helps to build relationships - even with people that may have seemed unreachable.

Why Bother With Hash Tags?

• Use a hash tag wherever you want to categorize information.

• http://hashtags.org/ - to find hash tags and see trending tags on Twitter.

• If you are hosting an event, doing a promotion, etc. you should create a hash tag.

• Look to see if events you are attending or organizations you follow have a hash tag setup.

It’s Only a Star, Right?

• Favorite tweets that contain positive feedback about you and / or your company.

• You can then add a favorite tweets widget to your blog to share the info like a testimonial.

• Export the web pages containing just the favorites to a document and then create a PDF of feedback. Send to potential clients.

Auto-DMs & Pre-Programmed Tweets

• My biggest pet peeve on Twitter is auto-DMs. This is when people send messages to all new Twitter followers.– Bad because it comes across as spamming.– You’re not personally engaging what is what Twitter is all

about.• Pre-programmed Tweets are okay, in my opinion, if

used sparingly. – Use them during presentations at events to give people

something to re-tweet easily.– Use them if you have a marketing milestone coming up.

Stalk Yourself!

• Make sure to regularly watch what people are saying about you and your company on Twitter.

• Respond to those twitterers and follow them to build a good relationship.

• Use your Twitter tool (Threadsy, Hootsuite, etc.) to create and store saved searches of your company keywords.

Stalk Other People!

• How to find Twitterers to follow…– http://search.twitter.com/advanced– http://www.wefollow.com– http://www.twitterel.com/

http://nearbytweets.com/ – Twitter Lists– Checking for Twitter Icons on People’s Websites– Include Your Twitter Info Wherever You Give

Contact Information Regularly

Follow Me, Follow You

• Who to follow:– Follow people you find interesting.– Follow companies that you respect, use, etc. as your

followers will see that.• To follow everyone or not to follow everyone:– Personal preference… I follow everyone because I use my

lists to segregate out those who I talk to regularly.• Unfollow spammers or anyone not providing value.

Connecting Twitter to Other Mediums

• Tweetly Updater will send your blog posts to Twitter automatically.

• You can setup Facebook and LinkedIn to also receive Tweets.

• Ping.fm allows you to send a status update once to every service you might use.

Questions & Connections

• Questions? Ask live or e-mail erin@erinblaskie.com

• Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ErinBlaskie

• Check out my blog: www.erinblaskie.com