Twitter 102

So In my last blog post I spoke about the first 3 things people must know about Twitter: Audience, Tweets and handles. In this post I’d like to talk about how one can gain followers and become an influencer.

1) Use #Hashtags - Hashtags are essential to getting noticed and will expand your tweet visibility. Say for example you are a promoting your cupake brand. Be sure to add a couple of hashtags to the tweet. Just baked a dozen #chocolatecupcakes with #vanilla frosting. #Delicious.

• It’s best to use common tags rather than something such as #BestCupcakeEver because people will not search for such terms. 
• Don’t overdo the hashtags - try and do atleast one and then limit to 3. unless the hastags are used at the end of the sentence - Baked cupcakes today. #chocolate #Vanillafrosting #delicious #best
• The hashtags at the end of the sentence don’t have to be in order but it’s best if they are.
• Twubs allows you to ‘own’ a hashtag which means you can keep track of how people are using the hashtag.  http://twubs.com/p/register-hashtag
• See what hastags are trending that day and incorporate that in your tweet so that when people click on those trending hashtags - they will see your tweet as well.
• You can change #hashtags trends by country or city. If you have a local business then best to default your trends to city.
• You can also search for people to follow using the hashtags. For example if people if you own a car rental business then search for tweets with the words #car #drive #roadtrip to find prospective clients.

2) Becoming an influencer takes time but is well worth the effort. Whether you want to gain followers as a brand or for your personal account - make sure you are:

• Tweeting often and at all times. Those with 15,000 plus tweets have between 100,000 to 1 million followers
• Twitter is not an inbox but a stream so you need to keep your followers engaged by tweeting valuable content for your target audience. This could be recipes, tips & tricks, links to blog posts, or other articles on the web that worth reading. Depending on your business - tweet unique content that users will appreciate.
• Schedule and automate tweets with tools like Hootsuite and Socialoomph.com
• Join in Twitter chats or start one of your own a regular basis so as to keep your followers engaged.
• Have compeitions and announce them well in advance using hashtags

Some other tips & tricks:

• Make sure your profile and “Bio” (which is limited to 160 characters) is to the point and attracts followers in your niche.
• Follow people in your niche or industry. Especially those with substantial numbers of followers on Twitter.
• Retweet the content of influencers and let them know with the @mention
• Promote your Twitter account everywhere - LinkedIn, email signatures, facebook. You can also add an app that automatically uploads you tweet on Facebook. With selective tweet you can control which tweets appear on FB.