Twitter is about interacting with a community of interested individuals. A number of people see it as a great broadcast medium, which it can be if you are an interesting, interested and active member of a community, get the difference?
How to add value:
Twitter is about giving its about adding value to a community, 2000 active, caring and engaged followers is way better than 40 000 spambot and random followers.
Ways to get genuine followers are:
ü Be interesting
ü Engage in conversation
ü Follow the influencers and genuine people in the community you take interest in
v Reply to @messages its just plain old good practice (read: manners).
v Retweet relevant and good information giving the original author credit. (when you scroll over the message a box pops up, use the retweet button for an easy way to get it right!)
v If you want to send a message on but alter it in some way then, instead of using RT@username in the beginning of the message use via@username at the end of the message
Questions are a great way to participate:
Ask questions, twitter is the perfect platform to do this. You are interacting with your community and getting answers at the same time, perfect!
Answer questions…. It’s the same as the above but you get to look clever as well, power! Providing good information on twitter will give you a good and knowledgeable reputation.
A common question: How often should I Tweet?
Novices and experienced Twitterers ask the same question, the average number is 4.22 tweets per day. Try different alternatives and see what works for you, just be mindful that too many tweets may irritate followers.
Get to know new followers, this will allow you to decide who to follow back. Don’t auto-DM (this automatically sends new followers a direct message) most reasonably experienced followers will possibly be insulted by this. Rather if you must send all followers a message wait, go to their profile and write a thoughtful direct message, the impact will be far greater!
Spam – DON’T do it and what to do if it happens to you!
Don’t do ANYTHING that people might consider spam!!! This includes:
- @messages to people you don’t know
- DMing people with the goal of selling something
- If any of your messages are slightly iffy and contain a link, people will think of it as spam
Ways to fight spam:
- Follow www.twitter.com/spam after they’ve followed you back (instant) send them a message with the spammers name and they will investigate
- Go to the spammers page and look on the right hand side, there will be a block link, this will stop the person from sending you messages again
- Simply unfollow the spammer…
Written by: Ian Thomas an Internet marketing specialist in South Africa
Twitter: www.twitter.com/IanThomas_
