Ten Basic Social Media Tips for Beginner #KoT
Of late in my pitches (am a freelance social media strategist and consultant) I realized that most Kenyans have this weird phobia and ignorance for Twitter. Most do not seem to understand ‘how to join the conversation’ and be part of it whereas others lack the basic understanding of the powerful micro-blogging site. For most business owners and managers feel that Twitter could do more harm than good to their brands and business and have rather unrealistic objectives and targets. Well, just in case you are among the lost in this Twitter-sphere and I want to share with you a few tips to help you navigate your way in the Twitter streets and gain followers and most important the influence! Just before we go on, kindly note that Twitter is nothing much of a technology but a conversation that continues with or without you and the beauty of it all is you choose which conversation, tribe or community to join & belong to!
Read on, become a #SocialPRO; a Twitter power user in this case.
1. Have a bio.
Your Twitter bio is a great place to show how interesting and cool you are. Make a list of the things you love, your passion, stuff you like doing and what you do as well as your goals in life, career and business. Explain what you did in the past, what you are doing now and what you want to do in the future. (Remember you only have 140 characters)Whatever it is, share it. Do not have an empty bio. You also need to have a profile picture and the headline cover; if you are creative enough do something on your Twitter background. You can use your name as the @username or have @funnyname as long it defines your aspirations!(Choose one that suits you) but above all ensure your bio says something about your background, forte and interests. You can check mine @KenyanMarketer for tips by the way!
2. Start Networking.
Do you love sports? Search for people who have interacted with that topic in the recent past and engage them. You may follow 100 tweeps using a trick called “Catch and Release” where you follow targeted followers in your field and clean up those who do not follow back! (Using Tweepi you can clean up the unfollowers). Are you a developer, a techie or a creative or want to be one? Start networking with other tweeps doing what you love or what you want to be in future. Attend Tweetups and use hashtags in your industry to share your opinions or thoughts on certain topics and events. You also need to attend events in your areas of interest so check around for things happening around what you do and join the convo! When you attend a conference tweet like a madman (or like @RobertAlai when he’s paid to tweet at a launch! This will make you the go-to person who seems to know what’s going on and you’ll pick up some followers, RT’s, Favs and countless replies. Check out tweeps using the same hashtag and engage them as that’s how you build genuine followers who stick by you! Birds of the same feather flock together!
3. Share Remarkable Content.
The best thing to show you have depth in what you do and your industry you need to share content you’ve read and found useful. The other way of doing this is to follow bloggers in your field and leave great replies or mention them on your tweets. You can also mention a high profile Twitter user in your tweet – For example, tweet, “Hey, @KenyanMarketer, I loved your post on @CIOEastAfrica on why companies need a social media manager. Interesting read that makes business sense!” and I will RT it, engage you further and follow you back! Remember not to overdo this so you don’t become a ‘nuisance’ to these tweeps! Just leave insightful replies once in a while. You may also try tweet something humorous as over 84% of retweets tend to be something funny! Still on this, to gain more RT’s use around 70-100 words so that you leave space for @Username and a comment just in case tweeps wants to add a comment and RT it!
4. Be Bold, Current and Suave.
Don’t be afraid to share your thoughts, opinions, ideas and your life on Twitter. I don’t recommend sharing everything that comes to your mind. Follow the right people to ensure you get reliable info first hand as well as great content which you can share to your followers. To show you are ‘smart’ you may differ with their opinions to spark a discussion around the link you’ve shared! Alternatively why not participate in an industry chat like #ChaseDebate if you are in the banking and financial sector? Seen the #HBRchat? Can you leave an insightful and well thought reply that sparks a discussion? What’s your opinion on KE politics, alliances and the CORDs? Can you tweet something that’s not tribal and well thought analysis that holds water? As you strive to be bold remember to either be a ‘rebel or play the hero’.
5. Be a Content Creator.
I should have started with this; I’ve had great success picking up followers simply by writing content for other blogs as my guests posts are published across the internet. Depending on the size of the blog and traffic, you can get from 10 to 100 new followers from one post. Just make sure in your author bio you include a link to your Twitter profile. Popularity isn’t influence on Twitter; you don’t become influential simply because you tweet but because you are a consistent good content creator. I contribute articles to leading blogs such as CIO East Africa, SocialPROclubs, Humanipo, iHub.co.ke, Under30 CEO’s, Career Point Kenya and still getting requests to write for more! You could also create your own blog and publish content around your hobby, passion, career or profession. Don’t be idle as Caroline Mutoko bluntly puts it!
6. Start Bottom Going up
Have you seen ‘unknown people’ who always say hi to @Bobcollymore, @MartinOduorO, @AlykhanSatchu and other CEO’s on Twitter every morning? Well these ‘big’ tweeps are ruthless and will treat you as an intruder. Mentioning @RobertAlai on every PRO Raila tweet to earn a RT may not yield much! So here’s what you do, start with people you know, you could ask your friends on Facebook to follow you on Twitter. Start engaging the ‘kawaida’ tweeps as you work your way up! I know this sounds mean but everyone had 0, 10, 20, 50, 100 followers at one point so work your way up dutifully! You can engage thought leaders on certain topics in your field as well as use #tags like, and popular ones like #FF or use #TwitterBigStick for your –ve customer experience and Sunny will give you a RT among others. (Be smart here)
7. Don’t be an idiot!
Avoid sharing content that your followers will not find interesting, relevant or useful…and avoid sharing content that is too popular or has been shared multiple times in other places. Show your followers that you are on the cutting edge. Avoid copy and pasting people’s tweets especially on TT’s as people have read them elsewhere! Posting alarming tweets, content that’s boring, not true and plain stupid will chase away the 50 followers you had gained. So sound a bit clever…use Twitter to track news so that you don’t tweet stuff that happened 8 hours ago as #BREAKING! Ooh, if you are a joker and want to establish yourself as one, then you can get yourself a community of idiots too!
8. Be consistent but Post Less
You don’t tweet endlessly one day and never wake up to it next day! You need some consistency and a balanced tweeting schedule! You need to schedule social media time; maybe you tweet in the morning, at lunch, during breaks and in the evenings. You may also share content across platforms – thus drawing people from Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram to Twitter and split time between these social sites. Remember you still have friends on facebook, connections on LinkedIn and followers on Pinterest so share content on these platforms too as you try to draw these communities to ‘join the convo’ by following you on Twitter. Being consistent doesn’t mean tweeting endlessly; so post less, listen more and participate in convos!
9. Use tools!
The good news is you can automate part of your presence on Twitter by using certain tools. Use Buffer to have a more balanced tweeting schedule throughout the day, Use Tweriod to see when your friends tweet then with Plugin time your tweets and publish them when your community is online for maximum engagement. This is good when you are travelling, as all you need is to load you Buffer app and it will tweet your stuff away! There’s Twitter for SMS too so you can tweet via text just in case the urge to tweet becomes irresistible! (can be addictive by the way)
10. Do all the above!
Thank you for reading this post to point number 9, so my point 10 is to remind you to practice the above nine tips dutifully and follow my advice keenly! Cool? But since you are still here with me I want to give you one extra tip, a bonus! You need to get the above tips RIGHT as it is pointless to be using Twitter because everybody else tells you it’s cool! Sounds rude? Hope not and if it is, I have no apologies!
Well I hoped you liked the post so please follow me @KenyanMarketer & share this post with your friends! The process of becoming the next KE Twitter power user starts NOW!
SocialPro Clubs 