If you’re not familiar with Twitter, watch this explanatory video, and then learn how it applies to your blog in two great posts called “9 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers” and “A Quick Introduction to Twitter for Bloggers“.

photo credit: 顔なし

Since my last post about how I add followers on Twitter, I’ve received some questions about the metrics I use to choose who to follow back (or not). Then I posted a tweet that generated a much bigger response than I expected:

Can’t believe how many “Internet Marketing experts” follow me who obviously have no concept of Twitter etiquette. Not so impressive.

Based on the flurry of “are you talking about me?!?” messages I got, I clarified:

Specifically talking about the (self-proclaimed!) experts who are following 2k, followed by 15, and only tweet links to their own sites.

Still, it made me realize that many new Twitterers don’t really know what the culture is like, and they’re trying to get started without adequate information and wondering if they’re inadvertently offending people. (Although, honestly, if you’re worried about offending people, you’re already better off than the people who just charge ahead regardless!)

Some people will tell you that you can do anything you want on Twitter, because people have a choice about following you. That’s true, but presumably you’re not hanging out Twitter just to yell into a void; most people hope to get something from it (whether that’s friends, interesting conversation, website traffic, or leads). There are things you can do (or not do) that make your time on Twitter more effective.

Of course, these guidelines are my opinions only; hopefully others will weigh in with comments or posts of their own.

Figure out who you want to connect with and why

What are your goals for using Twitter? You might want to get new clients, or you might just want to find funny sites and videos to amuse yourself. Many people use Twitter with the hope of getting more blog readers (probably most of this blog’s readers fall in that category!). Those are just a couple of examples.

Think about the kind of people who can help you move towards your goals. If you are looking for more readers or clients, then you probably want to connect with people who are similar to your existing readers or clients—people who need to know something you are an expert in.

If you’re looking for entertainment, you’ll want people who are on top of the latest viral videos and send things before everyone’s seen them.

Once you know what you want out of Twitter, you’ll be much better prepared to make connections and participate intelligently.

Post regularly on topics of interest to your followers

Okay, so you might not have anyone following you yet. Pretend you do, and that they’re the people you really want to connect with. Then write your tweets for their benefit. What kinds of things do they want to hear about?

This doesn’t mean you can’t ever post updates on frivolous, personal stuff—that’s par for the course on Twitter. But keep your tweets somewhat balanced, and try to make your frivolous updates as interesting as you can.

This brings up the point of sending out updates about your blog posts: do it in moderation. Start by being realistic. Not every post you write is that great—so save the impact for the ones that really deserve attention. By picking and choosing, you’re showing respect for your followers and highlighting your best work.

Again, balance is key. Figure a minimum of maybe five to ten “normal” tweets per link to your own work. These other tweets can point to other people’s work that is interesting, or quick comments on something, anything useful to your followers, but remember that people will follow you when they get some benefit from doing so.

When you send out an update about your blog post, try and make it interesting and help people understand why they should care. If your post answers a question, use that question as an intro. This is always more helpful than just saying “My latest blog post: ” and throwing in the link. (And yes, this usually means sending these updates manually, rather than using an auto-tweet service. If you’re being selective, you’ll be sending them manually anyway.)

Start slowly

The temptation is always there to follow everyone and anyone in hopes that they’ll follow you back. This generally doesn’t work.

The main reason is what we call “social proof”: if you follow thousands of people and have very few people following you, you look incredibly boring. People subconsciously think, “Wow, nobody cares what this person is saying,” and write you off.

And that’s the most charitable version. If your tweets look entirely self-promotional, or you don’t have any updates, they’ll assume you’re a spammer and that you are only following people to accost them.

Let’s face it: we’re all approaching Twitter with a measure of self-interest. If we didn’t hope to get something out of it, it wouldn’t be worth spending time there. So from a purely self-interest perspective, realize that you’ll be much more effective at reaching whatever Twitter goals you may have if you are a little bit strategic about the process.

The best approach is to follow a few people, keep posting great updates, and be patient. When a few people follow you, follow a few more people. It’s easiest to start with those you already know or have something in common with (like location—I’ll follow almost anyone from my town).

When you’re expanding the people you follow, look at your profile page critically. Will the people you want to connect with see an obvious “hook” in your recent tweets? Will they immediately understand why they should follow you? If not, post something better.

Some of you more analytical types are probably wondering: exactly how many people should I follow? I’d say start with 30 or fewer, and then keep it to a ratio of 2:1 (following:followers), erring on the side of following fewer people. Obviously that’s arbitrary and just my opinion, but that’s what I’d do if it was me.

Engage with others

This is the whole point. If you’re not interacting with others, you might as well be muttering to yourself.

Pay attention to the people you are following who particularly interest you (if you want technical tips on how to do this, let me know and I’ll post something). When they send out a good tweet, use the @reply feature and tell them so.

Ask questions, and listen to the answers. Thank people who help you out or provide you with good ideas. Pass on particularly useful tweets that your followers might find helpful.

If you forget about trying to follow a kajillion people and instead focus your time on helping the people who already follow you, you’ll find you get more followers without much effort at all.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 4:15 pm by Sarah Lewis and is filed under Basics, Beginner, Marketing Your Blog, Twitter. It's also tagged Bloggers, followers, funny sites, goals, internet, metrics, Traffic, tweet, Twitter. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.