Building A Following

To find people to follow start with people you know in real life. Use the 'Find Friends" tool that uses your email contacts to find your connections that already are on Twitter. The best way to find great people to follow by searching and subscribing to other people's Twitter lists!

Etiquette!

Social media is governed by a set of implicit rules of etiquette. Understanding this is critical to maintaining good on-line relationships. If you want to chase away followers, ignore social media etiquette. Use caution when attempting to leverage on-line trends, implementing it wrong can do more harm than good. What's our best advice? If your grandmother wouldn't tweet it, don't.

Links to Resources

Common Connections

Creating a twitter snowball starts with getting a good core of followers. This means finding people who share your interests and are active tweeters. By targeted following you create your core of followers.

Our Advice: Follow your tweeps' tweeps.

Vote of Confidence

Retweet and write retweet-able tweets. Yes you have 140 characters but don't use them all, leave 14 to 20 characters free for your re-tweeter to use.

Our Advice: Tweet others as you want to be tweeted..

Original Newsy Content

Tweet original content with links to the source of the information and a photo. Social media is about RELATIONSHIPS. Tweet the joys and accomplishments of others, and yourself. One of your office mates just got a great listing: Tweet it!

Our Advice: Tweet what you know: Remember you're the expert!

Operating Broadcast Mode Only

Tweeting is not just sending out an S.O.S. Interact: Retweet, mention and quote others. Twitter is communication. Engage in conversations, talk to others. If people see that you interact, they will be more likely to follow you. Spewing out meaningless information hurts your performance.

Our Advice: Respond to your tweeps.

Negativity Breeds Negativity

Negative tweets will drive tweeps away. Be positive, express hope and be humorous. I would also use caution expressing you political views unless you known for them. Never ever use naughty words.

Our Advice: Tweet happiness.

Robust Profile

  • Upload a profile picture! a Close-up of your face (for personal Twitter accounts) or, your logo or a for a business.
  • Put a URL link in your profile. Share where others can go to learn more about you.
  • Identify your location, your city or metropolitan area.
  • Informative profile summary. Don't start with "I am". Use the full profile length, no grammar or spelling mistakes!

    • Our Advice: Put the information you want people to know in your profile.

    Burstiness of Tweets

    Research by Twitter shows that posting a "concentrated number of tweets in a short time span", live event for instance, can increase your engagement by 50%!

    Our Advice: Tweet regularly, and if it's exciting or newsy, tweet it fast.

    Following to Followers Ratio

    The manage balance between how many follow you versus how many you follow. It identifies you as someone who follows followers. Follow slightly more than the number of followers you have.

    Our Advice: Follow those who follow you: Unfollow those who do not.

    Don't Be Annoying

    On Twitter attention span is measured in "seconds", not minutes. Overusing using hash tags reduces the readability, likewise with abbreviations. Don't annoy your Tweeps.

    Our Advice: Tweet logical easy to read text.

    Sculpted Tweeting

    Easy to read, but not simple! A study from Georgia Tech shows the people who tweet using slightly longer words are more likely to be followed.

    Our Advice: Express yourself intelligently.