Yesterday, we discussed how we could come up with a strategy to better use Twitter. Today, I wanted to discuss how to best network with Twitter. We will look at three different ways to improve our Twitter network.
80% Give – 20% Take For those that have a cause or organization that they are using Twitter, there is a need to make your tweets valuable. We suggest to achieve this, that 80% of your tweets be you giving something to your followers and taking something from them only 20% of the time. When we say giving, we are talking about fresh ideas, links to the latest news you care about, or free stuff. Make sure that it benefits your followers. As for the taking, this can involve an advertisement to buy a book you wrote, vote for something on a contest, or leave comments on your blog.
Grow Your Network Increasing followers goes both ways. You need to follow others just as much as you need them to follow you. Monday, we shared one way we try to improve our network this way. Follow 1 new user a day for at least a week. In the “Who To Follow” section of the Twitter homepage, we research some of the suggestions and pick one every day to follow that we think we might retweet their work or have very similar interests.
Appreciate Your Followers Just growing your network will not achieve success, you need to sustain the ones you currently have. When you do get new followers, remember to contact them immediately. Direct message them a thanks for following (we shared what we say to new users) as well as publicly announcing a thank you (include #follow). At the same time, make sure you are consistent with retweets of quotes or links that are along your own interest or mission. And finally, I suggest taking advantage of #FridayFollow, when everyone lists people who they appreciate on Twitter from that last week. Maybe it was a great tweet or old friend, but share with your followers who you appreciate following.
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