Getting the most from Twitter

This post first appeared on one of my technical blogs at Hedgehogs.net (http://bit.ly/Im1OO0)  though I have edited it to bring it up to date. Twitter is a great tool but you need to understand how to make best use of it and not all of the information is readily available.

I've been using Twitter now for a couple of months. Used properly it's a great tool for spreading your message, be it personal or business, to a wide audience. Used badly it can compound negative perceptions that others may have about you, your product, or your company.

There are many guides out there that impart sage advice on using Twitter but I've noticed a few things that never seem to be covered or, if they are, have no explanation attached to them. I am going to address these here but feel free to add any I may have missed by way of comment.

1. Make your tweets relevant to your audience. Post links and information that are relevant to the message you want to communicate.
2. Actively target new contacts. Research others on Twitter and follow them - not all will follow you back but a significant number will and the fact that they follow you increases the chance that they comment on your posts (because they're relevant to what you're saying) which increases your exposure to their contacts... pyramid marketing to a relevant audience. That's quite powerful.
3. Don’t be afraid to ‘unfollow’ people. Like any other Internet tool, Twitter has spammers. A lot of these are easy to spot: they normally only have one post that contains a link to some nefarious service of a dubious nature, plus they are following a gazillion people but not actually being followed back by many. True, if you don't block them your ‘followers’ count goes up but do you really want those sorts of followers? I don't and I doubt you do.
4. When posting links, include text that gives the link context. Don't just post a link with no explanation. Doing that gives no one a reason to click on the link. Presumably you put it there in the hope that people will click through, so give people a reason to do so.
5. When posting a link, shorten it. Use one of the many link-shortening tools (bit.ly or goo.gl). That gives you more room for posting your context text. You can use Twitter’s default shortening tool but using one of the free, more commercial ones, allows you to track who has clicked on it, so you have more understanding of what your target demographic likes.
6. Use the news! Twitter has the concept of news channels. These are denoted via a keyword with a hash sign at the front which people can (and do) subscribe to. So, for example, you can follow Tweets about the situation in Iran using the #iranelection channel. Have a think about news channels that your target market might be interested in. If you use a tool like Tweet Deck you can create the news channel as a search pane. Monitor the channel(s) you think might be relevant to your target group and when you identify one that you think is appropriate start including the keyword in your Tweets. This gives you more (and instant) reach to a wider audience.
7. Are you logged in? Not to Twitter, I am kind of assuming that one but be careful when copying and posting links that you aren't copying from a site to which you are logged in. In that case, unless the clicker is alos logged into that site they won’t see what you intended them to when they click through. All too often I see people post links that I can't get to because I am not a member of the website where they saw the genius article that they want to share. If you do have to post such a link, tell people that a sign-up is required to read it.
8. Re-Tweet Tweets that you think are interesting. People love to have their work acknowledged so do it. And try to ensure that you acknowledge  the original Tweet source (RT @sourcename). This can create a problem on some platforms if the original post was near or at the 140 character message size limit (especially if the link is at the end). If that happens, try and cut out any noise words but still leave the original meaning unchanged. If you re-tweet other peoples messages they are likely to be more receptive to re-tweeting yours.
9. Tweet often but wisely: don't do it for the sake of it. Tweet with relevance. That's one of the most important pieces of advice I think I can give. Lots of people tweet about how they just combed their hair or had a muffin for breakfast. Trust me, no one cares about that stuff.
10. Don't be afraid to say thank you. If someone re-tweets your posts or provides something of particular relevance to you or your business, a little grace is no bad thing and can go a long way: even in the twittersphere.

That's my 10 pearls of wisdom for today. I'm now off to tweet a link to this post - let's hope people think it relevant enough to re-tweet ;-)