I recently became hooked on twitter. I joined twitter probably about a year ago, but never really got it. One day my husband asked me why I don’t tweet. I told him twitter is like talking when nobody listens. So my husband explained to me that twitter is not a two way relationship like Facebook and any typical social media. It’s all about reading headlines or current news (passive action) and telling the world your opinion (active action). After I listened to his suggestion, I started to jump into the wagon of the Twitter World.
I have a few followers and follow a few twitters as well, mostly are obviously bloggers just like myself whom I connected through blogging community. Nevertheless, I barely read their tweets and only posted about 5 tweets prior to conversation with my hubby simply because I don’t understand their tweets. It’s full of unfamiliar signs like #, @ and links that have been shortened and I don’t understand them without clicking them. He explained to me what hashtag means and what to tweet. I also found an article written by Mark Suster , an entrepreneur who turned into a venture capitalist , wrote in detail about Twitter on his blog “Both Sides of the Table”. He explained what Twitter is all about, how to start up tweeting, and most importantly how to get the right people follow on your twitter.
So how to use Twitter?
Be a consumer
First you can be a consumer by following news sites and bloggers, reading their headlines and click on story links that interest you. I followed many bloggers and start reading their tweets about blogging tips, deals and giveaway. Then in addition to blogging world, I also followed my favorite TV shows, such as So You Think You Can Dance and BravoTV (my favorite TV channels), and some of the Real Housewives peeps. Yup I shamefully admitted that I’m a Real Housewives junkie although I’m fully aware of how stupid this show is.
Find people who will follow your tweets
As Mark Suster said, following people like Bethany Frankel per se is pretty much pointless because most likely she won’t follow you back and posting your tweets is like screaming in an empty room where nobody can hear. Start by following your friends who will likely follow you back. Then start following people with similar interest (like blogging in my case) or fellow Real Housewives fans. These people are just regular people with similar interest and they are most likely will follow you back.
What to Tweet
No, you don’t tweet about what you had for lunch. You tweet about what you think of the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance, or your opinion about the recent death of Taylor Armstrong’s husband (one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), or Casey Anthony verdict. Tweet about your opinion. You can also tweet about tips and how tos by posting a link to your website. To me, twitter is almost like blogging in 140 characters. Tweet about anything but your personal matter!
I started tweeting about how much I love Rise of Planet of the Apes movie. Then I tweeted about how horrible SYTYCD finale was, and whom I thought would win. I also tweeted about current giveaway and reviews that I wrote with a link directing to my blog post. Since then, everything started to snowballing. I noticed that I gained quite a bit of traffic from twitter. I still have a long way to go in terms of utilizing tweeter to increase my blog traffic. But now I realize how powerful twitter can be for blogs and any type of businesses.
Tags: how to tweet , twitter 101
