Twitter | The Twitterverse Explained
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If you're looking for a product to buy which will give you short-term, synthetic Twitter distinction, this isn't for you. Turn back now.This is action-based, manual labor which might yield you real traffic. This is the long method, but in more detail. These opinions are my own, and I will not link any sites.
What I'm Going To Cover:
Intro: Why Twitter Is Important
Intro
=====
Why Is Twitter Important?
There are several reasons. First, and in my opinion, the most important: 140 characters. For those of you who are new to Twitter, or have sold off the task, tweets are limited to 140 characters. As much as I hear people complain about this, it's absolutely an advantage if you know what you're doing. Twitter is a space for users with no attention span, users looking for a quick fix of some sort (knowledge, news, and hoopla). Quick facts, jokes, national/local news bits, and motivation are among the top searches, closely followed by sports updates, celeb gossip, and what I call streamers(more on this later). All else is trends, trends, trends, and these range anywhere from funny pictures, . When someone can get any of these items in just 140 characters, and tens at a time, it's satisfactory.
Second, the retweet. A retweet (RT) is basically the worlds least strong "referral" in the Twitterverse. Yet, it is a referral, nonetheless. When a user RTs your phrase, tag, or link, they are basically driving your account to all of their followers. If someone has a following of 100, or 1,000, or tens of thousands, your tweet is suddenly going to be in front of the eyes of several users who either are, or aren't your targeted audience. In my opinion, referrals are a integral part of any business, either in person or dotcom. Why not use a system where the system itself is a referral driven one?
Last, speed. Twitter takes such little time once it is up and running it's almost effortless. If you can't come up with 140 characters of content here and there, you're fucked anyway. Once you get to automation, you can bang out a ton of content in one sitting, and drip feed your followers for weeks or months at a time. Ask me about recycling, too, because I'll probably forget about it later on.
Ready? Let's roll.
NOTE: If you already use Twitter regularly, skip to 4: Strategy.
TWITTER NAMES
You actually have multiple twitter names. Most people don't see it this way, but you do. You have an actual account name which is the "@" symbol followed by <user name>.
@UserName is an example. So for instance, the National Football League uses @NFL.
As you go through Twitter, you reference other users by posting their name with the "@" sign (which from here on out I'll just refer to as name) and it becomes a clicky. Click on it and it directs you instantly to their profile, which has a quick description, followed by some other info which I'll get to under "Settings." When users post something, like, "Did you see @Beyonce at the Superbowl?" on their feed, any of their followers now have a direct link to Beyonce's profile along with the content. This serves dual purpose: Referral to that person in case the user thinks their followers might click on it, or also so Beyonce herself sees the comment.
So when creating a name, you don't want your user name to be something like @dk1kc380 because when people are discussing you, your topics, etc., you want to be easily read. Without even clicking the name, a user wants to know exactly who you're talking about. If you're talking about the NFL but their name was @EneffEll123 you'd be a lot less likely to read that comment than if it just said @NFL.
The second part to twitter names is what the viewer sees on their feed. If you're scrolling your feed and you see something about the NFL, it's going to look like this:
NFL (@NFL) : Be sure to see the Ravens turn up the heat on the 49ers tonight on @ABC in HD!
But, if the NFL wanted, they could also display this, with a simple change to their feed name:
National Football League (@NFL): Be sure to see the Ravens turn up the heat on the 49ers on @ABC in HD!
See the difference? Be sure to utilize both. Sometimes your name can be identical to your feed name, sometimes your feed name can be an expanded version while your name is the same as your EMD. The limits here are obviously endless, but be sure to put some thought into it. To make it simple, people who do not already follow you will see your FEED name first more than likely because of RTs, while those who are more familiar with you will be using your @name much more frequently as they comment to/about you.
Last: The blue check mark next to a name means it is a verified account. The top accounts have verification because they are often duplicated. You won't need to verify your account unless you become very popular and people are emulating you constantly, or, quite possibly, if you build such a brand Twitter might just do it for you. BUT: some people swear by having a verified account because people are more likely to follow you. Me, personally, I find it quite the opposite because the "Name Brands" are much less likely to react with me as a follower. Every person is different in this thought process.
SETTINGS
By settings, I basically mean interface (but you modify it all in your settings tab while you're in Twitter). Your interface says a lot about you. Like you modify your CSS files, your Twitter settings allow you to be visually pleasing to the eyes. Also in this section, I'll discuss your display settings.
Your interface is modifiable sort of like the old MySpace. Colors, backgrounds, lines, pictures, headers, etc. You get the idea. Just as you consider your websites visuals, do the same for your Twitter. Go as far as only tagging good, quality pictures as Twitter keeps an album for users to view old posts.
My recommendation here would be to try to implement the same scheme as your site as far as colors, and obviously use the same header as your website (Twitter uses specific sizes for headers and pictures, be sure to have your header sized appropriately). If your brand has a catch phrase, tagline, etc, be sure to use it as your despcription of yourself. Obviously (although somehow, people seem to neglect this) use your websites URL in here. This will actually display your URL as a clicky to every person who accesses your account.
Locked Mode: You have the option to be locked where you hide your tweets from those who do not follow you. Turn this off. Nothing makes a user turn away faster.
Do realize different things are displayed on your Twitter account depending on the other users access point. A person accessing from Windows is very different from those accessing by cell phones. Be sure to test each avenue so there's some consistency in what they see.
I'm not going to expand much further in this section, because it's like art: visually subjective.
========================================
If you're looking for a product to buy which will give you short-term, synthetic Twitter distinction, this isn't for you. Turn back now.This is action-based, manual labor which might yield you real traffic. This is the long method, but in more detail. These opinions are my own, and I will not link any sites.
What I'm Going To Cover:
Intro: Why Twitter Is Important
- Twitter Names
- Settings
- Basics
- a. trends
- b. tags
- c. content
- Strategy
- Traffic
- Automation
Intro
=====
Why Is Twitter Important?
There are several reasons. First, and in my opinion, the most important: 140 characters. For those of you who are new to Twitter, or have sold off the task, tweets are limited to 140 characters. As much as I hear people complain about this, it's absolutely an advantage if you know what you're doing. Twitter is a space for users with no attention span, users looking for a quick fix of some sort (knowledge, news, and hoopla). Quick facts, jokes, national/local news bits, and motivation are among the top searches, closely followed by sports updates, celeb gossip, and what I call streamers(more on this later). All else is trends, trends, trends, and these range anywhere from funny pictures, . When someone can get any of these items in just 140 characters, and tens at a time, it's satisfactory.
Second, the retweet. A retweet (RT) is basically the worlds least strong "referral" in the Twitterverse. Yet, it is a referral, nonetheless. When a user RTs your phrase, tag, or link, they are basically driving your account to all of their followers. If someone has a following of 100, or 1,000, or tens of thousands, your tweet is suddenly going to be in front of the eyes of several users who either are, or aren't your targeted audience. In my opinion, referrals are a integral part of any business, either in person or dotcom. Why not use a system where the system itself is a referral driven one?
Last, speed. Twitter takes such little time once it is up and running it's almost effortless. If you can't come up with 140 characters of content here and there, you're fucked anyway. Once you get to automation, you can bang out a ton of content in one sitting, and drip feed your followers for weeks or months at a time. Ask me about recycling, too, because I'll probably forget about it later on.
Ready? Let's roll.
NOTE: If you already use Twitter regularly, skip to 4: Strategy.
TWITTER NAMES
You actually have multiple twitter names. Most people don't see it this way, but you do. You have an actual account name which is the "@" symbol followed by <user name>.
@UserName is an example. So for instance, the National Football League uses @NFL.
As you go through Twitter, you reference other users by posting their name with the "@" sign (which from here on out I'll just refer to as name) and it becomes a clicky. Click on it and it directs you instantly to their profile, which has a quick description, followed by some other info which I'll get to under "Settings." When users post something, like, "Did you see @Beyonce at the Superbowl?" on their feed, any of their followers now have a direct link to Beyonce's profile along with the content. This serves dual purpose: Referral to that person in case the user thinks their followers might click on it, or also so Beyonce herself sees the comment.
So when creating a name, you don't want your user name to be something like @dk1kc380 because when people are discussing you, your topics, etc., you want to be easily read. Without even clicking the name, a user wants to know exactly who you're talking about. If you're talking about the NFL but their name was @EneffEll123 you'd be a lot less likely to read that comment than if it just said @NFL.
The second part to twitter names is what the viewer sees on their feed. If you're scrolling your feed and you see something about the NFL, it's going to look like this:
NFL (@NFL) : Be sure to see the Ravens turn up the heat on the 49ers tonight on @ABC in HD!
But, if the NFL wanted, they could also display this, with a simple change to their feed name:
National Football League (@NFL): Be sure to see the Ravens turn up the heat on the 49ers on @ABC in HD!
See the difference? Be sure to utilize both. Sometimes your name can be identical to your feed name, sometimes your feed name can be an expanded version while your name is the same as your EMD. The limits here are obviously endless, but be sure to put some thought into it. To make it simple, people who do not already follow you will see your FEED name first more than likely because of RTs, while those who are more familiar with you will be using your @name much more frequently as they comment to/about you.
Last: The blue check mark next to a name means it is a verified account. The top accounts have verification because they are often duplicated. You won't need to verify your account unless you become very popular and people are emulating you constantly, or, quite possibly, if you build such a brand Twitter might just do it for you. BUT: some people swear by having a verified account because people are more likely to follow you. Me, personally, I find it quite the opposite because the "Name Brands" are much less likely to react with me as a follower. Every person is different in this thought process.
SETTINGS
By settings, I basically mean interface (but you modify it all in your settings tab while you're in Twitter). Your interface says a lot about you. Like you modify your CSS files, your Twitter settings allow you to be visually pleasing to the eyes. Also in this section, I'll discuss your display settings.
Your interface is modifiable sort of like the old MySpace. Colors, backgrounds, lines, pictures, headers, etc. You get the idea. Just as you consider your websites visuals, do the same for your Twitter. Go as far as only tagging good, quality pictures as Twitter keeps an album for users to view old posts.
My recommendation here would be to try to implement the same scheme as your site as far as colors, and obviously use the same header as your website (Twitter uses specific sizes for headers and pictures, be sure to have your header sized appropriately). If your brand has a catch phrase, tagline, etc, be sure to use it as your despcription of yourself. Obviously (although somehow, people seem to neglect this) use your websites URL in here. This will actually display your URL as a clicky to every person who accesses your account.
Locked Mode: You have the option to be locked where you hide your tweets from those who do not follow you. Turn this off. Nothing makes a user turn away faster.
Do realize different things are displayed on your Twitter account depending on the other users access point. A person accessing from Windows is very different from those accessing by cell phones. Be sure to test each avenue so there's some consistency in what they see.
I'm not going to expand much further in this section, because it's like art: visually subjective.
