A Beginner's Guide to Tweeting: Inform

Information is gold in social media. Those who share quality information get noticed. Those who create quality content become leaders. It could conceivably be argued that on Twitter sharing links to quality information is the native tongue.

So how should a beginner approach information sharing on Twitter?

Decide who it is you want to attract

1 - Use Twitter search to find your ideal customers/clients.

You can use the search function on Twitter to explore keywords that they might be using. For more advanced searches you can use Advanced Twitter Search.

2 - Spend some time doing your research. 

Look at their websites, look at their list of friends. If you see a number sign (#) followed by a word or group of letters in their tweets, that is called a "hashtag" and it's used to indicated a particular interest, community or event.

3 - Search hashtags that your clients are using. 

You may find even more potential clients using them.

4 - Once you have identified people you want to connect with, follow, follow, follow them!!!

Some will follow you back right away, others will take their time and still others won't follow you back at all.  It doesn't matter. You are building your community.  Later on, you can unfollow people who don't follow you back.

Start reading blogs that are relevant to your followers

1 - Google topics of interest to your followers to find blogs, articles.

2 - Watch what your followers are tweeting. 

3 - Click on followers links to their own personal blogs.

4 - Get a feed reader and start subscribing to the best blogs. 

Here is a blog post I wrote that explains the value of using a feed reader and how to get one and begin subscribing to blogs. (Trust me, this really isn't very difficult.)

Compose an attention getting tweet with a link to a quality post

1 - Copy and paste the URL into Twitter or use a URL shortener.

The URL is the string of words in your brower that is the web address of whatever page you happen to be viewing.  When you read a blog article that you like, copy the URL, go to a URL shortening site like bit.ly. paste it there to shorten it and then copy the new URL into Twitter.

Shortening the URL is important because you only have 140 characters avaliable in a tweet. However, this step will soon become unnecessary as Twitter has begun rolling out it's own URL shortener.

In Twitter, the link will automatically by hyperlinked.

2 - Write an attention grabbing headline in front of the link

Basicaly your tweet should give people a good idea of what they will see if they click on the link. But the key is to do it in such a way that people find it irresistible. Here is a post I wrote about writing attention-grabbing headlines/tweets.

3 - Add a relevant hashtag

People actually follow particular Twitter hashtag streams, so if you use the right one, even people who aren't following will see your tweet and they may decide to start following you.  For instance, if you are seeking to attract the attention of event professionals, you'd be wise to include the hashtags #eventprofs and/or #Engage365 on tweets directed at them.

When you take the time to read blogs that are relevant to the audience you are trying to attract, you begin to learn what makes your customers tick.  It can be a real eye-opener and will help you to improve your marketing strategy. 

Content is also the best bait for attracting new clients online.  So finding it, creating it and sharing it on all your social media channels should always be a priority.

(Photo by inju)