Social Media 2013 Part 2: Tame Twitter in 140 Characters or Less

Hey Happy New Year Everyone!

I want to welcome you to the official kickoff of my official “Kick the Hell Out of 2013” social media campaign.

Glad that you’re all here.

This is the second part of what is now a six part series on social media aptly titled Social Media: Own 2013 using its Awesomeness.

Let’s get into it shall we?

Twitter

The word brings images of headless faces with all kinds 140 character messages in a timeline underneath. But is that all there is to this tool and if it is, why should you waste your precious time using it?

Because you can integrate it into your Facebook profile and it’s a fantastic way of communicating your message to others who may have similar interests.

What is Twitter Anyway?

The simple explanation of Twitter is that it’s a social media platform that does two things

• a)  It allows you to send messages to your Twitter followers or Tribe if that reference works for you
• b)  Twitter also lets you build a following of like-minded people who may or may not be interested in what you have to share with them

What’s in it for Me

Okay so what’s so attractive about Twitter anyway? Well, it could be that figure of over 20 million (and I’m sure that this figure is a low ball estimate) of the amount of people tweeting at any given moment on the platform.

Its target demographic is thirty something’s – forty-five year olds, a fairly large population segment.

Twitter is a great way to attract attention to not just your business brand, but also your personal brand as well.

Communication on Twitter is instantaneous.

I’d like you to take a closer look at Twitter in 2012 with this Infographic…

So now that you’ve seen the stats

 

Those should be enough reasons to start embracing Twitter, tenderly holding it like a newborn child. Now that I’ve given you a few reasons why Twitter is another social media tool to take note of, let me share some basic knowledge with you about the platform.

Pertinent Twitter Info

Messaging with Twitter-when you send out a twitter message, you are sending out a tweet. Your tweet has to convey your message in 140 characters and that includes spaces.

Tweeting-the tweets that you send out establishs a timeline that others can follow and reply to if they so desire.

Followers-followers are those all important people who follow your tweets, and you should follow them back as well. This is the way to actually be social with your followers, and it’s the whole idea behind the platform.

Set up your Twitter Account

Setting up an account on Twitter is fairly painless, and is pretty much just like setting up a Facebook profile.

You’ll start with a username. I didn’t go this route because I want to be as transparent about who I am as possible (and I’ll explain why at another time) but I suggest taking a name that’s as unique and catchy as possible…but of course there’s nothing wrong with using your own name.

Upload a decent (please no pin-ups) of yourself to place a face to the name, and that’s whether you are branding a business or yourself. Trust me people feel better placing a human face to a corporate business.

Fill out your bio, and you have 160 characters to do it with…yeah! Don’t be vague or secretive with your bio either…remember transparency is what you’re shooting for here.

Add a link in your bio for people to click on that leads back to your business, blog or website.

And I definitely recommend having a personalized Twitter background display. Here is a pic of my Twitter profile…

Tweet and Thrive

Alright now that I’ve gotten you to this point, I want you to totally take this concept in…Twitter is all about the conversation, the dialog, that elusive ingredient that’s going to turn you into a Twitter sensation…but not overnight.

Having conversations with your followers are what’s going to over time, brand your business as well as yourself. The reason for this simply is because everyone wants to know that their concerns matter…and that’s where the conversation comes in.

There are probably thousands of people who are using Twitter right now, sending those 140 character messages out to their followers, and one of two things happen in many cases…

a)     Either the tweeter doesn’t care about whom (if anyone) is actually paying attention to what they are saying or…

b)    Those followers stopped caring long ago about what the tweeter has to say

Either way, this is a loss for both the tweeter and the follower, and this is not how we use Twitter to brand a business. I’m guilty of this myself, and I intend to practice what I preach in regard to this area.

Twitter and Facebook Integration

Earlier I mentioned integration and this is where I was going with that idea. Once you start building your Twitter following, you also want to keep the conversation going on your Facebook Fan Page as well.

I can’t stress enough at this juncture the idea of creating a dialog rather than trying to just sell something to your followers. Engaging with your followers is the best way to turn followers into consumers and eventually into customers.

Let me end this chapter today with this thought for everyone to keep in mind…social media is all about the conversations and relationships that we create with one another.

If you’re looking to just use social media to sell, sell, sell…you’re going o be very disappointed with the whole idea of social media.

Just remember…this is all about actually connecting with people in a meaning full way…remember we should always be thinking along this line in regard to social media…what can I do to help someone, rather than what can they do for me.

Now in keeping with the theme of having meaningful conversations, I want to let everyone know how to contact me when I’m on the web.

First of course, you can email me at either snewmark@hvc.rr.com or zipvicious@yahoo.com

You can also contact me with a new tool that I’ve downloaded called Social One which is in its beta phase through Time Warner Cable.

You can always just hit me up on Skype. My contact name there is Animekid 50 (even though I’m officially 55 now)

So let’s get the conversation started right here on these pages by simply leaving a comment or asking a question.

This coming Friday we get into YouTube…I’m excited are you?