How I use my social media-Twitter part 2

(2015) Twitter,inc

Hello, and welcome to part 2 of the twitter portion of this series.   Yesterday, rather Monday, I refreshed some memories while introducing others to this 140-character Social Media Platform (SMP), which is represented in the form of a little blue bird.  You can read everything here, if you just joined us. 

Today, it is all about how I use this SMP, and what I feel is the proper way, but I am no expert on the subject, which is why this is just an observation or opinion of mine. 

As I have said in the first post, Twitter is a quirky little bird, and although Twitter is not going to say much in a way of do’s and don’ts, they still have their rules.

First of all, I retweet what I like, and what I think my followers need to read.  I do have a couple of rules on retweeting, and they are as follows: 1) Make it relevant, current, or trendy.  No one likes to read something that is even 2 minutes old in the Twitter world, except if people are still talking and retweeting about it.  You can tell if they are.  That is when the subject has a hashtag sitting next to it.  I will also check my left side of the screen called “trends”.  At the moment, I have mine set on “Columbus Trends”.  It is based on location, and I can switch back and forth between Columbus and United States trends.  2) Do not make retweeting your sole purpose on Twitter.  Retweeting is the same as “share”, and if you share too much, it can come off as being too spammy.  I look at it this way:  If they like to hear what you got to say, they will retweet it (rather it was retweeted before, or new content).

Next, if I like an article, I will tweet it, especially if it pertains to my interests.  This is how posts make it on twitter in the first place, right?  Tweeting an article or post does two things: 1) It brings traffic to that site and 2) you are sharing that author’s knowledge to your followers.  By the same token, tweet your own articles and posts.  This is how you build followers through twitter.  Do not just tweet other people’s content.  Again, this is how you gain traffic to your site.  You also sharing your knowledge with others.  Say you wrote a book on weight loss.  You have discovered a type of berry that would increase a person’s metabolism when this berry is juiced and drunk during your meals, and it actually have allowed you to loss over 30 pounds. Of course you want people to read it, but you do not know how to promote this book or your website.  You can turn to twitter for this type of promotion.   Just write a 140-character tweet about your article, which is about your book, like this: check out this new book “the Truth about the Acai Berry and Weight Loss” get it now. http://bit.ly/1yXnEwk (33 characters left).  Did you notice the garbed URL at the end?  I used a URL shorten tool to fit the website address within the 140-character limit, because Twitter does not have time for that.  You click on it, and it will take you straight to the article in the example.

Finally, I follow people, but I am also starting to use the list method more.   What I am discovering is I can follow more than the 2,001 people if I use a list, so I am starting to convert people who I follow not so much on a list, and still be able to see what they have to say.  There are some people who I have both as my followed people and on a list.  I will see how that works out for me.  The ones who I just want to have on a list, I will unfollow.

So that is it for the Twitter side of the SMP.  Just remember these tips, and to show love, but not to the point, where you look like a spammer.  One tip I do want to point out.  You can link your Twitter account to the other SMP, just remember, to only share the article once, or you will get what I always get, the same post appearing more than once.   Do link your twitter account to your blog or website.