Is your Twitter a ghost town? Well, that’s your fault. OMG, just kidding. Twitter is very different from all the other platforms out there. Here are a few tips that will help you find your way.
1. Your cover image is your life. :: People will look at your cover image and make a snap judgement about you. TRUE STORY: I met Sharon Fain, of Academy of Handmade, on Twitter. She has a zillion followers on Instagram, but our paths crossed for the first time on Twitter. One of the reasons I followed her was because she had a really cute cover image. Seriously. See for yourself. Anyhoo, I looked her up on Instagram after I met her on Twitter. A couple months later I became a co-leader of the brand new San Francisco chapter of Academy of Handmade. All thanks to Twitter.
2. Be present. :: If you want to grow a following on Twitter, then you have to show up. Scheduling tweets ahead of time is better than nothing, but it is not the best way to build your community. When I am in intense Twitter mode, I tweet every 30 minutes. It always results in a big bump in followers. (FYI, Twitter etiquette says not to tweet more than once every 20 minutes.) This is not sustainable for long periods of time, but every so often it helps. I am not a content machine, so most of the time I retweet content I think my customers will find useful. How to find useful content? Read on, my friend.
3. Use Twitter Lists. :: One of the reasons people feel confused about Twitter is because it can be incredibly overwhelming. Twitter Lists are a great way to get organized. According to Twitter, “A list is a curated group of Twitter users. You can create your own lists or subscribe to lists created by others. Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream of Tweets from only the users on that list.” I have three main lists that I tweet from: Maker Community, Creative Biz Community, and Social Media Community. I chose to create these lists because I want to share content that is useful to my target market. Think about who you want to attract to your Twitter page and make a list with relevant people. It makes retweeting easy-peasy.
4. No Auto-DM’s. :: Like, never ever. Some businesses set up an auto-DM to be sent to each new follower. Usually it’s something along the lines of, “Thanks for following me! Check out my Facebook page at www.annoying.com for more updates.” No matter how nice an auto-DM is, it will be considered spam and may result in an immediate unfollow.
5. Join a Twitter Chat. :: If you are interested in connecting with other creatives, then this is the place for you. There are Twitter Chats for everything you could ever think of. SF Etsy has a regular chat on Tuesdays at 9pm. Sometimes they interview experts (…ahem, like me) and sometimes it’s a discussion around a specific topic, like holiday shipping. The easiest way to participate in a Twitter Chat is with TweetChat. All you have to do is enter the hashtag associated with the chat you want to join and you’re in!
