T Is For Twitter

Day 20 of my A to Z Challenge. T is for Twitter.

If you don't know how this works, I've posted the link back to the rules of the challenge at the end of this, along with a link to yesterday's post. If you want to read my full alphabet, just keep following the links. Each day has a link back to yesterday's post.

Twitter is the most amazing tool to promote your blog - I’ve touched on that briefly here: http://myrandommusings.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/facebook-vs-twitter-big-debate.html.

As I’ve spent more time on Twitter, I’ve learned how to use it a lot more effectively, and I really wish I had known some of this stuff when I first started out, so with that in mind, I thought I would share 8 things I’ve learned about Twitter:

1.Tweet your links regularly

In hindsight, this one sounds so obvious, but when I first started using Twitter, I made the mistake of thinking it worked like Facebook, where you post a status and hours later it’s still easily visible. This is not the case. Depending on the number of people you follow, there can be hundreds of new tweets per minute. One tweet a day just isn’t enough to ensure a decent percentage of your followers see your tweets. There’s no hard and fast rules of how many times to send your tweets out - experiment and find what feels right for you. For new posts, I usually do 1 tweet an hour from 10am – midnight, UK time.

2.Schedule tweets

There’s not many people who have the time or inclination to sit at their computer all day watching the clock so they can tweet. Even if this achievable some days, there will be times when it just isn’t – work commitments, family time or actually going outside and talking to people!
On an average day, where I haven’t written any extra posts, I have the following tweets to send out:
1 new post to promote – that’s one tweet an hour from 10am to midnight, 15 tweets
Up to 4 posts across one or more linkys so that’s one tweet an hour for them too (I alternate them) from 10.30am to 11.30pm, 14 tweets
2 themed tweets eg Follow Friday, 2 tweets
If I need guest posters etc for themes that’s another 4 tweets
I do a thought of the day tweet, 1 tweet
And lastly, at the end of each day, I do a tweet with my main blog link rather than a specific post link, 1 tweet.
(I’m so tempted to add here “For everything else there’s Mastercard!)
That’s a daily minimum total of 37 tweets! That’s a lot to remember to post! Also if I feature anything from another blogger, I do a shout out tweet to them. It soon adds up! So how do you schedule tweets? That leads me onto my next point.

3.Tweetdeck

I use Tweetdeck to schedule my tweets, and it has been an absolute life saver for me. There are other options out there for scheduling, but the front runners seems to be Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. I’ve never tried Hootsuite, so I can’t comment on how good or bad it is. I chose Tweetdeck mainly because it’s free to use. There’s no sign up process, you just use your Twitter login.

I only really use it for scheduling tweets, but if you want to know more about what it does, Jemma over at Dorkface Blog wrote a brilliant post about its functions, which you can read here http://www.dorkface.co.uk/2015/04/a-guide-to-tweetdeck.html.

I load all my tweets daily, but you can go further ahead than that if you want to. It takes me about 15-20 minutes on average. Just make sure when you do this that no 2 tweets are exactly the same, as if they are, Twitter kicks them back as duplicates! With that in mind, there is still only so many ways to say “come and read my new post” especially with the 140 character limit, so I tend to try and mix up which hashtags I use.

 4.Hashtags

It’s only recently I’ve learned the importance of hashtags (#). I always thought of them as a quirky way to sum up a tweet, but they are so much more than that. Hashtags give you the chance to have people who aren’t following you see your tweets, by searching for topics that interest them. Say someone searches for New York. Anything anyone has tweeted with #NewYork wil be visible to them. Think of them as a sort of e-filing system. You can use them to target a specific audience, eg #bloggers, or by subject #whateveryouwroteabout (most hashtags don’t have spaces). Have a search about and find ones that are relevant to what you are posting or who you want to view it (#everyone anybody?) They are also used to group things together, eg linkys, challenges or blog chats.

5.Linkys

Whilst technically linkys aren’t a Twitter thing, I discovered them through Twitter so I thought I would touch on them briefly.
Linkys are a brilliant way to connect with other bloggers. You get your posts seen by a larger, and often new audience, and you find some gems of blogs to read that you otherwise may not have found. I have found some of my favourite blogs through linkys. If you would like to learn more about how they work, Al over at The Dad Network explains it much better than I could here http://www.thedadnetwork.co.uk/2015/04/what-is-a-linky.html. If you would like to take part in them, Aby at You Baby Me Mummy has put together a brilliant list of what’s on when here http://youbabymemummy.com/ramblings/linky-list/.

 6.Be sociable!

Talk to other bloggers! If you follow a link to a great post, retweet it! – this basically means you are sharing it with your followers. If you see another blogger asking a question you can answer, answer them!
I wasted so much time wishing I had the courage to talk to strangers like that, wondering if it was cheeky to answer things that weren’t specifically directed at me. It’s not! If someone asks a question, it’s fair to assume they want an answer!
If you just bang out promo tweets all day without any personal interaction, you’re followers will soon get bored.
And a bit of a no brainer, but if someone tweets you directly, or mentions you in a tweet, have the common decency to acknowledge them! If the tweet really doesn’t warrant a reply, at least click favourite so they know you’ve seen it and appreciate the mention.

 7.Blogger chats

Blogger chats are a fantastic way to communicate with other bloggers. Join in when you can. There are loads running throughout the week, about various areas and topics about blogging (I have a list saved that I can send over to anyone that wants a copy. I’m embarrassed to admit I can’t remember which blog posted it so I can’t link it up).
You can learn so much in these chats, and really get to know other bloggers, so it’s worth joining in. Each blog chat has its own hashtag. Use it on every chat related tweet so everyone involved can see it.
I would say there are two rules which are pretty simple to follow:
*Be courteous, and if you disagree with someone, by all means say so, but be respectful about it! Don’t resort to personal attacks.
*DO NOT use the # of a chat to send in your blog’s link if you haven’t been involved in the chat. It’s just rude!

 8.Set up a separate Twitter account for your blog

If you haven’t already done this, and are just using your personal account, I would really advise you to set up a separate one. I know a lot of bloggers far more experienced than I am will disagree with this point. There’s no real rule, this is just my opinion. I would advise it for three reasons:
*If you are sending out a lot of promo tweets, blog chat tweets etc and your friends aren’t into blogging, it’s going to annoy them pretty quickly. Whereas if people follow you as a blogger, presumably they are interested in your blog.
*It helps potential readers find you, and helps them mentally connect this Twitter account with your blog, because the name is familiar to them. This is assuming you use your blog name as your user name, rather than your real name. Again, this is just my opinion, and is probably another point people will disagree on.
*This last reason is mostly if you want to work with brands. It’s great to put a bit of your personality into your blog related tweets, but do you really want brands you will potentially be working with to look you up and see you were #smashedallweekend?

Do you agree Twitter is the best promo site? If not, which do you prefer? Is there anything you would add to the list?

Follow me on Twitter @randommusings29 and feel free to comment :)

Link to rules: http://myrandommusings.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/a-z-challenge-whos-with-me.html

Link to S Is For Signs You Are Addicted To Blogging: http://myrandommusings.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/s-is-for-signs-you-are-addicted-to.html