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.
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 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 :)
Whether you're a brand new blogger or have been blogging for years, I think we can all agree that boosting our readership is always an ongoing goal. Joining a linky is a fantastic way to put your work in front of a new audience of potential readers. Linkys bring in lots of other bloggers who are linking up, plus you have the regular readers of the host's blog. Use a catchy title for your post and more people will choose to read it.
