Author: Bridget Willard

  • Are you in a Twitter rut? Stop Digging.

    “They” say that if you’re in a rut, stop digging.

    Are you talking to the same people over and over and over again?

    Do you only spend time on Twitter in your “mentions” column?

    We all have days where we’re trying to just get by and, believe me, I’m the one who says you can maintain your account in five minutes a day, but that’s not going to help you grow.

    Whenever I start to feel like I’m in a rut, I am reminded of this Tweet from Scott Stratten:

    If Twitter is about relationships, then it logically follows that relationships take work. That does take time.

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  • Twitter is About Trust. Is Your Social Ledger Blank?

    Ledger-6 Print fit-to-page or on 12 inch or legal paper
    by Mel McCarthy Creative Commons License

    A blank slate. Many social psychologists believe that the human starts off with a blank slate. Regardless of your ideology, every relationship does begin with a blank ledger. Let me explain.

    Social Media is about many things, one of which is building relationships. How to start that building is often debated.

    “Relationships take time. If you try to shortcut social media, you’re shortcutting relationship building.”

    ~ Scott Stratten from “Mannequin Networking: Why Twitter Automation Is Bad.

    Scott is right. Relationships are built over time. Being the logical person that I am, I came to the conclusion that Twitter is about trust and tweeted it on September 25, 2012.

    In our digital age it’s easy to either be naive (an oversharer) or paranoid (incomplete profile). It’s true that occasionally you do run into people like Terry Rantula, as Carol Stephen describes in her post, “Social Media: Do You Really Know Your Friends?” But should that be the determining factor in our social media strategy?

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  • Retweet Styles – It’s like Jeans; there’s a fit for everyone.

    Social media experts are known for their opining.  Like it or not, extreme positioning tends to garner both positive and negative attention.

    As a dispensary of unsolicited advice I’ve made the enemy or two in my day. My thought, however, is this: why not experiment around?

    One thing we can count on in social media is that trends, platforms, and accepted notions change over time.

    By now, most people know what I think of Twitter’s Retweet Button.

    But there is an element of style in the retweet. Style in tweeting is like jeans – there’s a fit for everyone. Quote Tweets or Quote posts are still fine. They have limitations. And to each their own.

    1.  Old School RT

    Why would someone post on X with the prefix “RT?”

    When Twitter originally started, there was no button to retweet. Users came up with the syntax — et voilà. We’re used to it — us old schoolers.

    This is traditionally done by clicking reply on a tweet, copying the text of the original tweet, and pasting after the user’s name.  Then you put “RT” in the front of the tweet and click send.

    Copy/paste FTW!

    Hootsuite and Tweetdeck (as well as their rival third party apps) have buttons that make this much easier.  In Hootsuite, however, you have to change the settings for this retweet style to be activated. Well, maybe not anymore. I haven’t used Hootsuite since 2023.

    On X (Twitter) this is called “Quote Tweet.”  I still don’t get why they don’t have that option on the web version, but I digress.

    Example:

    Original Tweet:

    RT:

    2. Modified Tweet (MT)

    You may have seen “MT” at the beginning of a post on X. What is it? It means “Modified Tweet.”

    If the original tweet is very much longer than 120 characters, you may have to edit the tweet to get under the character limit. If you do this, then put MT instead of RT and use an ellipsis (…) where the text is cut off.

    Another good use case for “MT” as a prefix is to thank the original poster but include the context.

    3. Comment Tweet

    This retweet has a comment in front to continue the conversation. This is my preferred style.

    Note: Some people put the comment at the end of the tweet with “//” or “<<” before their addition, but I find this style confusing

    Example:

    4. Rewrite Tweet

    This is a hybrid between the comment and the hat tip. Especially if the tweet has a link, I may use a quote or something in an article that I like better than the original tweet’s text but still want to give credit. When I do this, I usually add the website or author’s Twitter handle, if known. I may even add an appropriate hashtag.

    Example:

    5. Hat Tip (h/t) Tweet

    You saw the link somewhere else (Facebook, G+, Instagram, et al) but still want to give this user source credit. Use the hat tip by adding “h/t @username” at the end.

    Example:

  • Six Tips to Gain Followers Through Engagement

    Ducks

    How do you gain followers?

    This is the question I am often asked.

    “Do I buy followers?” No. In fact, most of the time people can tell when you have bought followers, as my colleague Carol Stephen describes in her post here. This strategy sort of backfired for former Speaker of the House and Presidential Candidate, Newt Gingrich, too.

    Twitter is one of the major spokes in the social media wheel. Social media, people seem to forget, is about being social.

    During the question and answer period of the Digital Influence panel at ACEC California’s April Conference, I was asked what the best practice for Twitter is.

    My answer:  “The most important thing for you is to be a human being.”

    In fact, my social media strategy revolves around being a polite, helpful person.

    That seems to do the trick.

    How does this work.

    1. I avoid Twitter’s Retweet button.

    This is controversial and everyone has their own opinions. Read my blog post here.

    2. When I do retweet, I add a comment first.

    This continues the conversation the original tweeter intended, presumably, when they sent the tweet in the first place. Awkward sentence? Sure. But the point is that Twitter is a conversation. By that logic, every tweet is potentially a conversation starter.

    See: Retweet Styles

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  • Extend a Tweet’s Life

    One of the takeaways from “Can you fall in love with a brand?” is how to extend the life of a tweet.

    Tweets, essentially, are public text messages with a link. If it has a link, it can be embeded into a post like this.

    And so, people from the blog post, can favorite the tweet, retweet it, follow you, etc. (more…)