Bridget Willard | SaaS Marketing Agency

Author: Bridget Willard

  • Believability and Passion: A Tip for Speakers

    Speaking at a conference?

    Teaching a class?

    Giving a presentation?

    Ask yourself the following questions:

    Why? How? What? Who?

    Why:

    Why were you asked to speak? Why are you giving the presentation? Why should we know this information? Why should we believe you? (more…)

  • Be More Efficient on Twitter with Twitter Lists

    Updated 1/3/2021.

    Twitter lists are the most efficient way to use Twitter for the busy marketing professional or small business owner. Heck, it’s the only way I run my business.

    Time and time again, I am asked how to be more efficient in one’s use of Twitter. The answer is simple. Use lists.

    This allows you to spend more time engaging your targeted audiences, curate content for all platforms, and, more importantly, listen. For more on why Twitter is the best for business to business marketing, read this post.

    This post has been updated in January of 2021 and includes a few videos. Read up from Twitter on everything you need to know about lists.

    You know you don’t have to read every tweet, right?

    Often those new to Twitter complain that there is so much to read. They unfollow “prolific” (often used as a derogatory term) tweeters because they “clog up” their Twitter stream.

    You can scroll. And you can filter.

    Twitter Lists are the most under-utilized tool available to Twitter users second to the reply button. Share on X

    How do you create a list on Twitter?

    The one good update from Twitter is the prominence of lists on the sidebar. Go to your username (slash) lists like https://twitter.com/BridgetMWillard/lists and click on the +List icon at the top. Or you can click on the Lists link on the sidebar.

    Be intentional about your list names. You should lists clients, categories, industry, etc. More on that is below.

    How do you list users on Twitter?

    You can create and edit lists on Twitter’s web app for desktop.

    When you go to a user’s profile, click the three dots, choose “add or remove from lists,” and then choose the list. You can add users to more than one list. Twitter just changed how this looks now (July 2019).

    You can add people to existing lists from Twitter desktop, mobile, or Hootsuite. I primarily use HootsuitePro because the columns you setup are the same on desktop or mobile.

    For In-Depth Tutorials See:

    What do you need to know about listing on Twitter?

    You do not have to follow someone to be able to list them.  This can be helpful for celebrities and news people (that you make lists for).

    So give your lists some thought. Think keywords.  It is so much work to go backward and fix these.

    Lists can be public or private. When you add people to a list, they will be notified that they are listed and the name of the list. Twitter users can subscribe to your public lists.  I don’t use private lists.

    More: Twitter Help Center:  Using Twitter Lists

    Listing by Relationship:

    In my talk, “You Are What You Tweet,” I emphasized the importance of listing and relationships. It is important to think about what relationships you may want to list.

    Pencil out some of the choices you might have. Think about your business and or interests. Humor, automobiles, travel, politics, and sports are just a few of the endless possibilities.

    Think of your three target demographics you need to stay in touch with. Write those down. Be aware that they will be notified of the name of the list.

    When I worked for Riggins Construction, I put our clients and brokers on and another for our subcontractors. Those were people whose tweets I always want to see, reply to, and share.

    When I worked for GiveWP, I wanted to see our team, nonprofits, and WordPress users.

    Listing can be done for any industry.

    Listing by Topic

    Sometimes it’s hard to remember a follower when you need to. Usernames are often hard to remember (exactly) and avatars frequently change.

    When I wanted to remember the two painters I followed in Orange County, I was so frustrated.  I had a “construction” list for the @RigginsConst account, but it was too diverse.

    I finally ended up making several lists and put the floor and tile people together the HVAC and roofing people together, the General Contractors on their own list, etc.

    For GiveWP, I started an #NPChat list. This helped me engage with those who are participating in our weekly chat during the week.

    Listing by Geography

    There are many benefits to listing by geography.

    For business and networking purposes, it’s good to put people who live in your vicinity, say county, on a list. This is especially important for brick-and-mortar businesses who depend upon local clientele.

    For example, I have an Orange County list, I can go to that column on Hootsuite, and read only those tweets.  The list filters out my whole twitter stream (currently following 11,600) to show only the 376 on that list. Obviously, making the information more relevant and manageable for me. This gives me the ability to scroll through tweets and find gems even from four hours ago that I missed while otherwise occupied. I simply reply to start a conversation or share (retweet) their post.

    Another reason to list by geography is if you’re researching an area to travel and/or move.

    My backup plan, should I ever have to leave California, is to move to Arizona.  I started putting people on a list with other Arizonans.  I can read their tweets, interact, get to know the area, learn new things, and make friends before I even move.

    Organization is the Key to Being Effective

    Listing is the only way I think I could be truly effective at building relationships on Twitter. Prioritizing who you engage with is not bad, it’s common sense.

    There are a lot of non-sense tweets, check-ins, and such, but those are also the tweets that show an individual’s humanity and personality. Discovering shared interests is the start of any friendship.

    Bonus:

    Go read: “Twitter Lists for the Power User” by Carol Stephen for more ideas.

    Happy Listing.

    Feel free to check out my lists here.

  • Why I Favorite My Own Tweets (This was before Like/Bookmarking)

    What’s your favorite social media platform?  Or do you believe that like with children, you shouldn’t have favorites? If you spend any time getting to know me you will soon discover that Twitter is my favorite by far.

    Speaking of favorites, I’m often asked why I favorite a tweet (or accused of favoriting my own tweets in order to artificially inflate my ranking on some system I’ve never heard of but whatever).

    Here is my official, un-official brain-dump on why I use the favoriting tool.

    Bookmarking

    As I told R3 Social Media, I learned to “bookmark” tweets by favoriting them from @BrianDaltonCRE.  Once I have read the link in the tweet and know for sure I don’t need to refer back to it, I unfavorite it.

    I often check Twitter while watching T.V., for example.  I’m not going to stop the show to watch a cat video, but since my friend tweeted it, I want to watch it later.

    Another reason I bookmark (favorite a tweet) is if I see a tweet in the stream and it has a link. The link seems interesting, so for sure I want to read it later.  It’s too hard to find those tweets later when you do have 20 minutes or so, at the end of the day, to read them.

    (more…)

  • You’re Not Born A Guru – Twitter Takes Time

    Baby Bird 08 by
    Baby Bird 08 by “Allie’s Dad” on Flickr

    I just realized you can download an archive of your tweets from Twitter.com.

    Today is my 6th year anniversary using Twitter (my original account is @gidgey).

    By no means did I hit the ground running from this account.

    Here is my first tweet:

    It appears it took nearly a year before I talked to anyone.  My first mention was to Leo Laporte. Incidentally, it was from listening to his TWIT podcasts that I heard about Twitter in the first place and joined.

    (more…)

  • Why I Don’t Use Twitter’s Retweet Button

    The retweet button is the worst button ever. It discourages conversations, robs you of data, and dilutes your branding.

    Let’s get some things out of the way first.

    Twitter existed before they made a Retweet button. Retweeting without the button is not plagiarism. Ripping off the text without crediting the user’s Twitter handle is plagiarism. 

    People copied and pasted the text, put RT in front, and the retweet was born. Twitter shot themselves in the foot when they took an organic, user-generated syntax and made a button for it.

    How Do You Old School Retweet?

    Watch the video here:

    Now, you can take my advice or not. I double-dog dare you to try it for a month.

    But my perspective is always to be a help.

    I’ll start with the benefits of the Retweet Button.

    1. People like to be able to say that their tweet was retweeted x amount of times.  Even I have fallen into this trap from time to time. 
    2. Some tweets are just too awesome or too long to edit in order to Retweet.
    3. People claim it curbs traffic on Twitter. I’m not sure if that’s actually true, but I’ll capitulate to the point for the purpose of this post.

    A Retweet Stops The Conversation

    The retweet is often misused when a reply is more appropriate.

    When a “reply” suffices as in a case where “You’re welcome” or “Thank you” are appropriate responses, the retweet makes you look lazy at best — rude at worst. Yep, I said it.

    Now, don’t get your feelings all hurt, I’m not going to call anyone out and show screenshots or anything. Just think before you press “retweet.” Is it the appropriate response?

    Remember, Twitter is for conversations, not just mirroring a statement back to the original sender.

    Users Can Turn Your Retweets Off

    Did you know any user can turn off your retweets? I do this often with serial retweeters. It is an option in the drop down menu when you go to a profile on Twitter right after “Report @User as Spam.” Do you want your retweets turned off? I’m guessing you don’t.

    The Retweet Button is Bad for
    Branding

    Yes, I said it. When you go to my profile, all you see is my avatar/logo/face. Why would I want to advertise someone else’s brand in my feed? Why am I working hard to build my business, spread my message, strengthen my credibility if I’m just going to mirror back tweets from twenty other people?

    Why are you?

    By using the “Retweet” button you are advertising another brand on your profile — for free. Whereas, an Old School Retweet (copy/paste with “RT”) is more like an introduction.

    Retweets Do Nothing for Your Data

    Brands like analytics. We all do. We like to see how our tweets have impressed others. Are they liking our tweet? Are they replying or clicking on our profile?

    When you retweet someone else, you’re part of their data. Should one of your followers also retweet that tweet, then it will not be reflected in your Twitter account’s analytics. It’s like you never existed.

    Read that again.

    Should one of your followers also retweet that tweet, then it will not be reflected in your Twitter account’s analytics.

    If most of your tweets are retweets, your analytics will show little engagement, if any.

    So, when I press the retweet button, I just become data on someone else’s account.

    Twitter Chats and Twitter’s Comment Retweet

    If you use this in a Twitter chat, add the hashtag to your comment. Otherwise, your comment retweet will not be seen by the Twitter client. At the time of this update, this is true of TweetChat and Twubs.

    Also, Hootsuite doesn’t reliably show comment retweets in mentions. I only see that on Twitter dot com.

    People Scan – They Don’t Read

    I know it’s hard to believe, but the more followers you have, the faster the home feed scrolls. The only way to avoid this is to make use of the list feature to filter the feed.

    The truth is people are scanning the feed for logos/faces/avatars that they know and recognize.

    This is also a compelling reason to avoid changing your avatar too often.

    When I see a face/logo I trust, I’m more likely to read the tweet, click on a link, and retweet or reply. The retweet button uses another user’s logo which may be unknown to me. Do you want me to ignore your tweets?

    The Old School Retweet Prompts New Follows

    I know that I am more likely to follow a new person via an Old School RT. Why? If the person retweeting is someone I trust, then I almost always click on the “new-to-me” account and follow.

    When you press the retweet button, I probably won’t even notice the tweet in the first place since that user isn’t familiar to me. There is a tiny footnote that “@ThePersonIFollow” retweeted it but the font is so small, I never notice it.

    Old School RT Allows Commenting

    I can’t help it, I prefer the comment at the front of the Tweet. This also can serve as the start of a conversation.

    Remember, Twitter is about the conversation, not just pressing buttons. You do want to talk to people, right?

    In this tweet, I added “So true” to the front of the RT of @24Intl’s tweet:

    And they wrote back thank you and what-have-you.

    Why Do People Love the Retweet Button?

    Simple: it’s easy. It’s harder to copy/paste.

    Reply instead. Replies are even more powerful than retweets. Why? They allow for the conversation to continue. Twitter is for building affinity.

    Affinity leads to loyalty; loyalty leads to sales.

    Your reply, instead of a retweet, could also take off.

    Here’s a case in point. On January 8, 2021, Rhonda Negard sent a reply to Representative Vernon Jones’ tweet. Stay with me.

    As of 8:00 PM Central Time on January 11, 2021, it has been liked 1,400 times. Mind you, she has 500 followers. Not 5,000. Not 50,000. Five hundred followers.

    Oh and she sent me screenshots of the analytics. That reply has over 100,000 impressions. I’m pretty sure I’ve never achieved that in my career. It’s amazing.

    Screenshot of Rhonda's stats for the reply tweet at 100,000 impressions

    I’ll Retweet If I Want To

    Yes, it’s your account. If that’s how you want to run it, it’s your prerogative.  I presume people don’t realize the implications of a retweet. If they’re new to Twitter, they made the button so it’s the way you should do it. Not necessarily. I’m here to give you a perspective of what Twitter was like before the button.

    Look at your own twitter feed, would you follow yourself?

    Retweeting Tools

    Tools in social media change often. Why? Twitter is always changing and the third party programs do, too.

    • I copy/paste when I use my phone or Twitter desktop.
    • But I spend the most time in Hootsuite with the “RT” type of retweet.

    This post was updated 1/11/2021.