Bridget Willard | SaaS Marketing Agency

Category: Twitter

  • Live Tweeting At Events

    Live tweeting at events is quite fun and has a lot of benefits. Most recently I tweeted during the classes I took at Orange County’s WordCamp (#wcoc), June 1, 2013.

    Personally, I love it. I type fast, it’s a fun way to sort of force myself to pay attention, too.

    Live tweeting a great way to pickup followers, promote an event, and engage with other attendees.

    These tips are applicable whether it’s a live webcast, a class, a press event, or a class. Anytime there is a public speech, you can live tweet.

    Why Tweet quotes?

    Quotes grab us. It’s a great way to tweet out the same content without having the same tweet.

    You can tweet from live radio interviews, tweet from archived videos, tweet from debates, etc.

    How is this done?

    It helps if you can type 60 wpm or more and have an actual keyboard. But you can do it on a mobile device, too.

    Use the power of hashtags.

    Name the Hashtag:

    If there is an official hashtag for the event use it. If you’re hosting the event, make the hashtag known. If there isn’t a hashtag, make one up; use your best judgement. Short and to the point is good.

    For example, I was part of the Digital Influence panel in April. There was no hashtag. We went with #DigitalInfluence.

    If there is a class within a conference, use the an appropriate hashtag.  For example for the class “WordPress 101” I used #WP101.

    Form:

    Use quotation marks. Use proper grammar.  Use the speaker’s Twitter handle. Use the hashtag.

    If you feel uneasy about tweeting straightaway, type the quote into a text file for later.

    I like to open a text file and put the speaker’s twitter handle and hashtag (eg. @WebTW #WP101 #WCOC) there for cut/paste. I simply copy it. After I type the quote, I paste. It helps if you know the keyboard shortcuts, too (CTRL+C / CTRL+V). This makes it quite fast and efficient to live tweet.

    Disclaimer:  If you type (or find) the wrong handle, for example, like I did (twice this weekend), all of your tweets will be wrong with the cut and paste method. And all of your retweets will be wrong.  Proofread.  I could kick myself for getting a bunch of them wrong.

    Examples from WordCamp (#WCOC):

    You can even use the hashtag for other event-related tweets such as a photo of yourself and a new friend, etc.

    Follow the Hashtag:

    My favorite tool for this is TweetChat.com.  With Twitter’s API changes, you never know how long services like this will be available. If all else fails, setup a column in Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to see the other tweets.

    If you don’t have time to respond to others’ tweets, favorite them to respond later. Remember, one of the goals is to meet new people and form new bonds. Follow people back and maybe even put them on a list.

    Respond to Others:

    Find other people tweeting and retweet them. I recommend old-school retweets, but if you’ve been reading this blog, you know that.

    Thank people who retweet you.  Reply to others.

    Twitter only allows you to tweet 1,000 times a day which works out to 40 times an hour. Thanking and retweeting will take up some of your tweets, so be cautious.

    WPBlab Episode 3-9-17

    Have you ever tweeted during an event?

    What are your tips?

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • The Value of Your Online Ambassador (Why It “Costs” So Much)

    Social media managers are your digital ambassadors. That’s why it costs so much. You’re asking them to be you and speak on your behalf.

    You’re a small business owner thinking you need to be on social media, not totally convinced of its worth (yet), but you know you need it. You may even realize you need help.

    So, you find and contact a social media manager and get a quote. But now you’re in a coma because you had an entirely different expectation of the cost.

    You think, “It’s just Facebook? Why is it so expensive?”

    Just like in any line of work, there are people with experience and people who tell a good story. In my experience, I’ve run into very few truly good social media managers. I am very picky on who I will refer when I’m asked to take on an account.

    Some thoughts:

    1. You don’t have time for social media. This is why you’ve sought help in the first place.  How much is your time worth?
    2. You don’t have the skills needed (yet) do do social media yourself. How much is it worth to you to get the accounts going?
    3. A good social media manager needs to brainstorm with you and come up with an overall strategy and ideas on how to tactically achieve that goal. Some people are naturals.
    4. A good social media manager shouldn’t be afraid to try new things, use humor, yet show discretion. This usually comes with age and experience.
    5. Many times social media managers are not permitted (because of non-disclosure agreements) to reveal their clients. Look at their Twitter and Facebook accounts.
      1. Is their account alive?  For example, when’s the last time they tweeted?
      2. Are they polite? Do they thank people? Do they retweet others? Do they respond to comments on their own brand’s Facebook Page?  This is known as “engagement” in the industry and “being a human being” in real life.
      3. Does their account feel professional to you. Read a sampling of the posts.
      4. Do they use proper grammar? Do they make a lot of spelling mistakes or overly rely on texting syntax?
      5. The truth is that you do what you practice.  If their own brand isn’t done well, then why would you think they’d do a better job on yours?
    6. A social media manager is your brand ambassador. They act in your place, as if they were you, online. This includes customer service, relationship building, passive (or active) lead generation, and public relations.
    7. When they meet you do they push their own agenda or have ideas that will specifically help your type of business? The truth is not everyone should be on Pinterest, for example. But if it’s good for your industry, you want to make sure the social media manager is competent on that platform.

    When you consider these factors, is the price they quoted to you really too high?

    If the price is still totally out of your reach, then start teaching yourself. Although, many of the people I refer offer scaled plans or coaching sessions to get you started. Additionally, have a list of “required reading” as well as my own “how to” posts scattered throughout my blog.

    There is a Chinese Proverb that says,

    “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”

    Your competition is online. What’s holding you back?

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