S1E8 - Twitter Hacks - Tips & Tricks

Have you used Twitter as a marketing platform for your business? Do you know how to use it? In today’s episode, Stacey Kehoe, covered her Top 10 Twitter Hacks.

Twitter is the most misunderstood social network and tool by the vast majority of people. Twitter is a microblogging platform which allows registered users to post and to send to other registered users short messages. These messages are called tweets and limited to 280 characters. You can hear what your customers have to say about you and you can get your content out in front of your own consumers within a few seconds.

If you want to get the most out of Twitter, listen to Stacey’s Top Ten Twitter hacks.

Top Ten Tips and Tricks

1. Use related hashtags

Using hashtags allow users to join in conversations. It can help the content to be discovered by a specific search.

1. Optimize your Twitter streams

Think about what you're posting and how it visually looks down the stream on Twitter.

1. Create Lists

In Twitter, you can create a private and a public list. Lists make it easier for you to engage and start conversations with your customers and clients.

1. Use direct messaging

Direct Messaging is a way to build more personal and one on one connections on Twitter. 

1. Credit your sources with @ mention

Credit your sources with an @ mention to show respect to the content creator. This will also increase the chances to be recognized and increase your followers.

1. Trim the fat

Unfollow users that have been inactive and not related to what you do.

1. Post a poll

It is a free way to get people to interact with you. Polls are a great way to get feedback for your business

1. Download your tweet history

There's a feature on Twitter that you can request for your tweet archive. What they'll do is email you a zip file with a CSV of every tweet that you've ever sent out. You can use these tweets as a reference for your future strategy.

1. Use videos to beat the character count

If you ever feel restricted by the character limit, use a video to deliver your message to your audience. Twitter now allows you 30 seconds of video at a time and then you've still got the 280 characters that you can post with the video.

1. Use Twitter moments

Twitter moments is a valuable tool yet often overlooked. When you post Twitter Moments it can be seen by anyone. It is ideal for launches and promotions.

Bonus Tip: Follow editors, journalists of publications and media outletsConnect with Stacey on Twitter:@StaceyKehoeUK@BrandlectiveThe Vault Contact InformationThe Vault WebsiteThe Vault InstagramThe Vault TwitterThe Vault Pinterest

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Welcome to the volt, tune in every week to unlock the marketing secrets, some of the fastest growing businesses you will hear, practical tips, strategies in case studies will help you build incredible marketing campaigns for your business. And now here's your host, Stacy Kia.

Speaker 2: 0:33

Welcome to the bolt and today's episode. I cover my top attend twitter hacks, which will help you to use the platform much more effectively. Let's be honest. Twitter doesn't do a very good job of telling you what it does or why you'd want to use it. As a result, which is a very misunderstood social network until by the vast majority of people. To me, twitter is all about courageous people. You follow who aggregate information for you about a specific topic so that you don't have to. One of the most popular social networking services in the world is a micro blogging platform which allows registered users to post and to send other registered users short messages. These messages are limited to 280 characters are called tweets. Which other means do you have to be able to direct message Donald Trump or justin bieber and actually get a response? Twitter offers a direct route to your audience, whoever that might be. You can hear what your customers have to say about you and you can get your content out in front of your own consumers within just a few seconds. It really is a phenomenal platform, so if you want to get the most out of twitter, tune in and listen to my top 10 twitter hacks today. I'm going to be running through my top 10 twitter hacks and tips and tricks of using this platform. I'm really excited to kind of share these with you because twitter is one of those platforms that I think a lot of people are not necessarily aware of how to use it effectively for their specific business. So I want to run through some of the little tips and tricks that I use twitter for this. So many advantages to using twitter, but I'm just gonna run through what I use it for every day and how I use it and hopefully you find some benefit in this. So tip number one is hashtags, so hashtags we found virtually everywhere,

Speaker 3: 2:33

Hashtag

Speaker 2: 2:33

we're actually, they were actually invented by twitter. So back in the day before any other social media platforms, integrated hashtags on twitter came up with this concept that if you put a Hashtag and then a word that was how you were able to search for specific topic, things have changed a little bit on twitter now, and actually your entire tweet is actually searchable so you no longer have to things in order for them to be found. How have I hashtag still have a lot of purpose. So it's a really great way of grouping tweets together. Hashtag[inaudible] allow users to join in conversations. It does help the content to get discovered by a specific searches. Uh, you know, for example, if a user has an opinion on something like America's got talent or the great British bake off by adding a Hashtag, America's got talent for Gbo to their tweet, they will actually show up for anybody searching for that Hashtag. So it just means that by using Hashtag glad that if they're relevant to your business, you can connect with people that are interested in that same subject, so as particularly useful strategy if you're tweeting on behalf, obviously you have your own business or if you want to get your product in front of consumers for a specific subject that they're interested in. So an example of this, we're working with a client of ours who run and luxury macaroon business and obviously the great British bake off is relevant for them, so they were able to chip in and offer their two cents on things that were happening across that show. And that helped to gauge or to increase exposure for their brand because people that were looking at that Hashtag, we're really interested in making and wanted advice and tips and things like that. So it was a really, really good way of getting exposure. So hashtags can be awesome. My tip number two is to optimize your twitter stream. So what I mean by that is think about what you're posting and how it visually looks down the stream on twitter. So things like landscape images tend to perform better on twitter than, for example, of square one that you might use on instagram. So it's a good idea, I think to include an image about every three tweets that you put out there. You don't want to completely dominates your feed with images. Tweets without images can be a little bit boring. However, if your page is just filled with images, then it's really difficult to make one particular tweet stand out from all the others so it mixing natural a little bit. But make sure that you're using images to gain the attention from your audience. I really liked the idea of prescheduled thing, these tweets and that can enable you to share tweets at peak times. So for example, research shows that publishing on Sunday at 4:00 PM has a really high traffic period on Linkedin, but who really wants to be working or whatever on a Sunday afternoon. I definitely don't want to be if I don't have to be. So I tend to try to plan out content and preschedule them. So if I go, there's really great images or I've got a couple of tweets that I want to push out to get in front of a particular audience. I'll schedule those out and I guess it's kind of a bonus tip for this one, which is I like the idea of planning out two or three tweets per day. So I plan those in advance and they are about subjects that I like to talk about on twitter, things that I value, the things that I know my audience are interested in and that saves me really a lot of time throughout the week so I don't have to be on twitter constantly posting. What I can then do is I can add in real time tweets each day as in when things happen. So if I'm at a specific location I want to tag in or I'm at an advantage and I want to put a picture out, I can do that in real time, but I at least know that I've got some backup tweets going out to keep pushing content out in front of my audience. So that's kind of a little bonus tip there. Tip number three, create lists. If you're not using lists, you. I'm missing a trick, so lists for anybody that isn't aware of them on twitter, you can create different lists. One thing that's really important to understand is there a private lists and there are public lists, so when you create a list on your profile, you want to be really cautious to make a decision as to whether it should be private or public. The reason I mentioned this is for example, the type of list that I use. I've got a list full of my customers, so that is a list that I don't particularly want to make public because it means that if my competitors, for example, could just come onto my profile and see a full big, long list of all of my customers. So that's the list that I have that's private. But the reason that I have this list set up is I call the list my customers and I can put all of my clients and customers into that list so that when I go on twitter and I actually want to engage with them and help to raise their profile and stop conversations and things with them, rather than me searching through my entire feed on twitter, I can just go to that list and pull up all my customers and interact with the ones that I want to do that for. I do the same, for example, full my business accountability group. So I regularly meet up with a few different business owners and we discuss our businesses. We talk about all of our successes, our challenges, we share advice, things that are working really well in our industries and it's just a really great sort of business group that I meet up with. I want to help support them onto a death. So what I do is I have a list set up for them, so I've just got. There's just six of them. I have all six of them inside that list. Again, as a private list for me and it just means that when I've got a spare five minutes and I want to go in and, and like and comment on, um, my business accountability groups, tweets, I can just hit that list and it just shows me that tweets. So again, I'm not having to filter through my entire twitter feed because I'm following thousands of accounts. I don't want to get lost and have to search through everything that's just annoying. And so tweets are really awesome for that. You can do the same thing with your competitors. So again, I would really make sure that that is a private list. What happens with public lists is if you add someone to a public list, they get a notification to say that that had been added to this list. So if you are doing something sensitive like your customers or competitors, you do want to make sure that it is private. Um, so there's private list you can add them in. Another one that I have set up is for trendsetters influences in the field. So I have a marketing list, marketing influences. I have that as a public list because I'm more than happy for those influences to know that I'm following them and I think of them as influences, so I had that as a public lists and just again, it just means that I can, rather than searching through my entire twitter feed, I can just click on my marketing influence a list andI can retweet, comment, share, like the types of tweets that they have shared that I'm excited about. Tip number four, use direct messaging. This is a really, really good way to build relationships. It's way easy way to to build, I guess more personal and one to one connections on twitter by using this direct message function. So sending a direct message is a really good way of saying thanks for getting the conversation rolling or started. I think businesses should be really mindful of the opportunities afforded to them by using this feature. Um, it can be really, really powerful to build relationships. So get on board and use direct messages where you can

Speaker 4: 9:58

tip number five, credit

Speaker 2: 10:00

sources with an act mentioned.

Speaker 4: 10:03

I highly recommend doing this

Speaker 2: 10:05

not just because it's nice to show respect to the content creator, but it's also a little bit selfish for strategic reasons and I'm going to tell you why. When you mentioned that person who is likely to be reasonably influential that you've shared the content and you've tagged them into it with an APP mention,

Speaker 4: 10:23

they'll get a notification.

Speaker 2: 10:24

So the likelihood is that after seeing that that you've shared their content and kindly linked back to them and given them the credit for producing that content, they're probably going to check out your profile and from there they might even favorite your tweets or retweet some of your posts so they may even follow you and all you have to do with being asked by mentioning him into it. So it can be a really good way of growing your audience or helping influences start to recognize who you are. So that's a really, really awesome pieces of advice or a tip that you can use on twitter. Six, trim the fat so everyone's in a while. It pays dividends to perform. You know, bit of spring cleaning by unfollowing uses has become inactive or aren't really relevant for you anymore. It can be a bit of a pain to go through and actually unfollow and all this kind of stuff for people that you're not interested in, but it is worth doing because it just helps keep twitter interesting for yourself so you don't get kind of bogged down in all the detail. What's more, you know, people often will look at the list of people that you're following. So if your following really great people and they can use you as a source of information and that can be really make you a really, really valuable asset to other people in your industry. So just good practice, you know, trim the fat every now and again.

Speaker 4: 11:39

Typically

Speaker 2: 11:39

seven post a poll, so can't decide between restaurants to eat at tonight, you know, run a twitter poll and you know, people can vote on that and it can give you the advice. Know the answer to your question. It's as simple as clicking the tab beneath the tweet box. You can set one up and running within just a couple of seconds, really great feature on twitter ads, totally free and it's just a surefire way to get people interacting with you and actually to get feedback on things that are happening in your business too, so you don't have to be asking people where to eat tonight. It could be something relevant for your business. You know, I actually ran one of these recently where I asked the question, do you want us to run the next podcast on linkedin tips or twitter tips and of course everyone's voting on there and then here we are running this podcast, so I'm really, really good idea of of how to use twitter and how to just, I guess get people engaging. If you're finding your engagement rates of slipping, polls can be super awesome for just boosting them

Speaker 3: 12:35

back up.

Speaker 2: 12:37

Tip Number Eight, down of tweets. History. Ooh, excuse me. A little bit scary if you've been using twitter for a long time, but if you've ever wanted an archive of every tweet you've ever sent out or maybe you just want to look back at some of the also and will possibly really dumb tweets that you sent out all those years ago. I see how much you've matured on twitter. Then this is absolutely impossible, so you can request your archive. There's a feature on twitter that they rolled out and what they'll do is they'll email you a zip file with a CSV of every tweet that you've ever sent out. It's really important to look at, and I do this when I start working with new clients because what it allows me to do is just pick up on anything that is maybe unsavory or maybe representing a business in the wrong way. So for example, if I'm managing a brand for a client, so often, you know, a ceo of a company or a founder of a company may want us to manage their twitter profile, but because they are now the representative of the company or the front face of their company, it is really good practice to kind of, for us to have a little look at what they've done in the past. Um, just so that we can monitor, will be aware of anything that might pop up further down the line. So it's just a really good piece of advice. If you've been using twitter for a while, definitely, you know, request that archive and have a look at what your tweet history says. Tip number nine, use videos to beat the character count. So I love this because often I have a lot of clients ask me like, oh, that's what a bit annoying. You can't post a big long post like you can on facebook or linkedin or even instagram too. If you ever feel restricted by the character count limit, just video yourself delivering your message to your audience because twitter now allows you after 30 seconds of video at a time, through each tweet so you can release a 32nd video of you explaining whatever it is that you want to explain. I think you've still got your 240 characters that you can post with the video. So video also, it just gets a lot more attention and it allows your audience kind of build a stronger relationship with you. They feel more connected to you because they actually get to see you physically. So, you know, use video to beat that current account if that's something that's an issue for you. And my final tip, tip number 10, use twitter moments to boost your business. So I actually think that this is crazy how many people do not take advantage of this. So twitter, five minutes. It's a really valuable tool, but it is really overlooked. It's purpose is to highlights the best of twitter. But, um, like posting in your timeline, content posts in moments can be seen by anyone. So regardless of whether they follow you or not, people can see twitter moments. So the way that you go ahead and set this up as you go to the moments tab and you want to click on create a moment, you want to add in a really catchy title, a description, and an eye catching image, and then the content is organized by how newsworthy and popular and it is. So it's ideal for promotions or product launches. You can attach relevant tweets that have gone out both from yourself, from your customers, from follow is anything that you want into this moment and it's just a really great way to get the attention of people that are not currently following you but interested in a specific subject. So if you haven't tried twitter moments, definitely get involved as a really phenomenal way to leverage twitter. Bonus tip, because I ha, I was just going to cover 10 tips, but I think one thing that's really, really important is twitter is the ultimate newsroom. Journalists, bloggers, media outlets. Everybody is on twitter. So one thing I use twitter for a lot is to follow the editors and the journalists have publications that I'm really interested in and that are relevant for my business because it means that I can engage with them, I can follow their content. That's another great list that you could create as journalist or media contacts so that when you are, when you're watching one, what, what they are interested in, what they're looking for, perhaps you could become a source for them if you're keeping an eye on the types of subjects that they want to cover, but then also you can tweak them or tag them into things that you think would be really relevant. Obviously you don't be annoying, you don't. Don't take them into every week just because you think that it's interesting, but utilizing twitter for pr and news opportunities is really amazing and it's a really, really great piece of advice for anybody that isn't doing it already. It's the number one go to place to be able to connect with media outlets and journalists. I hope you found some of these things helpful. If you've struggled with twitter in the past and you're not really sure how to use it well, how to get the most out of it. Some of these tips, these are just the way that I use it this so much more. There really is a lot of ways to use twitter and there's so many benefits and advantages to using it, but these are just 10 or 11. I gave you that bonus tip, um, of the things that I'm doing every day, um, across my profiles. I have multiple profiles of God. Stacy Kia, UK. I've got my agency account which is at Brand Leptin and I also have the bolt and the volt says, say s, the molt says across twitter. So connect with me, tweet me, let me know what your favorite tip wise. I would love to hear from you and whether this has benefited you. Alright, that's all. Folks, don't forget to connect with me on twitter. Let me know if you found this episode helpful. Check in later this week to listen to my next episode, Tony, Jason, who speaks to me about limiting beliefs and how to be happier in your business and your personal relationships. You also covered some great advice on how to do marketing the free. It's not to be missed tune institute.

Speaker 5: 18:38

You've just been listening to the boat capacity. Stacy Kio. If you've enjoyed the show, she'd really appreciate you leaving a review on itunes and don't forget to head over to www dot the boat, the playbook, the more free content that will help you build an effective marketing strategy.