Twitter 101: Understanding Twitter #YouWannaBeABlogger

I have been having so much fun sharing information on “How to be a blogger” on my blog. It’s something I’m so passionate about and I love sharing advice and tips. This is how we grow our blogging community, by sharing information and being open about it.

I received over 100 emails last week from people asking me advice and tips and asked me to check out their blogs. I know it took me awhile, but I think I got back to every single email!

I kept getting the question about other social media channels… and I thought it was a great topic to delve into this week. Yes, you should be on other social media channels. The blog “just the blog” doesn’t cut it anymore, you need to be in other areas, too. Don’t worry! You don’t need to be in all of them… but you should choose 1 or 2 that you can focus some of your time and energy into.

Today I’m talking Twitter.

Only 140 characters.

It’s genius… you can’t say too much, you can’t say nothing – it has to be just right.

I’ve been using Twitter since 2008. I love it. I think it’s a wonderful way to express thoughts, feelings, opinions, tips and advice. I use Twitter every single day. Sometimes I kick off the day with a tweet like – “Are you ready for the day!?” I love the different responses that a simple question like that can evoke.

To me, it’s just a fun and great way to connect with thousands and thousands of people in real time.

But here’s the thing – you need to understand Twitter.

I’m not claiming to be an expert at Twitter (oh… no… I’ll leave that to the powers that be AT Twitter), but I have used it long enough to have some advice and tips as to how to utilize Twitter to the best of your ability. Whether you’re looking to connect with people, grow your business/brand, make money, find other bloggers, see what your favorite brands/companies have to say, etc… Twitter is a breeding ground for many, many great things.

If you’re on Twitter already (which, most likely you are) my Twitter handle is @AudreyMcClellan, so feel free to follow me!.

Here are 10 pieces of advice for understanding Twitter:

1) Pick a EASY Twitter Handle. Recommendations – your name or your blog name. This will make it easy for people to find you on Twitter. I’m going to share my CARDINAL mistake when I joined back in 2008. I decided to use my name – but since your handle can only be 16 characters, I had to chop the “D” at the end of my name off. So basically… it’s my name, but it’s not spelled correctly. I’ve rolled with it for the last 6 years, but it does bother me at times that I did that.

2) Follow people that you WANT to follow. You don’t have to follow 100,000 people. When I first started out, I literally went to all my favorite blogs and found their Twitter handles. Then I decided to follow some of my favorite news networks, brands and celebrities. Take it slow at first, don’t go crazy following tons of people because you don’t want to get overwhelmed.

3) If you want to get into some twitter conversations, my advice – always check the trending hashtags. This will make it easy for you to know what is “hot” on twitter at the moment.

4) Try to tweet every single day. Yes, every single day. You don’t need to tweet 100 tweets a day…. maybe 4-5, but it’s the consistency that will be good for you.

5) Make sure you’re talking to people. Nobody likes a tweeter that just tweets out their own links and their own information. ENGAGE. COMMUNICATE. ENGAGE. COMMUNICATE.

6) People LOVE a RETWEET. If someone tweets something out that you love, give them a RETWEET. It’s as powerful as a comment on a blog.

7) If you aren’t sure what to tweet, start off with easy questions or statements. Here are some examples: “Are you watching American Idol right now?”, “Would you rather be on the beach or on a ski slope?”, “What’s for lunch today?” Ask easy questions that ANYONE could answer.

8) Join into some Twitter Parties. This is a great way to meet people and really have some wonderful interaction for a solid hour. I host a bunch of them with my best friend Vera Sweeney (@VeraSweeney) and we love getting new people involved!

9) How can you get followers? This seems to be a BIG question. Twitter will penalize you if you just start following a ton of people, so be careful. I’ve never paid for followers and yes, you can do that – but it’s frowned upon. I really feel the easiest and best way is just to build organic and authentic relationships. If you consistently tweet and engage, they will come. Followers will come over time, I promise.

10) You can create LISTS where you can place people you follow on twitter in a certain place (list). I love this because it’s so easy to use and the best way for me to follow people. I have a list of all my fave stores. I have a list of all my friends. I have a list of people in RI. It’s simple. I definitely suggest taking the time to do that!