I recently found myself uttering, “Relax! It’s just Twitter!” to a client who had dipped his toes into Twitter marketing and was feeling totally overwhelmed. A non-stop avalanche of RTs, hashtags, dashboards and tweeting links had left my otherwise well-educated client dumbstruck. The truth is he isn’t alone. Most people visit Twitter briefly, don’t “get it” and then write it off as ridiculous. But that would be a mistake. The platform is still a great way to keep in touch with our followers, meet new friends interested in our brand and help give us an easy SEO shot in the arm to boot. Yet some still worry that Twitter is too technical and too complicated. Nonsense! Here’s a quick tweetorial for even the most tech-challenged of Twitter virgins.
Learn the lingo: Having a hard time telling your #FF from your #RT? Take a few minutes to learn what the heck people are saying on Twitter and it’ll make your time their less confusing and more entertaining. This guide is a good place to start.
Set it and forget it: A great dashboard, whether it be TweetDeck or HootSuite, is essential for starting your Twitter journey. These handy tools allow you to schedule tweet several days in advance — even for weeks at a time. Naturally, you’ll want to engage with followers in real-time, too, but a dashboard helps take the stress out of tweeting everyday. Best of all, these dashboards take only a few minutes to download and are incredibly uncomplicated to navigate.
Say what?: “But what the !@#$ do I tweet about?” is the No. 1 question clients ask social media experts. In the spirit of keeping it simple, tweet what you know. Send the kind of tweets that represent the topics you want to talk about to your clients. Tweet what you find fascinating and chances are somebody will find it interesting, too. Photos of new products, links to industry articles and cool videos getting passed around your office make for great Twitter fodder. And don’t worry — tweeting links, videos and images is super simple thanks to Twitter’s awesome upgrades. Which brings us to our last tip…
Getting easier all the time: A faster search engine, highlighted hashtags and more precise “Who to Follow” suggestions are making Twitter incredibly user-friendly. New upgrades are being implemented regularly to make it even easier for folks of varying levels of technical prowess to get on Twitter and enjoy it for the fun and powerful marketing tool it is.
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