Twitip

What’s the big deal about getting retweeted? If you have a ton of followers who are engaged, and you’re happy, then why should you care if they retweet your junk?

If you’re using Twitter for business reasons, you should care. And here’s why:

1. Measure Engagement

Retweets are an indication of how engaged your followers are. If they aren’t retweeting any of your posts, chances are they don’t find them that interesting.

2. Follower Attrition

Some of the folks who are singing your praises now will be gone in six months. That’s because you can’t be all things to all people all the time (and you shouldn’t being trying to). People grow, they change and have different needs as time goes on. New people who follow you because of a retweet they saw will take their place. It’s not personal, it’s just business.

3. Measure Content

Getting retweeted is partially a function of good content. Or at least good headlines.

How To Get Retweeted

1. Be Relevant - A survey conducted by Dan Zarrella found that people share content because they thought it was relevant for someone they know. In other words, try and stay relevant to topics your followers want to hear about. (more…)

With the state of the world going down the drain faster than my credit–thanks Target–we single tweeters have but one thing to look forward to–finally finding that special person who will accept us for who we are–big fat slobs.  And with so many people to choose from, especially with a click of a mouse, our online dating options are endless; there’s eHarmony, Match.com and now, twitter? (more…)

If you fancy either the rock band AFI or designing Twitter backgrounds, then you’ve probably heard about the Twitter Background Design Contest that AFI is co-running with TwitBacks. While the contest runs until the end of February, there are already a lot of awesome background designs being submitted. So, how do you make your background design stand out from the crowd to catch the band’s eye and win the most votes? Lucky for you, I have some winning tips: (more…)

I judge you by you by your @ Replies….

I do. Guilty as charged. One of my quirks when it comes to using Twitter is that I don’t automate my follows or DMs. I try to follow people whom I think would be interesting and more importantly who might be cool to interact with.

Whenever I get a new follower notification, I at least check out their Twitter page to see what they like to talk about. So I thought I’d highlight some of the things I look for when I decide who to follow… (more…)

I never joined Twitter to Tweet with celebrities and even now, two years after joining, it’s a small part of why I love Twitter so much. However, after Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) sent several Tweets to me and even created a hashtag topic dedicated to me (he also followed me as one of the 32 people on his following list for a couple of days but sadly, that ended), there was an unintended side effect: people I know suddenly were interested in joining Twitter to Tweet with their favorite celebrities.

In addition to Justin, I’ve Tweeted with many celebrities including Samantha Ronson (@samantharonson), Jewel (@jeweljk), Virginia Madsen (@MadlyV) and Internet celebrities Penelope Trunk (@penelopetrunk), Chris Guillebeau (@chrisguillebeau), Gary V. (@garyvee, though, let’s be honest, anybody can Tweet with Gary V.), YouTube celeb Mr. Chi City (@MrChiCity33) and many others including people that I am a huge fan of but aren’t so well known. If Tweeting with your favorite celebrities is your goal – and hopefully it’s not your only goal for being on Twitter – here are my tips for you. (more…)

Alright people calm down, I didn’t mean it in that way. Twitter is a great tool to network, build authentic relationships, communicate ideas, and relay powerful messages but what good will that do you if you haven’t found your twitter voice? Late at night, in my Brooklyn apartment, I stay up late for two reasons, one, because Mrs. Pinkus in 3f, my 85-year-old Russian neighbor, loves to blast Madonna’s Like a Virgin at full stereo, and two, to review the day in twitterland to see what I’ve missed (in case I failed to do so during the day). Often I’ll find twitter users trying so hard to gain followers by tweeting inside their niche, but then reveal too much information about their personal life in other tweets which backfires–worse than Tiger Woods having Elin talk to Rachel Uchitel–what was he thinking? (more…)

Can we provide good customer support on Twitter?

Many of us has read the story on how Comcast used Twitter to become a front runner of good customer support on Twitter. Frank Eliason which is the manager behind @comcastcares is probably the most recognized customer service manager here in the US. He has proved that costumer support can be done on Twitter, and done the right way you can turn a bad apple into a shining star.

We also can use Twitter to provide good customer support for our personal brand. (more…)

First off, did I ever mention that I’m one of 559 people Shaquille O’Neal is following on Twitter?

(There are 2,804,494 people following him).

Had to throw that out for my Arizona SEO friend!

Anyway…

I’ve heard quite a bit lately that…

Twitter just takes too much time…

or

I don’t ever really see much come from my Twitter efforts…

You ever thought or heard this?

Both are valid concerns, I guess.

Twitter does take time.

It can be hard to see immediate results from Twitter efforts (depending on how you define “results”).

However, I wanted to share a real-life success on how to get lots of buzz (and viral marketing – which means links and brand building) via Twitter. (more…)

A recent poll here on Twitip asked:

“What do you think when you get an automated ‘Thanks for following’ DM?”

The results ranged from “I love them”, “I hate them” and “I don’t mind them” to “I unfollow the person who sent it”.

So, for those of you who hate them and unfollow tweeps who send them, Social Oomph has a super quick and easy way to opt out of auto-DMs. (more…)

Warning:

This post might sound negative, but it’s not meant to be. There’s a point to the criticism and I hope you’ll stick through it long enough to get to the end and join me in the discussion.

Scratch My Back

There’s something that’s been bothering me a lot lately, and I can’t quite figure out what it is. It has to do with Twitter, blogging, and social media. Being that this is a Twitter blog though, we’ll keep the discussion focused on Twitter. (more…)