Hit the ‘Twitter Gym’ and keep your Twitter Muscles in Shape – In this post Snow (follow her @snowvandermore) from el vigilante shares a few tips on how to keep ‘Twitter Fit’.
Like anything in life, if you don’t use it, you lose it. The same holds true for your newly found Twitter muscles.
Now that you’ve got your Jack Johnson and your Tom O’Leary working in sweet, subtle harmony and the follower numbers to prove it — don’t pull a Jake LaMotta and let your fab turn to flab.
If you want your blog, your website, your business, your following to bust out in the days and weeks to come, you are in the driver’s seat, mi amigo — keep moving, learning, developing and growing. Put on your Richard Simmons shorty-shorts and start sweatin ‘ — there’s a million plus twitter users that might need what you have to sell — be it a product, a service, or just good old-fashioned camaraderie. All you have to do is do it — but do it right.
There are no redux’s in a twitterstream — more than a few lifeless bodies float along in the debris of what used to be. The ultimate price for not paying attention to relationships.
Image by Crocidillicus
Here are a few easy ways to bulk up your Twitter presence that don’t require much, if any, heavy lifting.
- Send a Direct Message to one follower each day, be it just to say “good morning” or comment on a recent tweet or blog post. It will only take a minute of your time, but those little words of kindness will speak volumes about you and your appreciation of their loyalty as a follower.
- Send a short tweet in another language. I have a few bi-lingual followers who think it’s awesome to share a few words in their native vocabulary. Of course, I use a web-based translator and preface my tweets as such, but I am actually learning some new words in Spanish and in French in the meantime. On the flip side, my fellow tweeple are getting a few lessons in English profanity, umm, American lingo. Es todo bueno.
- Break out of your comfort zone and follow a few interesting people who do not seem to share any commonalities with you. It’s a small world and more often than not, you will each benefit in some way from the relationship.
- Offer advice pro bono in your area of expertise to someone in need. The concept of pay-it- forward is contagious. That’s the beauty and essence of Twitter.
- Play the game, but always play by your rules. Don’t compromise or doubt your own integrity or knowledge. Every one of us has something valuable to share.
- Above all — enjoy yourself, be yourself, show no disrespect and accept none in return. Do these things and you won’t ever have to apologize for who you are or what you have to say.
Nice post
Some good pointers.
“Send a Direct Message to one follower each day”
I do that when possible, it is really effective.
Thats cool tips. I never tried bi-lingual tweets. I could use that tip.
Just noticed that twitter ID field has been removed. Wonder why.
Great post. I just like the tip you post. Go on!
Sounds simple enough, yet effective. My favorite tip is the daily DM to a follower. A workout that is doable – Watch me get buff in 2009! (Now if I could only hit a real gym and workout, hmmm?)
Thanks!
Always Grateful,
Andrea
http://twitter.com/quickreply
Great now I need to go back and actually pay attention in my Spanish class? All kidding aside, great tips, and if you don’t mind I have one to add to the mix – take 10 min’s and set up your own Twitter Welcome video! I did one back in October, blogged about it and have had almost 3k new followers check it out since then… and the response is Overwhelmingly supportive of the idea
Great way to stretch before you start flexing all those twitter muscles –
oh btw – the Army called… they want their guns back!
DB
Hmm… I like the analogy of muscles and twitter – as if you lose the ability to twitter as effectively if you don’t do it often. In some ways, I agree. For example, I like the advice about DMing someone each day.
But I wonder if the analogy really holds up. Do twitter skills really atrophy?
I’d be interested in hearing everyone else’s thoughts on this.
Marshall Jones, Jr.
(@marshalljonesjr)
@ShriNagesh: Yeah, I just noticed the missing twitter ID field also. I add my twitter address in my signature. I hope that’s still okay. I also wonder the reason it’s gone though.
Marshall Jones, Jr.
)
(I’ll leave it out here, but if you’re that interested, it’s just my full name.
I like the first two tips, especially the multi-language Tweet since I myself am bi-lingual. Thanks for sharing with us.
This list from Snow is awesome — I’ve learned so much from following her on Twitter, she def. puts this list into practice!
Excellent post. It’s amazing what we can do with Twitter. Something I have found to be very valuable is http://www.tweetlater.com. This allows you to schedule in a series of tweets. It is a real time saver in your Twitter strategy.
Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
Great tips. It is always good to come out of your comfort zone and one way to do that is do these tips. Thanks for the great post and flex your muscles.
I also like the idea of multi-language tweets… Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll open with “Guten Morgan” or “Buenos Dias” who knows maybe I’ll get a new friend.
Thanks for the post. All the points are very valuable to me and still the first one stands out and makes me think the most.
In fact I tend to be rather cautious with direct messages. There’s so much noise going on. Why would I want to add to that? And on the other hand broadcasting stuff can become a big source of noise as well.
So I’ll stick with the first point for some time and try it out. As they say: change one thing at a time…
Great post, and Great Tips.
I particularly like the one about sending out a tweet in another language. I never thought of that one.
Last week I replied to a Spanish watercolor artist on Facebook, and he replied back in Spanish. So I just plugged his reply into Google Translator, read his words, typed my reply in English, translated it into Spanish and bingo. How easy is that?
great post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=763vmCrRBDg
Some of this practices would consider spam
Thanks for the advice. Being fairly new to twitter, I’m often confused as to the best way to go about tweeting. I try and engage as much as possible, and find many people are willing and eager to share their wealth of knowledge with me. Of course, I want to promote my business, but I’m finding twitter is best used as a networking tool, whether it is to find people who can help you, entertain you or cause you to think about something you hadn’t considered.
I like the DM part. only THING THOUGH … is …i don’t really use it and I wonder why people do that to me. especially when they don’t follow you. I’ve had a few people DM who are not following me so when I DM them back…SURPRISE, i can’t because they are not following me.
Twitter like any other networking tool must be kept up with.
I’ll try to tweet in Afrikaans a bit more often from now on. But the goal should never be to get more followers. It should be to start a coversation.
Thanks for the great post…. I would have never thought of posting in a foreign language!
Oops. Please delete my second comment; I didn’t know the first one got approved.
@ComicStevieMack
This has helped me Big Time!
@jchrisn
This is a great post. It helped me a lot. People above me have said this already, but I had to agree – Oh, and good morning to all of you. You look nice today