Earlier this year I wrote a piece on LinkedIn about the value of Tweetchats and how they helped transform my career. I’ve referenced this particular piece on countless occasions on my own personal blog past six months and realized I wasn’t giving the full picture. It wasn’t just twitterchats that changed my career. It was the greater Twitter product as a whole.
But how can a social networking tool change your life? How can a social network impact you to on such a level that you go as far as to say it changed your life? For me, this is how.
Get to know the network
When you know and understand the network, it makes it much easier to find success or growth. To give credit where credit is due I must acknowledge the fact that even I didn’t always “get” Twitter. Some of the key things I learned about Twitter early on and were part of my first steps to finding success were:
- Don’t pretend to be an expert on something you aren’t as people will see through you quickly
- Do respond and thank new followers/retweets (more on this later)
- Say no to auto direct messages
- It wasn’t until I began to take part in Twitterchats that I truly embraced the social network. And then it all changed.
It started with Twitterchats
It started with #Likeablechat. Before I knew it, I was taking part in #mediachat, #socialchat, #atomicchat and oh, the list goes on. Now I have a Google Calendar of over 35+ chats that I use as a reference throughout the week. I’ve also since joined with a good friend from Twitter to launch my own, #JVMChat, twice a month on Tuesday’s at 1 p.m. EST – which leads me to where the real value in Twitter lies.
People.
Personal Results: My time tweetchatting actually led to my first job in New York City as I was able to better connect with Likeable Media. Though my time of approximately three months I can’t deny it had a huge impact on who I am today and provided me with agency experience which was career-changing.
Oh, the people you’ll meet…
People of every interest can be found on Twitter. Sure, the same can be said of most social networks. The difference on Twitter is they’re easier to find. Through the use of hashtags you are quickly enable to engage with people of all topics that interest you.
You like sports? Twitter has you covered. Just look up hashtags like #MLB, #NFL or #XFL (ok, maybe not that one). The point is, however, you can connect with anyone, anywhere since the network best works in a public way! The most active, most engaging people on the network are because they want to be.
The process? Rather simple – just takes time – which not everyone likes to hear.
- Determine your Twitter purpose (personal? business? hybrid?)
- Engage in conversation by retweeting, favoriting and tweeting back.
- Add tweeters you like to appropriate lists (more on this later)
Remember, just because you tweet someone or follow them does NOT mean they’re going to follow you. Just as I recommend following back when you’re interested in someone’s content – most people will do the same. The concept applies to all types of social (both personal and businesses) that you need to EARN people’s trust. That statement applies here. Earn the follow – share great content!
Personal Results: This process was a strategic decision on my part. Having worked in social for sometime, I felt I needed a strategic approach to my personal social media. The end result in the past year was a 150% growth in twitter relationships (not followers, as I consider them all key relationships and closely manage my followers to try to ensure none are bots).
I should also add that connecting with individuals whom later shared conference access including Social Media Week in NYC has been a very valuable perk which has led to even more human to human connections.
Content Rules
One of the key bullet points in the section above asks that you define your Twitter purpose. Are you building your personal brand? Are you using it to stay up-to-date and connect with professionals in the social media field? Perhaps another field, maybe business or marketing? Whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish – the fact remains you should define your purpose. This was a turning point for me and essential to build great content that will earn you the respect (and the follows that will grow your community).
Define you – what kind of content do you share? Once you’ve established this, you’ll want to make sure you keep in mind successful traits of a tweets.
- Think mobile (craft tweets 115 characters or less if you can)
- Give credit to content originators with a mention
- Use tools like Buffer or Tweetdeck to schedule tweets during times when you know you can reply and be an engaging user.
Personal Results: Sharing content that matters to me, crafted with the network in mind, has resulted in earning some new relationships that matter including being followed by inspirational people in the Twitter community such as @TedRubin @GaryVee and my good friend, @iSocialFanz.
Cultivate Your Community of Followers
Now that you’re creating great content – don’t forget the magic words:
THANK YOU!
Saying thank you to others who have shared your content is personable, helps to build a relationship with the sharer and provides engagement opportunities. Another key method to cultivating your community comes through the often under utilized Twitter lists. The truth here is the fact that I could write an entire article about Twitter lists and their value.
Build Twitter lists that will help you create the perfect news feed. Some suggestions for great Twitter lists include:
- Getting To Know (Great for people you aren’t ready to follow)
- Social News (Insert any word besides social, of course, makes it easy to follow your favorite news sources)
- People to Interview (If you’ve got a blog or a podcast, you’ll get this)
- Awesome people (Exactly what it is – awesome folks who you want to make sure you can see in your feed at a click).
- Meet In Person (For those whom I’d like to meet in person one day over coffee or lunch)
Adding people to these sort of lists not only makes their way – but it lets them know you’re interested. This may spark a thank you directed towards you or result in you getting added to a list of their own.
Personal Results: I can’t speak to how many lists I was on two years ago – but the byproduct of cultivating my community is clear when I look now. I’m a member of more lists than I can count including ones by people I admire.
What about you?
What network has meant the most to you and your personal or professional success?
NOTE: This piece originally appeared on Linkedin through their long-form publishing feature.
