Inspirational Quotes on Twitter Archives - Page 14 of 18

Aug 21 2015

Twitter for Business 101: How do I Tweet to a Specific Person?

Welcome to another edition of Twitter for Business 101!

You may have already noticed that Twitter is a fantastic platform for broadcasting your message to a bunch of people, whether it’s your followers, the Twitterverse at large or a hashtag. But what happens if you want to talk to a specific person? Do you just throw the tweet out there and hope the person you’re talking to sees it?

You could, but you don’t have to. Twitter already thought of that, and provided some nifty options for you to get in touch with specific individuals. They consist of:

Mentions
Replies
Direct Messages

Let’s break it down one at a time.

Mention

You know how each Twitter handle has the “@” sign at the front of their name? That’s what Twitter uses to identify specific names in a tweet. It kind of works like the “To:” field in an email, except in this case all of the Internet is bcc’d when you send it out. For example, typing “@WilliamShatner” in your tweet will flag it for the attention of, you guessed it, William Shatner.

Twitter has a special section called “notifications” that alerts you every time your name is mentioned in this manner.

So if William Shatner wanted to know who is tweeting him or talking about him, he just needs to read his Notifications.

When do I use mentions?

Mentions are most commonly used when:

Making a public statement that you want the other person to see, either because they’re a part of the conversation or it’s relevant to them in some way.Example: “Met some great people at tonight’s networking event! @HelenHunt”
Quoting someone or referencing their work. Excellent when you want to give credit where it’s due.Example: “Identified my own “Tipping Point” today courtesy of the amazing @Gladwell”

Starting a public conversation that you don’t mind other people reading.Example: “Hey @jenkellyjen, when can we meet up for tacos?”

In addition to the “Notifications” tab, there are a lot of tools like Hootsuite and ManageFlitter that help you track any time someone is mentioned on Twitter, whether it’s you or someone else.

Reply

Do you want to respond to an interesting Twitter post? Hit the “reply” icon on their tweet!

Twitter will automatically fill in the original tweeter’s name, similar to the way mentions work, so that your message will be addressed to them. But the reply will also be attached to the tweet you’re responding to, thus creating a conversation threat that’s easier to follow.

When do I reply to tweets?

It’s just like replying to an email, or answering someone verbally. If you want to ask a question, answer a question, make a comment or even just strike up a conversation, replying to someone’s tweet is a great way to do it.

Even if it’s “just” the Internet, the standard rules of social decorum still apply. Make sure your reply is relevant to the conversation. Don’t spam them with a barrage of messages. Never say something you wouldn’t say to their face. Above all, be interesting.

Direct Message

Finally, Direct Messages (or DMs) are a way to initiate a private conversation with either one specific person or a group. To send a direct message, you have to go to your Messages page on your Twitter account and start a new conversation by entering the Twitter handle (or handles) of who you want to talk to. Only people explicitly mentioned in the address box will be able to see and participate in the conversation.

You can only send a DM to someone who already follows you, and vice versa. If you want to use Twitter for business purposes and encourage people to contact you anytime, there is a setting that allows you to receive Direct Messages from anyone, even if you don’t follow them.

When do I use direct messages?

Marketers love using Twitter for business because it allows for direct messages. Direct Messages are ideal for discussing sensitive and private business topics, and for exchanging contact information if you and the other user want to meet face to face or via email.

The Twitter support page has more great information on how Direct Messages work.

To learn more about using Twitter for business, sign up for the Nimble Quotes newsletter.

Aug 18 2015

Who Sees My Tweets?

When you send out a tweet, just who sees it? Can anyone see your tweets, or just your followers?

Can Anyone See My Tweets?

Once you’ve tweeted your update, those who are following you will see it appear in their Home timeline. The Home timeline is the first page seen once someone has signed in to their Twitter account. It’s where you can see all the recent tweets of the accounts that you’re following.

Your tweets also appear on your profile page. This is where anyone from the public can view your tweets – if your account is public, then anyone can look up your profile and see what you’ve posted. So people don’t necessarily need to be following you in order to view your tweets.

Your tweets won’t appear in the timelines of those who are not following you, but they can search for them. (Except for your direct messages – these cannot be viewed by the public.)

What About Hashtags?

Hashtags are keywords or phrases that begin with the hashtag symbol (#). They are used to categorize tweets. On Twitter, when you click on a word or phrase with the hashtag symbol before it, you will be taken to a page with a list of tweets that contain that same hashtagged word or phrase.

If you use a hashtag in one of your tweets, someone who doesn’t know you but is interested in that topic can see your hashtagged tweet. It’s a great way to generate more interest in what you post and more awareness for you and your business.

Click here for some helpful information from Twitter on using hashtags in your tweets.

So, whether you use hashtags or not, many people can see your tweets. But using hashtags will boost your potential audience!

The Nimble Quotes service posts famous and industry-related quotes to your Twitter feed as if you’ve tweeted them yourself. We offer a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. You’ll get to try 1-8 thought-provoking quotes per day automatically tweeted from your Twitter account, with the option of adding a variety of hashtags and specific timing for your audience. Once your trial is over, it costs about $1/day or about $1/week to continue. Check out Nimble Quotes in action on @jenkellyjen or @newimarketing. Not ready for a trial just yet? Sign up for our newsletter instead.

Aug 14 2015

What If My Twitter Hashtag is Full of Competitors?

A Twitter hashtag is a godsend for businesses on social media. If you can find the right hashtag, you’ll be able to do a lot of things to get noticed like expand your reach and engage people in conversations.

But wait! This hashtag is full of competitors! What do you do now?

Don’t panic! All is not lost! You can still turn this to your advantage. Just need to follow these simple steps:

Assess the Twitter Hashtag

Firstly, take a step back and examine the hashtag itself. Is it a brand hashtag, or a general hashtag?

If you don’t know what those are, a brand hashtag is associated with a particular brand as either a slogan or a brand name. Kit Kat, for example, uses #HaveABreak. It could still be considered a regular phrase, but its strongly associated with the tagline, “have a break, have a Kit Kat” and so can be considered a brand hashtag.

General hashtags are typically hashtags created by the public, used to talk about a particular topic. #BadFirstDate and #WorkStress are examples of general hashtags. These hashtags aren’t owned by a particular person, but businesses on Twitter use them to get their tweets in front of interested people.

Once you’ve established what kind of hashtag it is, then you can decide what to do next.

Find a New One

If the hashtag you want is a brand hashtag, or a general hashtag that’s already been dominated by a competitor, you’re going to have to find a new one. That’s not as big a deal as it sounds, though. One of the best things about hashtags is that you don’t have to invest any money in them (not like website domain names). You can just come up with several other possible hashtags and try them all out, then run with the one that gets the best response.

Use it to Spy

Someone else using the hashtag is actually a great thing! You can spy on your competitors and watch what they do on Twitter. As you do it ask yourself these questions:

Do your competitors engage with people? How, and how effectively?
How often do your competitors tweet to the hashtag?
What do your competitors tweet? How do people respond?
What do people on the hashtag talk about?
Who are the people on the channel? Are they your ideal audience?

Watch the hashtag closely, and learn from what you see. Avoid any mistakes you see people make, and use what they do right as inspiration for your own social media strategy.

Dominate the Hashtag

If your competitors are on a general hashtag and they don’t have an overwhelming presence there, you still have a chance dominate the hashtag. I’m not talking about flooding the hashtag with your posts—it’s annoying and will drive people away.

You dominate a hashtag through quality, not quantity. Post interesting and valuable content, and engage with people on the channel in meaningful ways. Answer questions. Offer insight. Be impartial. And above all, don’t be salesy! Do it often enough, and people will start following you.

The key to succeeding with Twitter hashtags is picking your battles. Know when you should fight for a channel and when to sit back and watch. Know which conversations you should jump into and which you should ignore. If you can balance observation and action, you’ll be able to use any Twitter hashtag to your advantage. You might even start thinking, “the more competitors in my hashtag, the better!”

To learn more about using Twitter for business, sign up for the Nimble Quotes newsletter.

Aug 11 2015

Where Do My Tweets Go?

Are you new to Twitter? Have you been wondering exactly what happens when you send out a tweet? How do you know who will see it?

How Do I Post a Tweet?

First things first: how do you post the tweet? Make sure you’re signed in to your Twitter account. There are a couple of ways to begin posting: if you are on the home screen, you can either go to the box at the top of your timeline and type the tweet in there,

or you can click on the tweet button at the top right of the screen.

A box will pop up where you can type in what you’d like to post.

Then you just click on the Tweet button and you’re done!

Twitter has instructions you can check out here.

What Happens After I’ve Tweeted?

Once you’ve posted your tweet, you’ll see it appear on both your profile page and your Home timeline. What’s the Home timeline, you ask? That’s the feed you see when you sign in to Twitter, where you can look at the recent tweets of everyone you’re following. And that’s also where your followers will see YOUR new tweet appear. Here’s the difference:

This is my profile with a screen shot as I write this:

And this is my home screen as I write this (note that between the time I pulled up the screen and took the screenshot, 5 more tweets were posted. Don’t worry about posting too much with that kind of volume! But tweet frequency, that is another story.)

What If Someone Retweets Me?

Once you’ve sent out a tweet, there’s a chance one or more of your followers will retweet it. Just what is a retweet? It’s when someone re-posts your tweet onto their Twitter feed. Through this feature, they can share your tweet with all of their followers. This is great – it means that something you’ve tweeted struck a chord with one of your followers, and they decided to share it with their audience. They even have the option of adding a comment along with it.

But how do you know if someone has retweeted you? Easy – just go to the Notifications section by clicking on “Notifications” in the bar on the top of your screen. There you’ll see if any of your tweets have been retweeted.

Here’s an example of a notification I got when Tina Gaisin of Fill The Room, and a fellow CAMP member, retweeted one of my tweets.

Here is what a retweet looks like in the timeline. In this example, I follow WQW, and they retweeted a tweet by an account I don’t follow.

To learn more, here is the official information from Twitter on retweets.

Try Tweeting, Try Retweeting

Over to you. Get sharing the excellent information your followers and those you follow are tweeting. Good luck and if you need any help, tweet to me @jenkellyjen or email jen[at]nimblequotes[dot]com.

Try Tweeting Quotes About Work and Goals!

If you’d like more RTs and follows, why not try tweeting uplifting quotes? Nimble Quotes, which has inspiring quotes about work and the joys of going for your goals, offers a 30-day free trial so you can try them out for yourself! You’ll get 1-8 thought-provoking quotes per day, automatically tweeted from your Twitter account. Once your trial is over, it costs about $1/day or about $1/week to continue. Check out Nimble Quotes in action on @jenkellyjen or @newimarketing. Not ready for a trial just yet? Sign up for our newsletter instead.

Aug 07 2015

How Do I Build an Audience on Twitter?

A lot of business owners I talk to are hesitant to start a Twitter account because they’re intimidated. How do they build an audience on Twitter? Who’s going to follow them? Who do they approach?

The problem is that they’re overthinking the situation. Twitter is different from other social networks. For example on Facebook, your friend request needs to be approved. Same story on LinkedIn. But on Twitter, you can follow whomever you like – no approval needed.

It’s not a sales meeting! Think of it this way: everyone has an open door policy and you’re walking into their office to shake hands and introduce yourself. Have that in mind when you follow someone on Twitter. And don’t feel pressured by your early numbers—everyone starts from zero.

Here are some quick, reliable tips on how you can build a decent Twitter following:

Spruce up your profile

Would you invite people over to your apartment while it was still an unholy mess? Of course not! The same thing applies to your Twitter profile.

Upload a nice, friendly photo (this is what people are going to be seeing all the time when you Tweet) and max out your description with interesting text. You have 160 characters available to you. Make full use of it! This description has to express your personality. If you’re the fun, quirky sort, then put up something clever. If you like to stay business-like, then describe what it is you do professionally.

Start close to home

You probably already know plenty of people on Twitter. If you are using Twitter for business, start following colleagues, your clients and suppliers. Send them follow requests, and make sure to follow them too. Engage people as soon as they follow you back.

Follow the right people

Now comes the part that makes people nervous—finding who to approach. And the answer is another question: “who do I want to be associated with?”

Use Twitter’s search tool or some to find people you want to work with, be they customers or colleagues. This doesn’t just include celebrities or industry bigwigs. Look at the people who your customers and colleagues them. Chances are they’re professionals just like you, and may be an ideal client, colleague or great referral. You’re all like-minded people who want to learn from each other.

Don’t be shy! Just follow them. I’ve found that people who don’t yet know you will follow you back 15%-40% of the time. Over time, this response rate will build up to serious numbers!

The real work

But keep in mind that a Follow is only the first step. It’s just like a handshake at a networking event. You’ve made the introduction, now what?

Now it’s time to develop the Twitter relationship. And the best way to do that is by engaging other people in conversation. Respond whenever your followers post something noteworthy. Be selective, of course; you’re never going to be able to respond to all of them. Pick the person and the tweet carefully. But keep up the effort! The more you talk to people, the better you look, the stronger your relationships will be, and the faster you’ll be able to build an audience on Twitter.

Also, tweet your own content. Make sure you tweet things that both you and your followers will be interested in. This could be anything from random thoughts (we can’t talk business all the time) to company wisdom to business quotes for the day. Prove to your new followers that yes, following you was a great move!

Here are some quick tips for keeping your followers engaged:

Don’t sell. Your stream should be 80% non-promotional.
Retweet your followers’ tweets
Be wary of jumping into conversations where you’re not welcome
@Mention people when they need to be mentioned.

Keep those tips in mind, and you’ll have a bustling Twitter following in no time!

Remember, social networks move fast, but building relationships is slow, steady work.

To learn more about using Twitter for business including building an audience on Twitter, sign up for the Nimble Quotes newsletter.