twitter Archives - Page 2 of 4

Sep 18 2015

What is a Hashtag Contest and How do I Set One Up?

In previous posts, I’ve covered how Twitter hashtags help you reach more audiences and connect with them. But there’s another great method I haven’t yet mentioned: Twitter hashtag contests!

What is a hashtag contest?

A contest on Twitter is a lot like the contests you find anywhere else. Someone (a brand, an organization, or you) puts up a prize, sets up a condition for winning, and other people try to win. The biggest difference is that, on Twitter, you need set up a hashtag to announce the contest and keep track of the entries.

How does that work?

Well the first thing you do is decide on your hashtag. Let’s say you’re XYZ beauty salon, and you want followers to submit pictures of funny faces. Our hashtag will therefore be “#XYZFunnyFace”.

Note: Remember to check whether or not this hashtag is already being used! If it is, try to find something else.

Then send out your tweet announcing the contest, and showing the hashtag that people need to use to participate. Don’t forget to promote your hashtag contest in other social media platforms, too! Get the word out any way you can!

If people want to participate, they will then tweet pictures of their funny faces while including the hashtag #XYZFunnyFace. You can then keep track of all contest tweets using this hashtag and judge the winner!

What kind of hashtag contests can I run?

Anything you want! Creativity is one of the keys to an engaging hashtag contest. Either come up with your own creative idea, or ask followers to be as creative as possible with their own entries! You can also create very simple hashtag contests that don’t require much effort on the part of the user.

Here are some basic ideas to get you started:

Raffle.Any tweet that uses your hashtag is immediately entered into a raffle, and winners are picked randomly. Just remember to limit participants to one tweet per person!
Photo contest. Users submit photographs of themselves doing funny things, or use products in creative and funny ways.
Q&A. Pose a question to the Twitterverse, and the best answer wins!

Hashtag contests are really easy to set up and run. You just have to come up with a creative idea that will grab your followers’ interests, and maybe offer a prize that will appeal to a large number of people. But remember to keep it relevant to your business! Just offering cash or something may get people tweeting, but it won’t do anything to build your brand!

Post inspiring quotes in your Twitter feed as if you tweeted them yourself. Choose from 30+ categories. Try the Nimble Quotes 30-day trial today. No credit card required. Sign up for the Nimble Quotes newsletter to learn how to get Twitter working for you.

Sep 11 2015

I’ve Hit My Twitter Follower Limit! Now What?

So you’ve been on Twitter a lot, and been following a whole bunch of interesting people. That’s great! What’s not great is if you follow so many people that you hit the dreaded “Twitter Follower Limit!”

What is the “Twitter Follower Limit”?

This limit is also known as the follower ceiling. Once you follow 2,000 other Twitter accounts, Twitter’s system blocks you from following any more until you increase your own followers to an acceptable ratio (here’s the official Twitter Support Page entry). It’s primarily meant to prevent spammers and unscrupulous users from flooding the system with unwanted follows, although regular people have regularly been caught in the cross-fire.

Twitter doesn’t give any details about the ratio calculation, and so nobody seems to know what the right follower/following ratio is. There are plenty of guesses, but the actual number appears to vary per person.

Wonderful. What do I do about it?

Don’t worry, all is not lost! Even if you hit the Twitter follower limit, there are still ways for you to follow new people. Here are what I’ve found to be the most effective methods:

Audit your followers. Not everyone you follow is following you back. That probably means they’re not interested in what you have to say. So therefore they won’t mind at all if you go ahead and unfollow them! Clear out some space for people who want to connect with you.

Also, weed out your followers who only tweet once in a while (like maybe once every few months). These some-time users aren’t online often enough for you to interact with on a meaningful basis, and probably will miss most of your big announcements, so go ahead and unfollow them, too!

Build a list and follow that. Twitter allows you to build lists of people that you want to follow, without you having to follow their individual accounts. You can stay up to date with their news and information without having them count towards your Twitter follower limit.

Who should you put on these lists? Celebrities or prominent figures would be my first suggestion. You still want to see anything they tweet, but they’re highly unlikely to follow you back or send you a DM. So off to the list they go! The same goes for companies or business accounts, as well as Twitter news accounts like TechCrunch or CNN.

Build up your followers. Lastly, you should increase the number of your own followers. You’re trying to build your audience anyway, right? So keep building those relationships and reaching out to new people. You might not know the ratio of follower/follows, but if you can replace most of your one-way follows with genuine Twitter relationships, then you’re doing great!

Add inspirational and industry-related quotes to your Twitter feed as if you’ve tweeted them yourself. Try out Nimble Quotes for 30-days free, no credit card required. Check out @jenkellyjen, @newimarketing or any of the users on the testimonials page to see how Nimble Quotes show up in a Twitter feed.

Aug 28 2015

How To Get More Interaction on Twitter

Tweeting can sometimes feel like talking into the wind. No matter how often you post fantastic sales, tweet web links, or choose quotes to attract new followers, you still don’t get very much engagement or interaction.

Getting interaction on Twitter isn’t impossible—other social media personalities do it all the time! Perhaps it’s time to review your approach. Here are a few best practices that some of the most popular Twitter personalities like Grammar Girl and Ann Handly follow:

Reach out to followers

Don’t just stay in your corner of the Internet! Step out of your cave and interact with people on Twitter (that’s what you’re there for, after all). And the first people you should talk to? Your followers!

Every time you get a new follower, reach out to them and give them a personal greeting. This creates a good first impression and will make them more open to interacting with you in the future. If you missed your chance to greet them, respond to one of their own tweets and join in on a discussion.

Reward followers who respond or reach out

Did your follower reply to you or give you a mention? Or did a follower retweet one of your quotes?

Fantastic! Show your appreciation by retweeting something if theirs, as well! Publicly thank them for their effort. They’re guaranteed to appreciate it. If you can get this cycle of mutual appreciation going, you’ll quickly have a dedicated following.

Don’t spam

But don’t abuse your access to your followers. People aren’t on social media to be sold to. They want a pleasant online experience where they can chat with cool people and maybe learn something new.

Spamming people with offers, sales, or other things will just turn them off. Remember the golden ratio: 20% promotional, 80% non-promotional.

Choose quotes that pop

If you’re struggling for content, choose quotes that appeal to your target audience. Talking to business people? Choose quotes from prominent entrepreneurs or managers like Bill Gates. You can even try quoting movies and films, as long as they’re relevant to your topic.

One thing that really makes quotes pop is having a matching visual image. If you choose quotes that are intellectually appealing and post them with images that are visually appealing, it’s more interesting to readers and may get you a lot more interaction.

Join Twitter chats

A Twitter chat is a pre-arranged chat on a specific topic, which is formed around a particular hashtag. The hashtag links all of the participants’ conversations together to form a pseudo-chat room on Twitter.

This is a great place for you to interact with new people and possible get new followers. You can provide helpful resources like blog links or answer questions. Just make sure the topic is relevant to you, and that you actually do know what you’re talking about. And if you don’t, you can always ask questions. The Twitter crowd can be very helpful!

Try out these tips, and let me know what kind of results you get! Better yet, tweet me and we can have that conversation online!

Reach out to me on Twitter at @jenkellyjen and let’s talk! I look forward to hearing from you!

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Aug 25 2015

How Hashtags On Twitter Will Help You

Did you know you can search Twitter a similar way as you search on Google? Did you know using hashtags on Twitter when you tweet can help your tweet show up in Twitter searches?

Hashtags are also very powerful tools for connecting and building a network on Twitter.

What Are Hashtags On Twitter?

Hashtags are keywords or phrases that begin with the hashtag symbol (#). Hashtags 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.

Hashtags On Twitter Help

Hashtags create a wonderful opportunity to build a network. Twitter allows you to search for millions of different topics, so you can look up hashtags specific to your work and interests. And Twitter shows you all of the tweets pertaining to the hashtag, not just the tweets of those you’re following. This way, you can get into conversations, follow, RT, or favourite tweets from people you don’t even know yet. What a great way to meet and get exposed to more people, companies, charities, conversations and events. Learn more with these 5 ways Twitter hashtags help you engage and get noticed.

Try It Out For Yourself

So take advantage of hashtags on Twitter and get searching. You’ll find interesting topics for discussion and new people to interact with. Here’s how to start.

To search on Twitter:
Go to https://twitter.com/search-home

Type in the hashtag of the topic you’re searching for information about. If you are not sure there is a hashtag for your topic, start typing and you’ll see the hashtags that are currently used for that topic.

In our example, we’ll use #SmallBiz.

Here is a screen shot of the most recent tweets with #SmallBiz. We’ve circled in red the hashtag #smallbiz in each tweet. This is why these tweets were brought up in the search.

Creating your own hashtag is also a great way to get your business into the conversations where your customers, clients and colleagues are, as well as potential customers, clients and colleagues. Find some more information on using Twitter hashtags for your business tweets by Stephanie Buck.

Try Out Quotes With Hashtags

Using quotes is a great way to interact with your Twitter audience. With the Nimble Quotes service, you can try 1-8 inspiring quotes per day automatically tweeted from your Twitter account. You’ll also get the option of adding hashtags to your tweeted quotes, making your tweets even more engaging. Try us out today – we offer a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. 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 the Nimble Quotes newsletter instead.

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.

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.