I am sure that many of you have read some sort of article out there that tells you which social media platform works best for your business and which platform allows you to connect with more potential buyers. You can read all of them and take those tips into considerations but today I am going to dive deep on how you can use Twitter to its maximum potential. The problem is are you ready?
Let’s get right to the point So how do you interact with writers, editors, and other influencers with whom you’d like to eventually place content? A common question many people asked. Here’s what you need to do:
Step One: Optimize your Twitter account
Nobody is going to look up or show interest in your profile if it’s not properly formatted. Details like your Twitter display name, bio, etc., are important to let them know who you are and what you do.
Follow these practices:
- Include your full name or a combination of your name and initials.
- Detail professional and personal information. Make it interesting and unique but at the same time it must be relevant.
- Your timeline is an opportunity for you to share your personality. When you reach out to writers and editors, they’re likely to check your timeline before responding. I repeat do not leave it BLANK!
- Be sure to include a photo of yourself and update your header image. What you want to do is to be consistent with what you are putting out for people to see. Use the same photo for your email and Twitter accounts. The more someone recognizes you, the more credible you are
Step Two: Create Twitter lists
You can track a list of contacts who have responded favorably to your outreach, accepted your pitches, or publish your content. Keeping them organized in a list allows you to pay closer attention to their activity, which can help you build better relationships over time. Sounds easy right? But if you do not organize this can be a tough task when your contacts start to build up.
Make sure you have different lists, one that tracks who have responded to your content, the other you track who you want to connect with etc. This is really important because you need to know what are your goals and how are you getting there.
Here’s something you can try, build a Twitter list for a specific campaign. Include all the people to whom you intend to pitch the content. Give yourself a time frame to slowly interact with them. By proactively getting your name and avatar in their notifications, you can ensure that the mere exposure effect is already working for you.
Step Three: Interact organically
This is where the hustle begins, with your Twitter lists all set up, here is where your journey begins. You can spark a relationship on Twitter in many ways. The key is, and I say this with emphasis, be authentic and original, don’t fake it. Don’t reply to a tweet if it doesn’t spark something in you. Don’t favorite a tweet you disagree with. Be yourself. It will work wonders in the long run. To some of you who may have tried this method but it hasn’t work you probably need to think if you are really sincere when you start a conversation or reply.
Follow
Every time you follow someone, the person is alerted in his or her notifications. I often check who follows me even if I don’t follow back. Following someone is the bare minimum when it comes to building relationships. Retweeting, replying, and sharing their work are the best ways to interact. Do not follow them but don’t do anything at all, because it’s not going to show any results.
Favorite
Favoriting (or hearting) someone’s tweet is almost as low-effort as following, but it still has a ton of value. Favoriting or “liking” a tweet is also a good way to appreciate something a contact has tweeted. It feels good if someone shows appreciation of what we post and very likely we will pay more attention to that particular person. So it’s a good start to get attention.
Retweet
Retweeting gives you more exposure than following or favoriting. However, if you want to add a little magic to your retweet, include a bit of your personality. Use humor, give a compliment, or share an opinion. Something many of us is not doing correctly but it can be really effective.
Reply
Remember when I told you, interacting is where the hustle begin? Here’s why, because the more work you put into the interaction, the more likely the recipient is to respond. A reply is my favorite interaction to have with journalists, writers, and editors. If your reply is thoughtful enough, you could spark an authentic conversation and get noticed. In my experience, the most effective tactic is to reply to something they wrote and engage in conversation about it.
Improvise and Repeat
Now that we’ve shown you a systematic way to build relationships with potential leads, however, the effectiveness of it strongly depends on you engaging with them authentically. You aren’t tweeting them because you want something. You’re tweeting them because you relate to them and hope to make a real connection.
Building a relationship through Twitter isn’t a guarantee your pitch will be accepted. Don’t let the relationship end with a single failed pitch. Be original and truly care for them when you comment or reply on their post. It’s going to take some time before you see any results but over time, they’ll realize you’re not just another PR robot and appreciate the effort you took to connect with them.
Now that we’ve shared with you how you can get connected with Twitter, in order to help you stay motivated, you need to read this article. Things you need to understand if you want to truly success no matter what your career is.