Getting the Most Out of Twitter

Okay all you Twitter Heads, here's some very helpful information from Michael Hyatt (one of my favorite bloggers btw) on how to get the most out of your Twitter account.

1. Why Do You Twitter?

Two reasons: First, I am very interested in leadership. Leadership is influence. Twitter allows me to use my influence to effect thousands of people. Second, I am interested in building my personal brand, so that I can leverage that on behalf of my company. As I build my brand, I build trust. When people trust you, you have more influence. It all works together.

2. What Do You Think has Contributed to Your Growth Success?

I think by adding value to people’s lives.

I try to point people to articles and posts that I believe will enrich their lives in some way. The more generous you are with Twitter, the more followers you will attract. It’s like making a deposit in their bank account.

Conversely, “using” your followers to pimp your own products or services is like a withdrawal. You can do it, but you must be very careful that your deposits exceed your withdrawals.

3. What Strategies Would You Give for a Twitter User Who’s Not “New” But Who’s Been Around and is Looking to Take It to the “Next Level”?

1. Make sure that you are tweeting great content. Again, be generous. Give more than you ask.
2. Re-tweet great content from others. This builds equity with the people you are re-tweeting, so they are more likely to re-tweeting you.
3. Twitter frequently, but not too frequently. I think 8-12 tweets a day is about right. More than that will wear people out.
4. Don’t reply publicly to private questions. This is what direct messages are for. If potential followers can’t follow your conversations, they won’t follow you-or worse, they may unfollow you. Only post public tweets that are relevant to ALL (or at least most) of your followers.
5. Create a custom landing page. When people consider following you, the first thing they do is click on your Web link on your Twitter profile page. That should go to a special landing page on your blog or Web site.
6. Blog about Twitter. I wrote “The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter” and it is the most popular page on my blog. I have also written several other posts about Twitter. They get lots of traffic.
7. Auto-follow everyone who follows you. I use TweetLater.com to do this. I’m not sure I can explain why this works but it does. When I started doing this, my follower growth sky-rocketed. I use TweetDeck to manage such a large number of followers by segmenting followers into groups.