How To Get the Most Out of Your Twitter Account

How To Get the Most Out of Your Twitter Account

by David Haack

8/12/2013

Twitter can be either the most wonderful news and networking site, or the biggest time suck in the history of the planet. Well, the latter may be supplanted by a few reality tv shows, most of which are such a time suck that I can’t even tell you their names... but I digress... 

When used properly, Twitter can be your single source for breaking news and interesting facts and articles. The magic of Twitter is connecting anyone with anyone. Literally. We live in the day and age of pocket-sized computers and FOMO (fear of missing out - yup, it’s a real thing. Look it up.) and ADHD. You can now connect with your favorite celebrities and sports figures and see what they say from their pocket computer, when they say it. Or get news from major companies and organizations as that news breaks. 

Let me give you an example. Sportscenter. Sportscenter now uses Twitter accounts of major sports figures as a source for their quotes in stories. So you probably don’t need Sportscenter - That is, if you know what you’re doing on Twitter and utilize it properly. Cut out the middle man! If you’re following the right people and know how to access and organize certain content so you can find it when YOU want, you can be on top of your news and interests and help connect others to them as well.

Here are 3 tips and tricks that I’ve use to keep my Twitter functional and fun. This is by no means a complete list, but it’s enough to get you started. 

Photo courtesy of Someecards

#1 - FOLLOW OTHER PEOPLE

When starting out, you’ve got to follow to be followed. People fear this... some people would like to keep their following to follower ratio in a place that puts them in line with Kobe Bryant or President Obama. Time to get realistic!  Others think certain follows start out fun, but like some bad relationships, begin to bother them and annoy them with the frequency of their requests (or in this case, tweets. Step 2 will address this issue) and I won’t deny some people will annoy you and might even deserve an “un-follow”, but when you’re starting out, FOLLOW OTHERS. Just like Shoeless Joe Jackson said to Ray in that cornfield, “If you build it, they will come” - if you follow, they will follow back. Or at least some of them will. If you DON’T follow, you never know what you might be missing! The point of being on Twitter is to use Twitter to it’s full functional use, right? 

#2 - MAKE AND UTILIZE LISTS

This is a photo finish with the previous step for 1st place in making all the difference in your Twitter world. The “Lists” feature in Twitter is a life saver by being a huge time saver. Scrolling through your “Home” screen to find information when you follow over a thousand people is like searching for Waldo at a Red and White Striped Sweater Convention. You may eventually find him, but was it worth the effort? Probably not. LISTS are key. 

Quick tutorial - Click the “Me” tab, then click your “Lists” link from the top left section of your profile page. You can then create lists which you can place any of your followers into. There are private lists and public lists, and the great thing with this is you can follow other people’s public lists as well. Follow the same instructions on anyone’s page, and you’ll see their Lists. 

Example - If someone you follow is an expert in cooking, they may have a list created where they have placed their favorite cooks and foodies on Twitter, and you can subscribe to that list to see those folks updates. Then, when you’re jonesing for some food-related posts and recipes, you just click on their “Cooking” list, which will now conveniently be located within your lists if you subscribed, and only the tweets of those folks in the list will appear. Then you can decide from there who you’d also like to follow and perhaps place into a list you create... And the spiderweb of connectivity grows...!

Lists are MUCH easier to comb through and find what you’re looking for than having everyone on one single feed as in the “Home” screen. 

#3 - INTERACT WITH PEOPLE

This may seem like a no-brainer, but please, for the love of god, don’t be a one way street. You’ll be tuned out. No one likes to hear someone talk at them and never pause for a question or a real human interaction. Everyone has their opinion on everything, so just be yourself. You’ll hear a lot of “experts” say don’t do this or do that or be more or less frequent.... Bah humbug! If you see something in your Home or Lists feeds that interests you, reach out! Get an interesting follower, tell them thanks! See something that inspires you, re-tweet it. You might not get a response back from that question you asked Ashton Kutcher, but then again, you might! You never know, and that’s the fun of Twitter. It’s a bit more open to this being possible than other platforms in Social Media. Reply to people when they reach out. Reach out to others. Just be a human being on the site with your own style and flavor, and you’ll get more out of it. 

Follow some people, put them into lists and throw your current follows and followers into list, be yourself, and see the whole new world it will open up for you on Twitter! Who knew 140 characters could contain so many possibilities?! 

David Haack is founder and CEO of PHD Social Media, a Social Media Management company. Follow on Twitter: @DavidHaack

Your Klout Score. Is it totally worthless? Kind of worthless? Or completely invaluable?

Your Klout Score.

Is it totally worthless? Kind of worthless? Or completely invaluable?...

Written Tuesday July 23rd by David Haack

Image from Wired.com

For those of you who haven’t quite jumped on this seat on the Social Media Bandwagon yet, let’s chat a bit about Klout and what it is.

Klout is a website and mobile app that uses social media analytics to measure what they deem to be the user’s “influence” online. In layman’s terms, they track a lot of different numbers from any Social Networking site you’d like to link to your Klout account to tell you if the site finds you to be “Influential”. 

Scores range from 1 to 100, with a 100 score being not totally impossible to receive, but basically totally impossible to receive. Klout took some flak awhile back for Barack Obama having a lower Klout score than Justin Beiber. They have since fixed this little snafu along with working out some other bugs from the site’s inception... 

Let me start with the good. Then I’ll get to the bad, and then finally the ugly.

The Good. 

If you’re not overly familiar with other analytics embedded within each Social Networking site, or just don’t have the desire or time to dive into all that, Klout provides a nice little landing spot for you to link all your accounts to, and then see where you’re getting your most engagement. It will break everything down in a nice little pie chart telling you that your Twitter followers love you but you’re not really getting much from your Google + account (or whatever other combo you could think of.) You can link everything from your Facebook to your YouTube channel to your Blogger account, and the list goes on and on. You only need one site to get started with your Klout score.

To me, this is a big plus side for Klout. The score can easily become an obsession, or drive you to become frantic thinking your social media campaign is “not working”, but still here in the GOOD section (wait for that explanation in the Bad and Ugly), I say having this option makes life easy and on some level see what’s working and what isn’t. 

Another plus for Klout is the perks, although from my personal experience, I haven’t found the perks to be all that enticing or organized very well. My best perk was a walkman style headset thing from Sony. Only problem was, I’m a Mac user and this thing only worked on a PC. Bummer. I didn’t tweet much about it because I didn’t want to trash or promote a product I couldn’t use, so I just kind of let that one slide, and since then have been offered nothing of note that makes me excited. The only thing I wanted was a free movie ticket but it was sold out when I tried to claim my perk. Lame!

Image from Wired.com

The Bad.

I don’t really feel that the Klout Score can fully tell me how influential a person is, because really, what does that even mean?! Some Twitter accounts have hundreds of thousands of followers but for many, this makes them want to scream, “WHO CARES!?”

I will give Klout that they seem to be making continual changes to the way they rank people, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, but in general it is very hard to get a very high Klout score without having something going for you. Whether it’s a blogger who is constantly supplying good quality content or a public figure of some sort who just by nature has a large following of people who often interact with their Social Media accounts, those with very high scores (I’m talking 78 + here) are “worthy” of their rank. 

I don’t know the exact way that Klout weighs the various stats from the various sites, and I’d be interested in hearing that information. Because from my experience, some sites seem to weigh more heavily, and I know they weigh actions on the user’s sites with other high scoring Klout folks for more score gain than those who aren’t on the sites or don’t have much of a following. I suppose this makes sense, but it’s not black and white and therefore it is ripe for inviting some criticism. 

The Ugly.

This site can cause people to behave strangely. I will even admit that it has caused me to act strangely myself in the pursuit of a high Klout score. I read articles about a high Klout score leading to better job opportunities, so of course that makes one want to pursue a high score, right? Well... here’s the “UGLY” slippery slope. At the end of the day, you’re either influential or you’re not. Klout isn’t really going to put you on the map as a Social Media influencer unless you already ARE an influencer. It’s just a nice neat little house where all of your site’s stats are stored and spewed out into a nice two digit number that either makes you feel like you’re on top of the world, or leaves you bitter and angry and cursing the algorithms that are obviously screwing you over to keep your score down.

The bottom line is this. Content will and always will be the King of Influence on Social Media Networks and Sites. Period. If you’re not supplying something that benefits others in some way, you will not be very influential. That doesn’t mean you can’t build a following, or even game the system a wee bit, but content is what truly creates the influence. It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering or groundbreaking, it just has to resonate with someone somewhere who might have a friend or two that it also resonates with. Sometimes it can be as simple as sharing articles that peak your interest and that you think a few of your friends and followers might enjoy as well. Other times it can be sharing a personal detail of your day. The list goes on and on, and ultimately YOU decide what you want to put out there in the Social Media world. Your Klout score may get you a free McDonald’s smoothie or some free appetizers at Chili’s, but it most certainly will not be the key ingredient to your success in Social Media and Networking. Make it a piece of your day and a fraction of where you spend your time and you’ll come out of the experience with your sanity in tact and a little extra knowledge about where your audience is interacting with you most. If you can do that, then you and your Klout score can be friends with benefits, but keep things from getting too serious with a long term committed relationship... 

David Haack is founder and CEO of PHD Social Media, a Social Media Management company. Follow on Twitter: @DavidHaack

Diagnosis: Social Media Anxiety

 How to cure it and get the most out of your Social Media Experience

We’ve all been there. We want to try out that new social site everyone else is talking about, but we are afraid. Sounds like it could be a giant waste of time. Sounds like it’s more work than it’s worth. Sounds too complicated. Sounds like we might put out too much and give people too big of an open window into our guarded personal life. Sound familiar?...

There is more to be gained from Social Media than there is to be lost, as long as you approach it in the correct way. The networking possibilities alone for anyone from the biggest business tycoon to the “normal” man or woman who just wants to keep in touch with family or friends that have scattered around the country or globe are huge. 

So, what keeps us filled with anxiety and continually putting off signing up for Facebook or Twitter or Instagram? Nope, sorry to tell you it’s not a waste of time. Try again! 

We fear what we do not understand. You think if you post a picture, someone could leave a comment you wouldn’t want your mother or grandmother or step-daughter to see. You think if you type up a tweet and hit ‘send’ that you might regret what you said or make a spelling mistake and be ridiculed. Am I right? If this doesn’t describe you it sure described me when I took my first steps into the Social Media world. 

One of the key elements that people tend to forget about or overlook is the amount of control you truly can have in your social experience. Afraid to dive into the deep end? Dip your toes in first and see if the water is inviting... Then a whole foot... Then your leg... Well, you get the picture. 

Each Social Media site that is worth your time investment has privacy controls that you really should utilize. For me, this made all the difference in the world. The sites are all set up to be super “social” and to share basically everything you do. You “like” something on Facebook, and your 200-2,000 friends all see that activity. Maybe you’d like to “like” things and not have it broadcasted - or at least not every time? There’s a setting for that! Maybe you fear that terrible picture of you that your friend looked great in (that you know they’ll post cause of their narcissism completely forgetting that you were in mid yawn in the background), and then they tag you and the whole world sees into your mouth...? There’s a setting for making sure any tags of you come straight to you for approval first. If you were caught mid-yawn or mid-sneeze or mid-one-too-many-cocktails, you will get to control being attached to it with a tag.

The amount of time it takes to look into these things is minor in comparison to the level of relaxation you could feel afterwards! There is a positive experience to be gained, I promise. It doesn’t have to be scary. Jump on in, the water’s fine!!

Stay Social!

@PHDSocialMeida

PHD Social Media

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Leave a comment if you’d like to see some tutorials of different privacy settings you could utilize in some specific Social Media sites. We’re listening and if we think we can help, we’ll post a tutorial video.

The Future is NOW.

If you own a business, are trying to sell something for a living, or are just looking to increase your potential reach online, and you aren't utilizing Social Media for these purposes, you are making a giant mistake!

The world moves at an incredible pace these days, and much of the information that is shared is through Social Media channels. The breaking news coverage comes across a Twitter feed. People share an article they saw on Facebook and a conversation breaks out in the form of comment threads. People are finding job opportunities and networking on LinkedIn... and the list goes on and on.

It can be a daunting task to start from scratch and build your profiles... but it doesn't have to be.

At PHD Social Media, our goal is to compliment you with our own expertise of Social Media Site creation and Social Media Management. We specialize in giving business a boost with their potential client and customer reach, and also with individuals and their Personal Branding.

This blog will serve as a place where we at PHD Social Media will come and share our knowledge with you to help you navigate through this social landscape. Should you want some personal attention and an extra boost to your online presence, send us an email at PHDSocialMedia1@gmail.com and we would be happy to assist you.

Have a great day! And remember to go BE SOCIAL!