How to use X/Twitter?
The site is easy to use but hard to succeed on!
With Elon Musk in charge there are additional pitfalls.
X/Twitter seems to be simple from the outside yet it’s not easy to master.
After more than 15 years of almost daily usage of X/Twitter I know by now how to do it.
Of course what works for me doesn’t have to work for you. Yet it’s a good start!
Thus I compiled a list of 101 X/Twitter updates on different use cases.
How to use X/Twitter? – It depends on what you want to achieve!
You engage differently for social networking and blogging than you do for business or marketing & SEO purposes.
Many X/Twitter best practices are one size fits all though.
Everybody should use them to succeed on X/Twitter.
To differentiate between the uses I divided this list into several sections.
General how to use advice:
- basics
- advanced
- even more advanced
Use cases:
- social networking
- blogging
- business
- marketing and SEO
Avoiding pitfalls:
- etiquette
- safety & security
Please note that every item in this list is made to work as a standalone update!
They in most case make sense on their own and are short enough to get reshared!
It was called “retweeted” in the past. You can’t re-ex though IMHO.
Basics
- Use an avatar image – without a profile picture you’ll remain invisible for many users
- Customize your profile with a header image
- Say in your bio who you are, what you do and what you care about
- Be concise – shorter updates work better
- Share links occasionally but those without links get more engagement
- Engage regularly (but do not flood)
- Reply, reshare and converse – X/Twitter is not just a monologue
- Don’t only tell us what you eat
- Add your URL to “Web” in your profile. LinkedIn is OK as well.
- Don’t follow 1k people when only 5 follow you
Advanced
- Use expert tools like XPro/Tweetdeck for an overview
- Subscribe to your own updates via a feed reader
- Add images to your updates for higher engagement
- Use #hashtags but don’t overdo it. One or two are enough
- Share important things up to 4 times, for all time zones
- Create a social landing page instead of just linking your homepage in your profile
- Track mentions of your keywords via XPro (Tweetdeck) etc.
- Ask open questions where the answer can’t be yes or no
- Use X/Twitter on the go when covering events
- Measure your influence on X/Twitter using their analytics
Even more advanced
- Use social media automation tools like Hootsuite, Buffer and IFTTT
- Use a custom short link tool with your own website address, bit.ly offers one for free
- Subscribe to your best friends’ tweets via a feed reader
- Use a CRM tool like Nimble to save your contacts
- Do not cross post every update automatically to Facebook and LinkedIn
Social Networking
- Don’t follow everybody who follows you
- Follow people you care about or who engage with you
- Don’t follow bots, largely automated accounts and feed mashups
- Mix links, @replies and “what’s happening” updates
- Engage with your peers and friends not just influencers
- Share content from rare sources not only mainstream ones
- Do not broadcast, social media is not TV or radio
- Participate in debates but do it in a civil way
- Spread memes when they’re funny or inspiring
- Follow those who reply or mention you unless they’re bots
- Start conversations e.g.: I wonder why people…
- Meet people you engage with in real life!
Blogging
- Don’t tweet instead of blogging
- Add a X/Twitter share button to your blog
- Display your tweets in your sidebar
- Add a “follow me” badge to your blog
- Announce your best posts on X/Twitter but not all of them
- Crowdsource posts by asking questions
- Add a @handle input to your comment form (or to copy and paste, try copying this sentence!)
- Share it when your plane crashes
- Write on your blog about X/Twitter
- Write on X/Twitter about blogging
Business
- Act as an individual not only as a company or brand
- Offer exclusive discounts to followers
- Announce special offers on X/Twitter first
- Give away freebies to your true fans
- Respond to disgruntled customers and offer apologies/money back
- Establish a social media policy in your company
- Monitor brand mentions and express gratitude when possible
- Claim @usernames related to your brand & products
- Create a X/Twitter team or hire a social media manager
- Use a X/Twitter CMS like Hootsuite or Sprout Social
Marketing & SEO
- Share links to great content from your industry
- Add others/yourself to X/Twitter lists featuring niche bloggers
- Add your X/Twitter @username to your website
- Display your Twitter address on your business card
- Employ X/Twitter analytics tools like Databox
- Create Google Analytics campaigns for X/Twitter
- Claim your keywords as X/Twitter user names
- Use hashtags but not more than two at once – X/Twitter is not Instagram
- Follow many people if you can but clean up your feed regularly
- Move to a dedicated server or cloud hosting to handle traffic peaks
- Add “@source” at the end of tweets using a “via”
- Use exclamations like OMG! WTF? FAIL!
- Use weird numbers in headlines
- Break news when they happen
- Share memes or animated gifs when appropriate but don’t overdo it
- Address power users like @zaibatsu and comment on their updates
- Tell people to follow you and explain the benefits of doing it
- Wear unique headgear to stand out
- Use a funny username like @nakedpizza
- Make people happy
Etiquette
- Don’t follow/unfollow the same person more than once in a row
- Don’t message people you don’t follow, they can’t reply
- Don’t swear in tweets or tweet while angry
- Don’t autofollow based on names. Tad Chef is not a chef
- After the 3rd @reply switch to DM (direct message), email, Skype or IM
- Don’t expect a reply when addressing others out of the blue
- Disclose affiliate links with [aff] or [ad] or [partner link]
- Tweet only important things more than once
- Don’t tweet the same thing several times in a row
- Don’t automate tweeting completely
- Don’t sell on X/Twitter unless your name is Dell outlet
- Don’t use short link tools that frame content
- Read first and only then retweet
- Do not suggest your site each time someone mentions your trade
Safety & Security
- Don’t tweet scam links, not even asking “is this a scam?” You’ll get banned
- Never tweet email addresses. Spam bots harvest them
- Don’t tweet travel/vacation plans. Burglars read them
- Don’t tweet while driving
- Refrain from complaining about your employer or clients
- In countries like China tweet anonymously
- Don’t use your X/Twitter password for Google and online banking
- Don’t tweet where you are or share your location for no reason
- Don’t tweet private photos of your kids
- Share only things you would say on TV
You might have noticed that I don’t heed my own advice with many items referring to blogging.
I am quite busy most of the time so I can’t implement all of it.
Also all of the blogging advice combined leads to clutter so you got to choose which options you prefer.
Focus on a few selected techniques and be consistent
I hope these 101 updates on how to use X/Twitter will be useful for you and your followers.
Focus on a few of them. You don’t need to implement all of them!
Just keep on doing it. Don’t expect huge success over night.
Make sure to add your own or comment on those list items you don’t agree with.
You might like to follow me on X/Twitter: @onreact
In case you don’t know whether you want to use X/Twitter at all read the pros and cons article.
This time I told you how to use X/Twitter.
Yet I didn’t tell you what to say, what to write on X/Twitter.
In short: Try to share something useful for others and use
- 1/3 @replies
- 1/3 reshares + links
- 1/3 “what’s happening” tweets.
Then just be consistent. Building a genuine audience takes time!