(My) Beginners Guide to Connecting and Engaging On Twitter

Beginning Twitter

I haven’t been posting at all lately on the Social Media Self Or Cash Creation because I’ve been digging deep into the Human SEO aspect of the blog.

However this past week I’ve got lots of requests about how I connect and engage on Twitter. So, after detailing this in an email or two I thought it would be smart to just tweak it and post here for you and anyone else that asks me.

Here are just a few beginners tips & resources to get you started on Twitter. Learn from my mistakes on Twitter but also my successes.

Connecting

1. Find Influential Users-It makes sense to find someone in your niche interest that has already amassed a large following of relevant followers. This way you’re able to find lots of people to connect with in one spot. To find influential users Google someone high profile in your niche. For example with my main interest being spiritual development I would look up people like WayneDyer or DeepakChopra and see who is following them. Simply go to the Google search and type in “Wayne Dyer + Twitter” (without quotes) and wholla, their Twitter profile shows up as the 1st result.
2. Twitter Lists- Twitter lists will give you the opportunity to find more relevant people to connect with and save lots of time. When you visit someones profile scroll down and under favorites you’ll see a link for Lists. I list category specific people such as personal development. You’ll see all the people I follow and group into the personal development niche. This cuts down on doing tons of searches for people you have common interests in. Read this post and watch the video at Social Media Examiner to learn how Twitter lists work.
3. Search relevant Keywords-Use http://search.twitter.com to search for relevant keywords in your niche interest that others are using. When the results come up take a look at the persons profile then their short bio and the link to the website. If what their about resonates with you, add them as a friend and engage with them. You know, like compliment them on their work, make a comment on their most recent blog post letting them know how valuable their post was to you.
4. Search Peoples stream-Once you’ve found someone that resonates with you, search their updates for relevant friends they have retweeted or are engaged with that you can connect with just like you did when you found your power users. I’ve found lots of cool people this way.

Word of caution: Yes you can use software that automatically adds people to your list for you however, I’ve found they cause you to follow lots of irrelevant people and your followers aren’t as targeted as if you’d taken the time to do what I’m outlining above. It’s not the size of the list but the quality of engagement in my opinion. The more quality and relevant the engagement the faster the list grows organically.

Engaging

1. Give more than you ask for-When you’re just starting this probably is a good rule to shoot for but today I just do it with out thinking. For every 1 self serving tweet (self promotional) tweet out 7 non-self serving tweets. These could be retweet’s of other peoples relevant quotes, links promoting someone elses blog post (where you’ve left a comment that is high quality. See step 2 for details) or simply engaging with someone. Kind of like I did below. I said “Preach it!” and then Retweeted his quote to my followers.
   

   “Preach it! RT @douglasi: Twitter success is not based on complicated theories, it’s based on the basics of human interaction“-

2. Tweeting Blog Post Links-If you’re a blogger like me, I like to tweet other peoples blog posts if it’s relevant. But I also engage on those blogs as much as possible by leaving a comment. (This could also lead others to visit your blog as well)  As a side note my main rule of thumb when leaving comments on other Blog posts is to leave something of value. Maybe a tip that complements their post or just a different perspective. Comments that simply say, “Great post!” “Very insightful” or “Love your blog!” are of zero value to anyone. Sure, add one of those into your comment however don’t let it be the total comment itself. It’s not very heart felt.
3. Purposely Engage- Let your personality shine for goodness sakes. Connect with people in a verbal conversation but one that is relevant. I don’t like to be too chatty on twitter though but that’s just my opinion. Twitter is where I start the conversation. Continue it elsewhere like on your blog if you have one or via email where you begin to take the relationship offline.
4. Relevant Chats-Speaking of too chatty. One of the latest things I’ve been engaging in is relevant chats that happen on Twitter. The good thing is you meet some really cool people and engage in some really good communication. My favorite is #epicchat that’s organized by Allison Nazarian and Elizabeth Pots Weinstein. The down side is that you’re updating a lot in the 30 to 60 minutes that the chat happens (Therefor breaking the too chatty rule). Either warn your followers or face being unfollowed by them.

Tools Of Twitter

I don’t work from my Twitter profile when updating. I use software that communicates with Twitter. My personal conversation client would be Tweetdeck. It’s a really cool & free desk top software that allows me to break up my conversations into groups as well as receive & communicate with Facebook. I can upload pics to Flickr and even watch Youtube videos from it.

All of my friends I’ve recommended it to absolutely love it and lot’s of them are people who just started out.

These are just a few things I do to find relevant people in order to have awesome conversations & relationships. These steps have assisted me in meeting some very cool people in person as well as I have quite a few in line to meet!

If you’ve found this useful then please share it with those you know. (Yes, of course on Twitter) If you’re not following me on Twitter what are you waiting for? Engage Tony on Twitter