Written By: Uchenna Ani-Okoye
When Twitter was originally released, it gained popularity and notability around the world very quickly, racking up millions of users. Sometimes described as the SMS of the World Wide Web, Twitter is a social media site that allows people to engage with one another by micro-blogging. It can be used for a number of different things, such as marketing, but you must do it right to be effective.
Below are some of the top 10 twitter tips that I can muster. These tips should enhance your experience when using this social media platform:
1. Use Short Links in Tweets
You can drive traffic to any site that you like when you add links to your tweets. However, one must keep in mind that you are restricted to just 140 characters per tweet, which is why it’s important that you use short URLs. Sites such as TinyURL are the best place for you to go for this.
2. Understand the Lingo
Twitter has its own lingo that you must get to grips with if you ever hope to take full advantage of it. Examples include @reply, follower, retweet, hashtag, trending topics and more. Take some time to read the Twitter description for a list of all the link and related terms you can use.
3. Follow Top Users
There’s a saying that if you want to be the best at something, you follow from the best. The same reigns true for twitter, if you want to have a successful twitter account, then a good place to start is by following the biggest twitter users.
Websites like Twitaholic are places where you can go to find all the biggest twitter users.
4. Create Lists
One of the most effective ways of filtering through people is by using twitter lists. You can create a list by clicking on the Lists link and then click on Create a list.
After you have created a list, you can then visit the profile page you would like to add to the list. You could create a list of computer experts or fashion gurus for example.
5. Add Link to Twitter Profile
Adding links to your tweets is one thing, but you can also add the URL of your own website to your user profile. This is an excellent way for users to keep in contact with you.
6. Add Images
They say a picture tells a thousand words. Using pictures is an excellent way to engage your followers. There are websites like TwitPic that you can use for adding images.
7. Ask Questions in Tweets
Asking your twitter followers questions is an excellent way to get debates going, which will invariably increase the level of engagement you have with them.
8. Followers
Try to limit the number of people you follow at any one time. This is because twitter users don’t like to follow someone that follows too many people.
Retweeting interesting posts is always a good thing.
Consider engaging in conversations on these retweets as it can be very rewarding.
It’s impossible for you to get through every single tweet, so that’s something you should keep in mind.
When you first create an account with Twitter, make sure you do not follow a whole load of people right away, as people will immediately think you’re a bot.
9. Use Mobile
Most, if not all smartphones, whether they be Android, BlackBerry, Apple or Windows based, have their own Twitter applications. Make sure you download and take full advantage of everything they have to offer. For end users that do not own a smartphone, Twitter also supports SMS extensions, which allows you to use it over the text messaging system.
10. Interesting Twitter Facts
There are over 320 million active users on Twitter in several different languages.
Most twitter users are over the age of 45+.
Women make up the majority of users on Twitter.
The average user spends over 10 minutes on the service between sessions.
Most users access the Twitter service through their mobile phones.
Twitter receives in excess of a million tweets per day; however, there is no way to clarify whether or not these tweets are from actual users or from spam bots, which Twitter is plagued with, unfortunately. Whether or not a user is active on Twitter is also consider an issue, as there are millions of accounts, but a significant chunk of them are dormant.
Twitter was first released to the public in 2006 and it took just 3 years for it to reach the 1 billion mark in tweets. Today, Twitter receives more tweets than that in a single week.
Author Bio:
Uchenna Ani-Okoye is a former IT Manager who now runs his own computer support website compuchenna.co.uk.
