Twitter Best Practices: How to Use Twitter Effectively ~ Make Twitter Work for YOU [UPDATED Feb 16, 2013]

March 4, 2011 · 130 comments

Image Credit WebDesignerDepot FREE Twitter icons Click image

HOW TO TWITTER

Many ask How Does Twitter Work?

But that isn’t really what you need to know to learn how to use Twitter.

The most important thing to remember about Twitter and other social media sites is that they are SOCIAL.

It isn’t about broadcasting or advertising. It is about interacting and relationships.

You don’t have to live on Twitter like I do to benefit from using it.

SAVE TIME USING TWITTER:

Just pop in whenever you have a little time.
Click on @mentions and answer any tweets that came to you.
Type your username into the search box and answer any tweets you’re interested in that mention you.
Be helpful to others.
Share and retweet what interests you.

Best Way to Create Relationships on Twitter

Twitter got a lot easier when Commun.it came out with their Twitter Relationship Management tool. You can see my dashboard in this image and read about Why I Recommend Commun.it and How I Use It. Even though I had years of experience on Twitter before @Commun.it came along, I love it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This video from Ian Anderson Gray’s Complete Guide on How to Build and Manage your Twitter Community with Commun.it explains the benefits of Commun.it:

You can see why Commun.it received the User’s Choice Award in Startups.

HOW TO GET RETWEETS

Click this image to sign up or get more info

Another Twitter tool we highly recommend is JustRetweet. Anyone – no matter how new they are to Twitter – can easily obtain retweets using JustRetweet.

If you have more time than money you can earn free retweets. If you have more money than time, you can buy credits very inexpensively. Read more about it in our JustRetweet Review and Tips.

Even if you don’t have a single follower, with JustRetweet
you can get retweets and traffic from Twitter.

TWITTER BEST PRACTICES:

Everything you to know from the basics to advanced Twitter strategies to becoming a major influencer.

How to Get Started on Twitter and the most common Twitter Term Definitions
What NOT to Tweet on Twitter
What TO Tweet on Twitter
Use Twitter Lists so you can find what you want and still follow those who follow you – and why you should
*** COLLABORATORS be sure you do this using TwitterFeed or any other Twitter management solution you use: How to Use Twitterfeed for a consistent Twitter presence
*** COLLABORATORS also do this: Strategy for getting more Twitter followers interested in YOUR niche
Join us on JustRetweet where influential bloggers support each other with Twitter retweets
Better Twitter Retweets
Twitter Tools for Managing Multiple Twitter Accounts
Geo-targeting Twitter – also see How to Use Twellow
Twitterquette – Twitter Etiquette – Twitter Feeds are NOT Burger King – Why Everyone Can Not Have It THEIR Way
Twitter Fail – Why You Should NOT Just Keep Tweeting About Your Business
Twitter Limits – What they are and what to do if you hit them.
Twitter Study: New Data: How To Get More Clicks, Retweets and Followers
Twitter Local for Business: How to Geo Target Twitter for Small Business Local Social Media
Professional Twitter Management Etiquette with Tips from AP Style Guide for Business Community Managers
Windmill Networking: Twitter for Real Estate Agents

CRITICAL for BLOGGERS:
Put Your Twitter UserName on your BLOG!!!!

People who are influencers on Twitter and who write blogs can create a better world for us all. If you’re serious about being influential I encourage you to contact me and to follow the other influencers I linked to >> in my Small Business Advice post.

Want more? See my lists of Exceptional Bloggers with Influence on Twitter.

HAVE QUESTIONS? Tweet @GrowMap for answers (no charge).
If you want assistance setting up or optimizing your Twitter account,
Gail @GrowMap can help you. See the Hire Me tab.

Tagged as: Twitter, twitter best practices, twitter tips, twitter tools

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{ 92 comments… read them below or add one }

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suraj Twitter: blognames March 16, 2011 at 1:49 am

I never able to use twitter effectively. Let i try your tips. Twitter is nice way to gain traffic.

Louie Harris who writes about Panic Attacks March 13, 2011 at 1:13 pm

The problem with Twitter is that everyone is “talking” and nobody seems to “listen”.

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 20, 2011 at 1:21 am: Hi Louie,

While it IS true that many are using Twitter only as a broadcast medium, those who interact with others will see much greater success. Building relationships is the key.
growmap would love you to read ..Twitterquette- Twitter Feeds are NOT Burger King – Why Everyone Can Not Have It Their Way

Reply

Rohit Twitter: rohitsane March 13, 2011 at 5:20 am

Twitter collaborations are always a good way to boost your presence and increase your reach. I really love this tip!
Rohit would love you to read ..Leather Lounge Furniture

Paul Twitter: coolgadgets1 March 10, 2011 at 7:44 am

I think having too much followers or following too many people is a bane. You just can’t keep up with their tweets or build up proper relationships.
Paul would love you to read ..New Technology- Capacitive Touch Textiles and Clothes

Cynthia Cavoto Twitter: CynthiaCavoto March 10, 2011 at 8:07 pm

Hi Paul,

Yes, you’re so right. The funny thing is that once you start really going on Twitter every day, you’ll begin to see who really participates and who doesn’t. Then you can begin to make comments on those really tweet interesting things. Now of course, I have my favorites, so when they tweet anything, I’m right there listening!

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 20, 2011 at 1:22 am: Hi Paul, Cynthia,

Each of us has a different calling. You CAN keep up with tens of thousands if you learn to use Twitter lists to hone in on what you need at any particular time. There is a link to a post about that in this post.
growmap would love you to read ..Happy Second Business Blog Birthday to Andrew Rondeau – GrowMap Hits 17-000 Twitter Followers

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Replica Designer Handbags Twitter: replica Hermes handbags March 10, 2011 at 2:07 am

Many accounts are zoombie accounts, followers exist but not real!!! I hate This!

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 20, 2011 at 1:23 am: Yes, it is true that many accounts are filters that RT niche content or basically on auto-pilot; however, we simply focus on those who interact and don’t worry about those who do not.
growmap would love you to read ..How to Win Friends and Influence Bloggers- Others

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Gustavo Twitter: gizmoshub March 9, 2011 at 3:37 pm

What has worked for me the most is to follow users that follow accounts with the same interests as me. As a result I get around 35% users that follow me back. It may not sound as much but 35 new followers each day is not bad.

Not to mention that my traffic from twitter has increased accorsingly as well.
Gustavo would love you to read ..Twitter for Mac

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 20, 2011 at 1:24 am: Hi Gustavo,

Yes, that it the gist of one of the key posts on this page. I get the highest percentage of real followers who follow back from following @Kikolani’s followers – and that makes sense because Kristi and I write similar content and mention each other often.
growmap would love you to read ..Kikolani Blog Post Promotion Ultimate Guide Ebook

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LS Geekster SEO Twitter: kirapermunian March 9, 2011 at 9:37 am

Thanks for these tips Gail! Very much helpful! Also if you have a high PageRank in your Twitter profile, I believe the links you tweet will have an effect on the search engines results , the link could potentially help get a rank as well. The authority person’s tweets are also beneficial for organic search especially in Google. Thanks Gail for the great share!
LS Geekster SEO would love you to read ..The BIG Traffic Generation Blogging Contest

growmap Twitter: GrowMap January 30, 2012 at 9:08 am: I noticed today that I don’t see PageRank on Twitter profiles any more. I suspect that is because of this latest change at Google that promotes Google+ and doesn’t include any social shares for Facebook or Twitter.

See Google + Your World = Google + Google+.
growmap would love you to read ..Engagement From Scratch Compiled by Danny Iny: Free eBook Download ~ Win a Printed Copy

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raymund camat who writes about brother toners Twitter: rfamat March 9, 2011 at 4:00 am

Although we are using Twitter for our toner business, we are yet to see its effect on increasing brand awareness, customer loyalty, and more importantly sales.

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 20, 2011 at 1:29 am: Hi Raymund,

You have the challenge of having an enormous, highly divergent and not very targeted market that will only be interested when they need toner or ink. That type of product is also much harder to write or find compelling content to share.

You might want to try finding either highly entertaining computer related blogs or tech gadget bloggers who frequently write about new computer products to feed using the TwitterFeed strategy linked to in this post.

Businesses that sell common products need their Twitter accounts to have a personality and interact on things besides just your products.
growmap would love you to read ..How to Win Friends and Influence Bloggers- Others

Reply

Nancy Williams March 8, 2011 at 10:07 pm

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 20, 2011 at 1:30 am: Hi Nancy,

I agree that interacting by providing useful assistance IS the very best way to benefit from time spent on Twitter and other Social Media sites.
growmap would love you to read ..Best of GrowMap – Our Most Important Posts All in One Place

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Self Publishing Blog Twitter: authopublisher March 7, 2011 at 1:40 pm

I am just to start using Twitter Feed. Isn’t it the same as perhaps dlvr.it?

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 7, 2011 at 5:57 pm: Hi Ivin,

There are many ways to feed to Twitter. Dragonblogger suggested that we might like dlvr.it better but I haven’t made time to check it out yet.
growmap would love you to read ..Twitterquette- Twitter Feeds are NOT Burger King – Why Everyone Can Not Have It Their Way

Reply

reehasmith March 7, 2011 at 9:00 am

great post and also very useful ..mostly elements you mentioned i already know bcoz i was using tweeter for previous six to eight months but your this information helps newbies when they join tweeter

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 7, 2011 at 5:58 pm

Hi reehasmith,

If you already learned all that in 6-8 mos. you’re definitely a fast learner. The two posts that serious bloggers should check out are the one about TwitterFeed and growing followers in specific niches.
growmap would love you to read ..How to Monetize Your Blogs

louis vuitton replica handbags May 2, 2011 at 5:05 pm: hy
thanks for all that! i had a very fast picking quality that,s why if you told me the main concept than i can handle all the things at any situation

Reply

Free Stuff March 7, 2011 at 3:31 am

Twitter is one of the best free marketing tool to generate traffic to your website.

Andersson March 6, 2011 at 11:56 pm

While Twitter began as a self-promoting platform, like a sort of microblog, the application has evolved to become a social media tool which allows people to express their opinion on a certain topic. This is very much helpful to market analysts in need of ideas to improve their product.

For instance, an energy drink company introduces a new product in the market and tweets about it. While feedback may come in the form of blog review, raw data may also be sourced from Twitter. By just typing the name of the produce on the search tab, you can see who among the Tweeple patronize your drink.
Andersson would love you to read ..Brug for en erhvervsadvokat

Sarah March 6, 2011 at 8:10 am

Just getting started with Twitter, and I just finished the article on using Twitterfeed to post others’ blog posts. That’s brilliant!

I have to be honest, I’m still struggling to see the “big deal” of these social marketing sites. I suppose it’s because I’m not the most social person, lol. But, I’ve come to the realization that it’s time to get on board. Too many success stories to ignore, ya know?

I’m planning to go through the other articles now

Sarah would love you to read ..Make Affiliate Money Creating Review Sites

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 6, 2011 at 6:28 pm

Hi Sarah,

The benefit of using Twitter is that it makes it easy to filter interests by subject using lists and connect with others who are in your target audience.

Twitter is the primary method the very best bloggers in the niches I write about and read regularly first “met” and connected and that led to collaborations that greatly speed up learning curves of all kinds.

Instead of each of us learning how to do something individually, we each learn different things and then pool our knowledge. When multiple bloggers already know a subject well, we compare experiences and come to a consensus on best practices.

You can see who the bloggers are that I collaborate most often by looking at the list in my recent post about joining BizSugar to find and share Small Business Advice.

When a new solution comes out to do something instead of us all having to check it out we decide who wants to look at it and that person or persons can then fill the others in.

growmap would love you to read ..Kikolani Blog Post Promotion Ultimate Guide Ebook

Sarah March 10, 2011 at 6:51 am

Thanks for the reply – that makes so much sense. I guess I just never looked at it that way before. So, essentially you’re forming a mastermind group online vs. in person. I like it!

Since I’m new to using Twitter, I wasn’t familiar with using lists (until I read your post, lol!) to segment interest groups. I like that idea, as well.

Thanks again!

growmap Twitter: GrowMap January 30, 2012 at 9:13 am: Hi Sarah,

Yes, we use Twitter to connect and then take our “Master Mind” groups to a domain we control (because Twitter and Facebook censor some shares and sometimes just delete accounts out of the blue).

Twitter is like a fast way to leave messages for busy influencers so that we can operate at full efficiency.
growmap would love you to read ..Why Your Geographic Location IS a Niche

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khaled March 5, 2011 at 3:59 pm

Have to be honest I still just don’t get the whole twitter thing, I have had an account for a while and even read a few books about using it but it just doesn’t appeal to me. As a business owner there are supposed to be lots of benefits for advertising yourself but it just seems to me that its used for talking rubbish most of the time.
khaled would love you to read ..What are the Differences Between Natural and Cultured Pearls

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 6, 2011 at 12:29 am: Hi Khaled,

What you see depends on who you follow. Try clicking on the lists you find in any Twitter account and you’ll see what I mean. Here are some for you to check out:

Social Media twitter list

Golf Twitter List

Wedding Experts

As you can see, when you look at the tweets on those lists they are primarily on topic and there is very little “talking rubbish” going on.
growmap would love you to read ..Google Farmer Update Slaps Google Shopping and Google Maps Competitors

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Keith Twitter: KeithsMLMLEADS March 5, 2011 at 3:03 pm

Thanks so much for the links! I have been working on my twitter account and not really sure what to do. These links will help so much!
Keith would love you to read ..Creating MLM Leads Through Your MLM Blog

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 6, 2011 at 12:18 am: Hi Keith,

These posts should answer just about any question you have so if anything is NOT completely clear please do me a favor and ask so I can improve whatever is not. If you do that you will be helping anyone else using those posts to improve their Twitter productivity.
growmap would love you to read ..How to Monetize Your Blogs

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Dennis Edell Twitter: DennisEdell March 5, 2011 at 11:59 am

Sweet link list Gail, thanks.

Speaking of having your link on your blog, all bloggers should use their twitter ID box (in comments) for themselves as well.

I wrote about it back in January, if I may – - Why you should use TwitterLinks
Dennis Edell would love you to read ..Should Guest Bloggers be Responsible for Their Own SEO

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 6, 2011 at 12:15 am

Hi Dennis,

I’ll have some more to add but I needed this post up quickly to link to that specific information from another post that went live elsewhere this morning.

As you can see in my replies throughout this blog I totally agree with you about Twitterlinks and CommentLuv.
growmap would love you to read ..How CommentLuv Grows Businesses and Blogs

Dennis Edell Twitter: DennisEdell March 7, 2011 at 7:29 am: Oh I know you do, you point to CL all the time in comments…I’d be very curious to know how many you’ve bought through Comluv. lol
Dennis Edell would love you to read ..Should Guest Bloggers be Responsible for Their Own SEO

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HUG Twitter: HUGchs March 5, 2011 at 12:13 am

Thanks for the great list of Twitter resources! I find it crazy that so many people and businesses still don’t understand the best practices in using Twitter. If you spend your time answering questions, connecting people, and promoting others…it will always make for an incredibly positive experience. I have made an unbelievable amount of area connections through Twitter, especially in the marketing, media, and PR industries. It couldn’t be more worthwhile when used effectively.
HUG would love you to read ..4-7-11 – Party for a Purpose

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 6, 2011 at 12:58 am: Welcome Hug,

Thanks for taking the time to comment. Many ARE still confused about the value of Twitter as you can see by some of the comments in this post. They are probably watching the general feed flowing by full of silly nonsense instead of the kind of feed I see because I use Twitter lists and follow people with specific interests.

I put some examples of highly targeted feeds in one of the other replies in this post that we can use to show people what a targeted Twitter account can look like.

I feed only the blogs related to a specific account into it so it becomes an easy way to see the best content in each niche I am active in.
growmap would love you to read ..Small Business Internet Marketing

Reply

Cynthia Cavoto Twitter: CynthiaCavoto March 4, 2011 at 10:00 pm

I have had a great experience with Twitter. I have
1. Made great business connections
2. Found clients
3. Learned valuable tips and information from those in my field
4. Made great affiliate relationships
5. Met talented individuals who have done great work for me

At first, it does seem difficult to really see results but once you do, it becomes addicting! It’s my favorite platform by far. I also enjoy the tools and software that really make it easy to achieve your goals.

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 6, 2011 at 1:03 am

Thank you, Cynthia, for taking the time to comment so that others will benefit from your experiences. I believe that Twitter is an essential part of any Internet marketing effort and highly valuable for connecting with people who can be very difficult to reach using any other method.

Do you have a blog anywhere or are you interested in doing any business blogging?
growmap would love you to read ..Twitterquette- Twitter Feeds are NOT Burger King – Why Everyone Can Not Have It Their Way

Cynthia Cavoto Twitter: CynthiaCavoto March 6, 2011 at 6:03 pm

Hi,

Yes, I do have a blog. Here’s the link: http://blog.mymarketingthatworksforyou.com/

I love to blog for businesses. In fact, I have several clients that have a blog and I manage/post for them with their input. I enjoy writing, and I also enjoy promoting the blogs as well.

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 6, 2011 at 6:33 pm

Hi Cynthia,

Check out my post on the benefits of using KeywordLuv and also be sure to see the section on using CommentLuv Default Links for anchor text in my post about CommentLuv.

You may want to consider Kristi Hine’s new ebook on advanced methods for promoting blogs and specific blog posts.
growmap would love you to read ..Kikolani Blog Post Promotion Ultimate Guide Ebook

Cynthia Cavoto Twitter: CynthiaCavoto March 6, 2011 at 6:48 pm: Hi,

Awesome, thank you so much. I have subscribed and am checking out your site.

If there is anything I can do for you, please let me return the favor…

Henway March 4, 2011 at 9:07 pm

I quit Twitter awhile ago. It’s just a waste of time, although if you’re smart there are potential ways to make some very cool connections (think angel investors, potential employers, etc) there. Other than that, ppl seem to use it for egotistical purposes, thinking everyone cares about what happens in their day to day life. Waste of time!
Henway would love you to read ..Discover Card Tips

growmap Twitter: GrowMap March 6, 2011 at 12:12 am: Hi Henway,

If you believe Twitter is a waste of time you haven’t seen the true potential. The key is to have what you Tweet and who you follow match. For example, I originally followed other serious bloggers from @GrowMap because we share and are interested in the same things.

Now I am connecting with more small businesses because they are who needs the information that I and my other bloggers have.

In my NoBogies account I only tweet golf related stuff and only follow others interested in golf. I very rarely tweet marketing related posts there and I don’t feed any of the other blogs I feed into GrowMap into NoBogies.

It could be argued that connecting with an angel investor or finding a new position make Twitter very valuable and definitely not a waste of time. I find that people who are extremely challenging to reach by phone or email can be easy to connect with on Twitter.

What those who do not understand why we spend time on Twitter or why we follow so many people consider this. Every tweet I make from GrowMap gets about 60-90 clicks and when they go viral they can get 50,000+. I have screen captures from su.pr showing multiple Tweets with 30,000-50,000 clicks EACH for one event I was promoting. That kind of traffic is not easy to come by from ANY source.
growmap would love you to read ..Small Business Internet Marketing

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