April Tara » Twitter

Beyond My Space – Using Twitter

April — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:08:19 +0000

Now that you’ve set up your Twitter account and customized your profile, let’s move on to actually using Twitter to promote your band.

Image via CarrotCreative on Flickr

First, you’ll want to start following people. By following them, you will see their status updates, referred to as “tweets”, in your Twitter stream. Your stream is the view from your Twitter home page. The home page is different from your profile page which is where your own tweets show up. Eventually others will follow you too. And your tweets will then show up in your followers’ streams.

How do you find people on Twitter and vice versa?

Ok, now you might be wondering who you should follow and how do you get people to follow you. (By the way, don’t get all hung up on numbers. A band that has 14,000 followers isn’t necessarily more talented or more successful than a band with 140 followers.)

Here are some suggestions on finding followers and followees:

Do a search. Using Twitter’s search engine, try looking up tweets that include relevant terms. For example, since I’m based in the Omaha area, I could do a search for the words music and Omaha to find people that are talking about both of those. Check out those profiles and follow some of those people. (Oh, and you’ll hear words like “tweeters” and “tweeple” to describe people on Twitter. Personally, I prefer “twits” because I think it’s funnier.)

Let people know. Update your fans on MySpace and on your website letting them know you’re on Twitter and ask them to follow you. You can find some very cool Twitter graphics to post on your sites (check here and here) or you can just use a text link. (Once you’ve got a Facebook fan page and a mailing list, you can announce it there too. We’ll talk about Facebook and mailing lists in a future post.)

Two other resources for finding people based on specific topics, locations, etc. are WeFollow and Twitter Grader. Twitter Grader is also a good tool to use when measuring your presence on Twitter although this is another area where you don’t want to get all caught up in numbers. And while you’re checking out WeFollow, be sure to add your own profile there too.

Keeping Twitter updated

Another important aspect of using Twitter to promote your band is making sure your profile doesn’t go stale. You don’t have to post every single day but don’t let it sit there for months either. You can sync your Twitter account with other profiles like MySpace and ReverbNation so that any updates you post to those accounts will show up as a tweet (get used to that word…it sounds silly saying it at first but it’s here to stay) and/or vice-versa. (When we get to the subject of blogging, I’ll show you how to automatically add your new posts to Twitter too.)

You don’t want all of your tweets to be automated though. Appoint or hire someone (*ahem*) to manage your profile so that you have a real live person on there interacting with others on Twitter. Use those searches to respond to people. Check your replies (when someone replies to you or you reply to them, it will show up as @ followed by their/your name) and respond to those. You can check your replies by clicking on the link in the sidebar of your Twitter home page. You can also do a search for your band’s name to see if anyone has mentioned you then thank them for listening or coming to your show, supporting you, etc.

So those are the basics of Twitter. Follow. Update. Connect. Just remember… F – U – C… On second thought, maybe we better not use that acronym.

And just a few more quick notes or things that will come in handy when you’re using Twitter to promote your band…

Hashtags – If you see tweets that have a # sign followed by a word, phrase, or letters, that’s called a hashtag. Hashtags are used to make it easy for people to keep track of a certain topic or event. For example, if I’m tweeting about a local event, I’ll add the hashtag #Omaha to my tweet and, if the event organizers have created one I’ll use that one as well like we did recently with the Tweetsgiving global fundraiser (#tweetsgiving). Do a search for that hashtag to find others talking about that same topic.

Lists – Lists are created by Twitter users to categorize profiles they’re following. When you visit someone’s profile, you’ll see the lists they’ve created or that they follow by looking in their sidebar. For example, I have lists on my personal Twitter account for profiles related to the music industry, for profiles of people or companies in Nebraska, for personal friends, etc. Use those to find new people or companies to follow.

Terms – I’ve already mentioned a few of the terms you’ll see related to Twitter – tweets, tweeple – and you’ll hear a lot of made-up words that start with a “tw” that somehow magically indicate that it’s Twitter related. Some others you might see are DMs (direct messages, private messages sent directly between two users), auto-DMs (automated direct messages that say things like “Thanks for following me! Click here to find out how I make millions online! http://stupid(*#&spam.com) and trending topics which is a list of topics or hashtags that a lot of people are talking about that particular day. And, as with any website, watch out for the spammers. Block them! And be careful about clicking links in your DMs. If you click one and it sends you to something that looks like the Twitter log in page, DON’T enter your info. The spammers and bots love Twitter too.

So between the last post and this one, you’ll get a general idea of what Twitter is all about. Remember, it takes time and work to get the most out of it which is why so many bands are handing it over to people like Cherry Bomb Promo to help out. I know some people still think Twitter is silly and they don’t see the point but it’s a powerful online promotion tool. Use it!

Did you miss one of the “Beyond MySpace” posts? Check here for the others.

Measuring success

April — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:08:13 +0000

Oh what an exciting life I lead! I spent my Friday night reading the latest issue of Inc. magazine. An interview with Stan Lee (yes, the Spiderman guy), another interview with someone who wrote a biography on Ayn Rand, and then a piece on Jason Fried of 37 Signals and what a typical day looks like for him.

With all due respect to Jason and to Inc. it was a pretty boring piece. You know how people complain about those mundane Twitter updates about what someone had for breakfast? That’s kinda what this article is like.

Except for this quote from Jason:

It really bothers me that the definition of success has changed from profits to followers, friends, and feed count. This crap doesn’t mean anything.

Thank you!! That’s got to be the most intelligent tidbit of common sense I’ve heard in a long time. Since when did success depend on how many Twitter followers or Facebook fans you have? Unless you’re actually having some kind of influence on all of those fans and followers, Jason is right…this crap doesn’t mean anything.

Quantity versus Quality

Take someone like Lynn Terry, for example. At the time of this post, Lynn has over 9,000 followers on Twitter. Sure, that’s impressive although when you look at someone like Darren Rowse a/k/a ProBlogger, it may not seem like a lot. But when you look at WHY Lynn Terry has that many then you can start translating those numbers into how successful she is. She doesn’t have that many followers because she spends all day on Twitter trying to pump up those numbers. Most of her followers are people who read her blog or have a membership at her Self Starters forum. She is successful because she provides value to her readers, subscribers, members and followers. She is successful because she learned the hard way what it takes to make money online and she continues to learn and share what she’s learned with those 9,000+ people. Lynn is successful because she is working.

On the other hand, I’ve seen people with just as many followers, if not more, who really don’t seem to be doing anything. I check my list of followers regularly and, before I decide to follow someone back, I check their Twitter updates. I don’t look at their numbers and think “Wow, they’ve got 13,000 followers, they must really be Someone Important!” I look at what they’re actually doing on Twitter. Are they interacting with followers and giving suggestions or advice? Or are they just spewing out their affiliate links for the Next Big Thing or sharing links to their own blog posts hoping that at least a handful of those 13,000 people will read it?

Having a ton of followers or fans is another one of those “quality vs. quantity” arguments. It’s about the message, not how many people you can shout it out to.

It’s NOT a Numbers Game

Don’t get all caught up in the numbers. Don’t compare yourself to other people and think they’re doing better than you because they have more followers. Look at it this way… if they’ve got all of that free time on their hands to spend on Twitter then they must not have very much work keeping them busy. Unless someone is paying them based on how many followers they have – and I know some of these ads or sponsors or PR people do take things like that into consideration but they’ll learn – then it just doesn’t equal success.

The next time you’re checking your own Twitter profile and you find yourself obsessing over how many followers you’ve gained or lost, ask yourself: Would I rather have 500 people who actually care about what I have to say or 5,000 people who don’t even listen to me?

@AprilTara – new denim Twitter background

April — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:31:46 +0000

I get bored with my Twitter background so I like to switch it up once in a while. Since I am hopelessly addicted to Flair on Facebook, I created this background. The buttons have my various sites listed on them.

@WAHMSuzanne

April — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 04:27:43 +0000

Suzanne wanted a Twitter profile that matched the natural, earth tones of her website. She also had an award graphic from a Blogging Idol contest that she wanted to keep on her Twitter background. So instead of sticking with the greens, browns and oranges of her blog, I kept the sunflowers and used a blue sky instead, making it easier to incorporate the Blogging Idol award in the design.

@AprilTara

April — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:36:00 +0000

I’ve gone through quite a few Twitter backgrounds but this is one I’ve actually stuck with for a while.

Stop listening to Twitter “experts”

April — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:58:49 +0000

Just because someone takes a word and throws a “tw” in front of it does NOT make them a Twitter expert. Seriously. There are only two things that you need to get the most out of Twitter: common sense and a personality.

Twitter is basically just a simple form of communication, much like the telephone. Do you need anyone to tell you how to use the phone? Didn’t think so. So why do you need someone to tell you how to use Twitter? You don’t.

Just use some common sense.

Remember that Twitter is a public place. Anyone can see it once you’ve posted it, even if you delete it later. “Anyone” includes your boss, your ex-spouse, your babysitter, your neighbor, your son’s soccer coach, your mother-in-law, your daughter’s boyfriend…not just now but in the future too. So don’t say anything that you don’t want to become public knowledge.

Have a personality.

When I gain a new follower, I do a quick scan of their latest tweets. There are a few things I look for:

Are they updating often, or do their last tweets say things like “Happy Thanksgiving” or “Merry Christmas”?
Are they carrying on conversations, or are their tweets just about the mundane details of their own life?
Are they just here to spam everyone by posting nothing but links to a sales page or blog post?

If you’re not interacting on a consistent basis and contributing to conversations, then your Twitter account is just going to be very dull. Even if your tweets contain inspirational quotes and similar Deep Thoughts, its still just lifeless. When you log in to your Twitter account, think of it as walking into an informal dinner party or some kind of social gathering. You wouldn’t stand there talking to the wall about what you made for dinner every night last week, and you wouldn’t stand on a chair in the middle of the room spouting off scripture or random quotes from the latest Oprah book club selection.

I’m not saying that every tweet has to be an @ reply and that you shouldn’t share an inspiring thought or two. Conversations have to start somewhere, right?

So as long as you’re not totally blowing it like this chick who cost herself a job offer with just one Twitter post, don’t keep wasting your time reading every new blog post or e-book about “How To Use Twitter.” Just be yourself and you’ll be fine.

P.S. There are always exceptions, of course. Those blog posts that tell you how to use new Twitter tools or those Twitter accounts that post things like limited time kickass deals or breaking news can be a good thing.

Nominations for Twitter “Must Follow” List

April — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:40:28 +0000

I mentioned Profitable Mommy Blogging in my earlier post and right now I’m working on a series about using Twitter for blogging. One article in the series will be a list of people every blogger should follow. Now keep in mind, this list is for Moms who are new to blogging for profit. So I’m looking for people that understand Mommy blogging and blogging for profit and that are also a good source of information, opportunities, resources and advice.

You can either @ me on Twitter or leave a comment here to share your nominations with me.