portable hands » Social Media & Networking http://www.portablehands.com Leverage for Small Businesses Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:23:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 How to Manage Twitter in 4 Easy Steps http://www.portablehands.com/how-manage-twitter-in-4-easy-steps http://www.portablehands.com/how-manage-twitter-in-4-easy-steps#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:20:37 +0000 KatrinaChesney http://www.portablehands.com/?p=418 TwitterI remember when I set-up my Twitter profile and sent my very first “tweet”.  It was glorious!  I had officially joined the ranks of Twitterverse and was welcomed with many @katrinachesney embraces.   As I worked on being active in the community and building relationships with my followers, I found I was also spending an ample amount of time on the Internet trying to figure out the best way to manage my Twitter profile and tweets.   What I discovered along the way was how to manage Twitter in 4 easy steps.  Work these 4 steps consistently and Twitter won’t work you!

1.  MANAGEMENT IS KEY

There are tons of social software clients available to help you manage your Twitter account and maximize your social networking efforts.  Most are free and allow you to manage your Twitter profile, tweets, and other functions all in one place.  Here’s a few of the most popular ones.

HootSuite: If you manage multiple Twtitter accounts or share your Twittering duties with friends or co-workers, HootSuite’s for you. If you’re interested in tracking how many people click the links you tweet out, HootSuite can help. If you want to pre-schedule your messages or feed your blog (or any other rss feed) to Twitter, HootSuite has got you covered.
free: http://hootsuite.com/

Tweet Deck: Also available on iphone, Tweet Deck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and more.  This is a great management tool for individuals with several social networking profiles to manage.
free: http://tweetdeck.com/

Twhirl: Another social software client, Twhirl is based on the new Adobe AIR platform that also allows web development techniques to be used to create desktop applications.
free: http://www.twhirl.org/

2.  SET A TIMELINE & STICK TO IT

Decide early on how much time you will devote to your social networking efforts on Twitter and how often (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).  Not only will this help you manage your time but it will also help you maintain your sanity and not become a Twitter addict.

3.  LEARN THE LINGO/LANGUAGE
What is a tweet, DM, RT or hashtag?  If you’ve not sure, spend some time learning the different acronyms because Twitter has a language all its own.  Here’s a quick reference guide of the most popular Twitter acronyms: http://wiredpen.com/2009/04/16/twitter-lingo-a-quick-guide/

4.  GET RID OF THE TROLLS

Take the time to get rid of Twitter spammers and trolls so they don’t clutter up your list of followers.  Here’s how:  http://twittercism.com/howto-deal-with-spammers-trolls-automated-direct-messages-on-twitter/
Be sure to follow Twitter Spam at http://twitter.com/spam to stay on top of the latest spammers and spamming techniques.

OTHER TWITTER MANAGEMENT TIPS
- Determine your ideal follower
- Follow those who are follow worthy
- Be follow worthy
- Prepare worthy tweets (helpful, supportive sprinkled with business tweets here & there)
- Practice the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.”

About the Author:

Katrina Chesney is Founder & President of Portable Hands, a Virtual Assistance firm that provides leverage for small businesses.

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