Never Have a Blank Avatar

The blank avatar space is filled with a Twitter bird or an egg shape. Neither adds anything to your profile.

• Add the profile picture you use elsewhere online. This helps people recognise you at conferences, networks, and meetings. It helps break the ice at such gatherings. People can easily approach you with, “Dawn?  I recognise you from Twitter.”
• Alternatively, use a logo. However, people prefer to see a face, as it helps connect the words you tweet with the personality followers will eventually get to know.

Add a URL

If you do not enter a URL in the requested space, those you follow have no way of telling who or what you are.

• Those who forget names easily may not follow back, or block you.
• The URL is a clue to how you may have already met in person, or demonstrate a shared interest. This will encourage followers, and is more likely to result in replies to any messages you send.

Complete the Profile

Avoid crypric fragments, that are likely to make sense only to you and a few in the know. This, combined with a missing URL makes you look flaky, weird, or just plain frightening.

• Instead add a brief list of your main professional roles.
• Alternatively, add a brief list of interests, skills, or specialisms.

Either tactic will help potential followers determine if you will have anything of interest to say, and encourage the right people to your profile.

Tweet!

Recently, I’ve used JustUnfollow to pare back my Following list. I’m also pretty particular about who follows me. Once a week or fortnight, I peruse the list of recent Followers, and remove anyone who doesn’t abide by the advice I supply above. I’m not interested in engaging with those with no name or interests.

• Surprisingly, I found that many Followers had a dull Twitter profile. They were mostly removed.
• A sub-set had an interesting profile, but simply did not tweet. They’re taking up space on my list, so they were removed. First, those who’d not tweeted for 6 months, then those who’d not tweeted for 3.
• A smaller subset again have a really interesting profile, tweet seldom,  but when they do, it’s not about their craft. They’re slowly being removed too.

I like to know who I’m tweeting with. And what they do for a living. And where they’re from. I like to find out more about them, from an online profile, a blog, or a website.

If you don’t supply these basic details, you limiting the amount of people who will follow back, and you limiting the meaningful exchanges you can have online.

What are your thougths?

If you are new to Twitter, use a tool such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck and filter your All list, for #followfriday or #ff.  This will highlight who those you follow recommend following.  It’s one place to start, to increase your contacts on Twitter.

Many of those you follow will follow back; some won’t.  Don’t worry too much about non-followers.  You can always tweet them in the normal way.  If someone isn’t following you, the only thing you can’t do is send them a Direct Message.

The Hashtag

Hashtags are key words that appear somewhere in the body of the tweet, to indicate what the tweet is about.  They are –by convention – preceded by a hashtag (#), to designate their importance.  (In practical terms, however, the hashtag has no function.  So, as long as you include a word or phrase in your tweet, there is no need to duplicate this in a hashtag.)

When people perform searches on Twitter for certain words and phrases, they will find your tweets among anyone who tweets your key words.  In the example below, if someone searched on Twitter (or a search engine such as Google) for nursing recruitment Belfast, this individual tweet’s URL would appear in the list of results.

This helps your Search Engine Optimisation.  Simply put, SEO refers to how well your online location can be found by people specifically searching for you, or by people searching randomly for what service or product you provide.

Who Should I Include in Follow Friday?

• Helpful people you’ve been chatting to on Twitter during that week
• Your clients and customers
• Your suppliers
• Your colleagues
• Those who tweet information your think your followers would find useful
• People you want to notice you and what you’re doing

The Format

It’s useful to give a reason for including someone in a Follow Friday list:

@balmoralhc provides information on nursing jobs in Belfast, Northern Ireland and beyond. #tweetni #recruitment #ff

Alternatively, many people simply list Twitter users by username:

@balmoralhc, @balmoralhcare #ff

Tips

• Always put the @ infront of the username, so those Twitter users can see that you’ve recommended them.
• Don’t feel you have to do Follow Friday every week, only when you have people to recommend.
• Schedule your Follow Fridays, and add people into the scheduled tweet, as it occurs to you.

Above all, those you recommend with the Follow friday device should add value to your followers.

Do you have any methods for deciding who to add into a Follow Friday tweet?

Following a request from a group of business people in Omagh, we are holding a seminar in the South West College on 14 June.  This seminar has been run several times before, mainly in the Belfast area.  Comments are always positive.  Here are some recent responses:

“Had all relevant aspects explained and plenty of opportunity to ask questions.”  Kerry Smyth, Knowledge Transfer Centre, QUB

“I went to a Social Media Workshop run by Dawn from Sensei last week in Antrim. Dawn managed to condense a huge subject into a very simple, easy to follow and interactive presentation. There were people there who didn’t have a clue about social networking. There was a lot of excitement in the room and there were many questions about the possibilities. Dawn was very calm and professional and managed to keep people interested throughout. I would have no hesitation in recommending Dawn to run courses for my company or anyone else’s for that matter. Very pleased. (First published on Lookaly).”  Dean Langasco, I Love Mondays

Who Should Attend?

This session is for anyone who wants to gain a quick-fire overview of what social media is and how it can be incorporated into a business marketing and networking strategy.   It is most suitable for those who are new to online marketing, or those in the very early stages.

Results

This seminar will help you to:

• Understand the benefits and meaning behind the jargon and hype
• Know what to do to establish a professional online profile
• Access relevant industry information and local business assistance
• Keep in touch with your customers to encourage repeat sales
• Network more effectively with other SMEs

Thanks to South West College, Omagh, who are hosting this event.

A similar event will be held in Limavady.

I delivered this presentation at Twitter: Understanding Its Networking Value, a seminar run by Legal Island, as part of its Business for Breakfast Series.

Next week, I’ll be speaking at one of Legal Island’s Business for Breakfast seminars, at silly o’clock in the morning on the above topic.  If you are attending, please make any suggestions in a comment below.

When?  16 March 2010, 07:30 – 09:00

Where? Island Centre, Legal Island, Antrim

About what?

Twitter is celebrated as the latest online phenomenon in PR and brand-building. But what about meeting new collaborators and suppliers or developing meaningful ways of communicating with customers? Want to know more?

Click here to book your place.