Social Media Management Management Guide - Part 2

A lot of social media newcomers are overwhelmed by Twitter, but with a small amount of effort you will quickly come up to speed with this unique communication forum. We recommend once you set up your profile, to follow up to 20 people whose content is relevant to you and monitor the conversation before participating. Twitter is arguably the most time sensitive of networks and the online space where news breaks. Because everything from celebrity watch, politics, natural disasters, sports, local news and business are all communicated over Twitter, it is a melting pot of information. There are simple methods to filter the information you follow starting with the profiles you choose to follow and learning how to search and use the Discover function.

Twitter can help you reach your marketing goals.

• AM - morning check-in
• Monitor topics - learn how to search using hashtags.
• Share relevant news story for your audience - this does not have to be your content. In fact sharing content from authoritative sources is highly valued.
• Share your new blog post when content is available.
• Retweet posts that you found interesting.
• New follows - review their profile pages and follow back if the profile is a good fit for you.
• Respond to RT’s and @replies
• End of day
• Repeat

• Run a comparison report of your following vs. followers ratio
• Compare your stats to other professionals. See Complete list of Twitter Tools from Social Media Today

Also check out the Science of Twitter from Dan Zarella, in which Zarella uses research data to determine the best time to Tweet, lifecycle of a Tweet, etc. Twitter can quickly become overwhelming, but if you start with a plan, you can target your activity.

My practice for following on Twitter is I follow most everyone who follows me and has a valid profile. By a valid profile, I mean, are you are real person? Do you have a validated website? I also look for the level of activity in your Tweet Stream. Are you sharing relevant content on a regular basis. I also look for similarities in our interests. If a stream is just full of sales offer links, I will probably ignore it.

Remember that Twitter is a two-way web presence and unlike traditional advertising it requires participation. For local business case studies please refer to our intro course Social Media Isn't Free. Also, we are launching a Social Media Tips educational resource section of our blog. Have fun communicating in 140 characters and I hope to see you on Twitter soon! Follow @kellyjaxzen