Twitter 101 Day 3: Who will you be on Twitter?

This is the third in a short series of posts designed to help newbies understand some social media strategy behind the professional use of Twitter.

Now that you’re set up on Twitter and have figured out how you’ll use it you need to think about your Twitter "persona."

Below are several personas I’ve seen on Twitter. One or more may describe you. The important thing – if your goal is professional networking and growth via Twitter – is that you are aware of your persona. Which of these fit you?

THE GOOD

1. The Helper: This persona type is extremely unselfish and is on Twitter to help others by sharing interesting and relevant content. They often retweet (RT) the posts of others. They go out of their way to connect those among their followers who may have a mutual interest. They steadily build an authentic and relevant following. They very rarely ask for help, but when they do they always get it.

2. The Conversationlist: This type spends serious blocks of time on Twitter publicly chatting (with "@" messages) with followers. They sometimes share very good content and they often act as a connector between people on Twitter. They tend to build an authentic and very committed following. They rarely ask for help, but when they do they almost always get it.

3. The Listener: This type spends a lot of time watching from the sidelines and only occasionally engages in public conversations with other Twitter users. They do not often retweet others’ posts, but when they do you can bet it’s something special. This person tends to be following more people than are following them. They’re often in the early stages of Twitter use and should be cautious about asking for help too often.

4. The Humanist: This Twitter type is all about being genuinely themselves – to the point of happily mingling their personal lives ("Just picked up the girls from soccer") with their professional lives ("This post on Social Media Today is great …"). They’re OK with this intermingling and believe it may help them seem more real. They are quite picky about who they follow and often do not build a vast following very quickly – but they’re OK with that. While this leads to deeper Twitter relationships (and real-world networking) it can be hard to leverage for business purposes except with business contacts you are already closely connected to.

THE BAD

1. The Aggressive Self-Promoter: The person who talks about themselves far too much. How much is too much? There’s no science behind this, but if more than one in 10 or one in 20 tweets is self-serving it’s likely that this person’s followers will mostly be auto-followers and other bots.

2. The Non-Stop Talker: This character, although few in numbers, gives Twitter a bad name. They’re essentially clueless about Twitter and keep tweeting the most mundane details of their lives or feel compelled to tweet dozens of times per day. Their ratio of tweets to followers is your first clue: Anyone with a ratio of 10 tweets or more per follower is talking a lot and not being found useful by very many people.

3. The Flamethrower: This is someone (or some business) trying very hard to get notoriety on Twitter. They’ll try to engage big names on Twitter with inane or just purposefully inflammatory statements or use ALL CAPS and provocative language just to get attention.

So, there you have it, your third Twitter 101 lesson. What do you think? Are there other personas I’ve missed? Will this help a social media strategy newbie figure how they’ll use Twitter?

Earlier posts in the series:
Twitter 101 Day 1: Why are you on Twitter?
Twitter 101 Day 2: How will you use Twitter?

Twitter 101 Day 2: How will you use Twitter?

This is the second in a short series of posts designed to help newbies understand some social media strategy behind the professional use of Twitter.

Now that you’re set up on Twitter how will you use it? You will use it to become more networked, more helpful, smarter and better-looking. OK, so that last one might be a stretch, but the others are within your grasp. Here’s how …

1. To build a network of contacts within your industry that you never had access to or knew about before, not just locally, but around the world. These people will help you, willingly.

2. Share your knowledge and expertise: This can be tricky if you’re just starting out, but if you see a chance to help someone by answering a question or filling a need, seize that opportunity. We all know “stuff” that can help others.

3. Learn, learn learn – news, industry insights and other interesting stuff. You’ll get the most out of Twitter if you strategically follow people who share good stuff and in turn if you share some good stuff yourself. If you can get past the newbie stage of following too few people and seeing the same avatars again and again you will quickly understand the power of Twitter to make you smarter.

4. Discover real-life networking events: This is where following local people relevant to your industry can really pay off. Networking through Twitter means you’ll hear about real-life meet-ups and when you get there you’ll already know something about some of the people there. This means less time wasted on small talk and more time for real networking chat.

5. Be helpful: Helping others is something that happens a lot on Twitter and it really is true here more than anywhere else I know: You get back what you give many times over. And don’t be afraid to ask for help. You will be surprised how giving the Twitter community can be.

So, there you have it, your second Twitter 101 lesson. What do you think? Will this help a social media strategy newbie figure how they’ll use Twitter?

Related post:
Twitter 101 Day 1: Why are you on Twitter?

Twitter 101 Day 1: Why are you on Twitter?

Today I begin a short series of posts designed to help newbies understand some social media strategy behind the professional use of Twitter.

The first question is: Why are you on Twitter?

A. To talk to friends: If that’s the only reason you’re on Twitter you can do whatever you like – just think seriously about protecting your tweets so that only people you know and trust can see them!

B. Professional networking: Whether you are still in school, just starting a career or are well into a career Twitter allows you to build connections with interesting and relevant people around the world who are working and talking about topics related to your interests.

So, if “B” is your choice you will want to get the most out of Twitter – consider doing the following …

1. Make your profile public: You want to connect with people so keep your account open because you are going to be professional on this account, right?

2. Choose a Twitter name that is your entire name or at least your first name and last initial or a variation of your name. Be sure your real name is somewhere on your public profile.

3. Fill in your location with your real location: This will connect you with others in your area with whom you can network in real life.

4. Work on your bio so that it says something about your professional activities and aspirations but also displays a little of your personality. You’ve got 160 characters – choose them wisely.

5. Choose an avatar photo that is more face than anything else: Avoid the temptation to try to be too cute. Your genuine face shot is part of who you are.

6. Choose your URL wisely: If you have a complete Linkedin page link to that. If you have your own name as a URL and you use that website to highlight your skills and talents – even better – link to that.

7. Start following others slowly: Find relevant people in your business or with related interests and follow just a very few at a time. There is no science to this but if your “Following” number is more than five times higher than your number of “Followers” you may seem desperate for followers.

8. Don’t just follow anyone: Following people just because they follow you is not a requirement in Twitter. Following back should be reserved for people you are genuinely interested in learning from and about.

9. Pay attention to others’ tweets: You will learn a lot by just “listening.” When the time is right (you see something you want to comment on or you want to thank someone for sharing something send them an “@” message. These tweets are the beginnings of real conversations with people who may one day become part of your professional network.

10. Retweet judiciously: When you read something that really means something to you or you think some of your followers might appreciate retweet (RT) it. If there is room add a comment explain why you like it.

So, there you have it, the first Twitter 101 lesson. What do you think? Will this help a social media strategy newbie?

Next post:
Twitter 101 Day 2: How will you use Twitter?

Possibly related post:
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness