HOW TO: 7 Ways to Get More From Twitter

Wish you could get more from your time on social media? Is that especially true on Twitter? Well, have I got a post for you.

7 Ways to Get More from Twitter

Lists as a way to get a lot more from Twitter: Lists are probably the most under-appreciated, most-useful feature of Twitter. They are a way to manage the "firehose" of tweets come from large numbers of people you follow. Lists are best organized around your interests (this could mean the industry you work in, family and friends or even competitors). When you open a list you only see tweets from those people. It is important to remember that Twitter lists can be public (visible to anyone and searchable on Google) or private (visible only to you). 

Some resources for more information on lists:

• Twitter’s own Create and use Twitter lists covers the basics.
• Take it to a new level with Dave Delaney’s How to Use Twitter Lists Like a Pro 
• Another good post that includes "10 Brilliant Ways to Use Twitter Lists" is Aaron Lee’s How to Use Twitter Lists to Follow Thousands (and Appear Superhuman) 

Use Advanced Search: Use the Twitter Search window at the top right of the page and once you have results look to the left for the “Advanced Search” tab. In Advanced Search Twitter allows users to search by different arrangements of words, excluded words, hashtags, type of language, from certain accounts, mentioning certain accounts, near a certain place and/or within a date range. There is also some modest sentiment analysis that allows searching by positive or negative mentions. 

The best aspect of search in Twitter is that you can save your searches and re-run them when you want. Twitter also allows embedding searches (which Twitter calls Timelines) so they can be displayed on a website or at a conference, for example. How to embed a timeline 

Join a Twitter chat: These are an under-utilized aspect of Twitter. They are a discussion held via Twitter where everyone follows the same hashtag at an agreed-upon time. They are great way to learn in any field you’re interested in and to connect with new, relevant followers. The company Gnosis has compiled a very useful resource: Twitter Chat List By Day of Week 

Follow a relevant hashtag: One of the best ways to network (whether it’s at a conference or some other event or even in your day-to-day life) is to follow a hashtag and to engage in conversation using that hashtag. For more see Twitter’s own Using hashtags on Twitter. 

Pinning a tweet: If you have a tweet you’d like more people to see or to be associated with you for a longer period of time you can pin it to the top of your Twitter profile (meaning it stays there until you unpin it). For example if you have a tweet about a new blog post or a tweet about how your business is offering a special deal then it can stay at the top of your profile where it is more likely to be seen. For more, see: How to Pin Tweets to Twitter Profile Page.

Use tweet sorting: Visitors to any profile can choose which timeline to view: a basic Twitter stream (the default), tweets and replies or a stream of only photos and videos. This is useful to see how engaged a Twittter user may be.

Optimize your Twitter profile: Do such basic things as ensure your bio has all of the critical information and keywords you would want related to you in the 160-character space. Use the same avatar (preferably showing your face) as you use on other social profiles. Choose a large background image that says something about you. For more, see Kevan Lee’s 5 Tips to Optimize Your Twitter Profile. 

This is not a complete list, but I hope it's a good start. What other things would you like to know about Twitter? 

Related posts:
13 Very Useful Twitter Infographics
9 Surprising Things You Can Do With Twitter
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness