Wednesday Words: Listed

Another word from the Twitterverse - today we talk about Listed.

In a previous article, we talked about taking advantage of Twitter Lists. Today's word has to do with Lists. Listed is a word meaning the act of being added to a Twitter List. Lists are often arranged by creators depending on what you're posting about. I've been added to a number of social media and gaming lists because that is what I post the most about. I've also been added to a few author lists as well - since I'm an author, of course.

Twitter users create lists of various users they follow and are interested in in order to have all information based on certain content in a specific place for easy consumption. Some lists are public and other users can use them to find content as well.

As a brand, you may consider creating lists as well - perhaps grouping them into social influencers, users who praise your brand, etc.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media. These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media. You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

Tuesday Tips: Take Advantage of Twitter Lists

If you aren't already familiar with Twitter Lists, perhaps you should be.

Twitter users can create, follow lists you or others have created, subscribe to lists or check Twitter Lists as you go about your day.  Twitter lists are used to create an easy way to find people and posts of similar interests.  If you are added to a list, you will get a Twitter notification that you've been added to someone's list along with who's list it is and what the list was for.

Personally, I've been added to Gaming, Ultima Online and Social Media Marketing lists because of the variety of things I post about.

Later this week, we'll have a Thursday Tutorial for how to create lists for yourself.

But I'm sure you're asking: what are lists for?

Well other than allowing you to easily follow postings on various topics, it allows you to easily find said posts and retweet them.  As you may recall, I strongly encourage folks to not only tweet, but retweet posts that would be of interest not only to you, but to your followers.  For example, I often retweet posts about social media when I find some that I think people who follow me would find useful - even if I don't necessarily follow the person who posted it - lists help with that.

If you haven't tried lists yet, there's no better time than now.  Good luck!

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your Facebook presence better.  You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.

Tuesday Tips: Gain More Followers

Today's tips cover ways to help you gain more followers on Twitter.  The majority of the options are free and are common sense - but I will say there is a paid option some people may not consider viable, but can be.

1.  Follow others.
Unless you're a famous personality or have connections to people with a lot of followers who recommend their followers follow you, the best way to start out is to follow other people.  Follow people/brands you have interest in or are similar to.  Follow people who are your friends or who you know visit your business or use your services.  Follow people who's posts you think are interesting.  And, follow people who your friends recommend or if you like the ones Twitter recommend, add them.

Also, if you're just starting out and someone you don't know follows you, follow them back.  Eventually your follower to following ratio will even out and if you're a brand, eventually it will exceed your following numbers.

But you have to start somewhere and that somewhere involves doing some legwork and following others first.

2.  Engage in conversation.
Don't hesitate to reply to tweets publicly.  It allows people to see you and if they like what you're posting in reply, they may follow you.  Or they may see what your other tweets are like, then follow you.  The more you get your Twitter handle out there, the better.

3.  Promote your Twitter handle everywhere.
Put it on your business cards, on your door for your business, on your promotional material and especially on your website.  Add it to your signature for email (if it is appropriate to do so).  As mentioned above, the more you get your Twitter handle out there, the better.

4.  Add the follow button to your blog/website/where you can.
This is fairly easy to do.  If you use Wordpress for your website, there are a number of different plugins that you can use to add the Follow Me button to your site.  There is also code you can manually enter, depending on what your using to create your website.

Even though it doesn't add to your followers, it is a good idea to also add Tweet links for your site, that way people can easily share content from your website - kinda like there's the sharing options below this post, including the T for Twitter.

5.  Tweet and Retweet quality, shareable content.
If someone you follow posts a Tweet that would be good to be Retweeted to your followers, retweet it.  Some ideas for retweets are:

• Someone compliments/praises your brand in an @message to you.  Retweet that message and say thanks.
• Someone #FF you.  Retweet it, then be sure to reply to them and say thanks.
• Someone posts something that is relevant to what you, or your brand, is about, retweet it.

All of these are ways not only to get new followers, but to engage and encourage others to retweet you, getting your name out there.

I can't even begin to mention the number of people I have followed simply because they've retweeted my messages.

6.  Use appropriate #hashtags.
Hashtags are a great way to get new people to see your posts, which in turn gives them a chance to retweet and/or follow you.

Use appropriate hashtags about things related to you, or your brand, or what you're posting about in order to generate accurate ledes and a userbase of followers.  

But do use common sense and don't use too many hashtags.  Just because you can use more than one doesn't necessarily mean you should.

7.  Use the promoted accounts option.
This is the paid option mentioned above and while I've hesitated using it, I'm starting to consider it more.  Twitter is, like Facebook, a free service.  But if you are using it to market your company, your restaurant or yourself, then you should invest money into it as part of your marketing budget and strategy.

Promoted accounts have posts seen by people who are not followers and give them an opportunity to be able to follow you - something they may not have seen or done if you hadn't spent money to be a promoted handle.

With those things in mind, if you're looking to get more followers, try some of these tips and see if they help.

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your Facebook presence better.  You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.

Wednesday Words: Retweet

If you're new to social media, or new to Twitter, you may see people talking about "Retweet this" or "This has been retweeted by: Name".  Retweeting is when someone shares your post, via the retweet option on Twitter.  It shows as them retweeting your post.

Retweeting is a great way to share content of people you follow on Twitter that may be of interest to your followers.  It is also a way to get new followers - especially if you retweet someone who isn't already a follower.  Some folks will retweet things you post if you retweet things they post.  It's one big happy family at times with retweeting.

Most importantly, though, if you want people to retweet what you post, you need to retweet their posts from time to time as well.  Reciprocity is a good thing.

Retweeting is very easy and you have a couple options to do so.  You can just click the retweet button, which looks like a square with arrows around it, or you can retweet as a quote and comment on the retweet if there's enough characters to do so.

So if you haven't retweeted posts, you may look into starting to do so. It might just help you gain followers and increase your content output.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media.  These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media.   You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.