Using Twitter can definitely take a lot of time. As I’ve been using Twitter more & more, I’ve tried a lot of different things. Hopefully, you’ll get something from this post that will help you manage your Twitter usage more effectively.
My goal is to make my time on Twitter as efficient as possible. Wouldn’t you like to reduce your amount of time on Twitter, but increase the quality of time?
1) Centralized Dashboard: I like to use TweetDeck.
2) Automate: I use Twitterfeed to automate 2 of my Tweets everyday. This will pull fresh content from any RSS feed I choose. Choose as many as you wish. And, it’ll go out and grab the most recent content on a specified time schedule you pre-select. I also use Socialtoo, which allows you to auto-follow people who follow you, auto-unfollow people who unfollow you, blacklist Twitter users, send automatic DMs to your new followers, and disable auto DMs.
I follow everyone back 
3) Interaction: Some people only follow a few, while others have thousands of followers. In my opinion, they are not making the most out of their Twitter profile, and just don’t “get-it”. Twitter is social, right. People like interacting. People want to interact. Example of getting it: Guy Kawasaki. Example of NOT getting it: Oprah.
4) Retweet: Don’t be shy. Retweet some of your followers tweets. You know it’s interesting stuff. And, good karma too.
5) Seek & Follow: 2 things I do for this. I use Twellow, and occasionally will search thru somebody’s followers list.
6) Share Original Thoughts: Not every Tweet needs to have a link. Go ahead, say what’s on your mind. People are interested. Really.
7) Quotes from other people: Once in a while drop in a famous quote, bible verse, etc. Quotes from someone on a holiday or birthday can be very appropriate. Like a quote from General Patton on Veterns Day, or something like that. Another idea is to quotes from someone elses Tweet with a [by @username].
8 ) Answer Questions: Search Twitter Search for phrases that contain the who, what how, why, when, where questions…and your keyword.
When you get really serious about using Twitter , and are willing to pay a monthly subscription, it might be time for EasyTweets.
Photo Credit: shawnzlea
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the tips. I keep trying to get into using twitter but I always get bored after a few days. Hopefully some of your tips will help me tweet more efficiently.
Oh lordy – you lost me when you said Guy Kawasaki gets it. Yes, he’s got lots of followers – but there’s just as many would rather burn their computer than have his spam in their feed. Fair enough, don’t follow him if you like him – but do not hold him up as an example of how to ‘do’ twitter. And ‘following’ is not the same as ‘engaging with’ – celebs with lots of followers who reply to them, retweet them and actually have conversations, get it – people who just add numbers to their list without ever reading other people’s tweets, don’t.
I’d rather the ‘celebrities’ didn’t follow back. Maybe they’re also afraid of ‘Twitterazzi’???
I agree with your comments especially as to interaction, retweets, and sharing original thoughts. So many people retweet with links. Some of this may be due to the 140 characters. I think this is a flaw with Twitter which is why I use PhotoShare for the iPhone (yes, I am a co-founder) which starts with a photo or image which gives context followed by the comment. You can capture all of the comments in one place making it quite easy. PhotoShare is a richer form of media. We also have a number of add-on applications that make the experience fun. Thanks, Adam.
Thanks Shimon.
Can I also humbly suggest incorporating the Firefox Add-On Hyperwords into your Twitting repertoire?
Select any interesting text on a web page, choose ‘Share’, then ‘Twitter’. You get a small edit box and can post right there. Post has a short URL appended upon sending.
Not something for all twitts, and it doesn’t even allow you to read twitts, so it’s kind of an invisible client.
What do you think?
Thanks for the tips. I don’t get why I keep getting followers that only have links to websites. I don’t want to go to a website, I want to hear what they have to say. Does this make sense?
Thanks for the info, I’m loving SocialToo!
I think one of the most important things from this post is being active. You have to engage in interaction with others on Twitter because it will start to pull in other people who want to join the conversation.
The key to twitter is definitely automating and getting your bribing your followers to get onto your email list ASAP before they stop using twitter.