“Think of me as the social media lead car on the Autobahn of the Internet.”
Wayne Sutton (@waynesutton) is a Social Media Strategist, Consultant, and a prolific twitterer who’s passionate about using new media and technology to connect businesses and consumers. You can catch his tech reviews and insights on SocialWayne.com.
1. Filters and searches
Using Twitter Search and filters for your searches save you a ton of time when you’re looking for information via Twitter. Mashable has previously compared 6 great Twitter search services and Mr. Tweet’s Blog Editor, Corvida Raven, has recently posted about great ways to use filters combined with Twitter’s saved search feature to help you harness some of the benefits of Twitter Search.
The value in utilizing the filters is they help you to fine tune the results of your searches. For example if your looking for content on Twitter that fall within the niches like SEO or Social Media, you could do a simple search. But this opens up to a bunch of noise. What if you only want tweets with links? “social media filter:links” would return better results because all of these twitter messages contain a link in them along with the keywords “social media”. Louis Gray has done a nice summary of the importance of filters.
2. There are no rules, but establish your “twitter goals”
What do you want to get out of Twitter?
What topics would you like to continuously discuss?
What do you want to give to your followers?
Would you rather keep your conversations private or open to the public?
Are you going to have them between small groups of friends, or are you open to networking?
Do you want to broadcast? To how many people?
3. Understand prime tweet hours for conversations and traffic
Recommended Prime Tweet Hours: Twitter has replaced the morning email time for some. Between 7:30 A.M. to 10:00 A.M. EST Mon. - Fri. most twitter users are at work, reading tweets, tweeting, checking rss feeds and sharing information. However, this can vary when it comes to your followers and followings.
4. Setup your workflow and apps
I’m a big fan of Tweetgrid but for some, Seesmic Desktop or Tweetdeck works. I also recommend using, use Twitter web apps like Hootsuit, Cotweet and Tweetbeep. Dig into these apps and understand how they can better help you. Read the tips about how to better utlize their features. Why are you doing all of this? You want to make them work for you.
5. “Always a tweet away”
Meaning, be it your iPhone or Blackberry, you can send a tweet from anywhere, anytime. You want to appear to be always thinking about your followers or the entire twitter community. You might see something important such as breaking news, or it could be a thought; be able to tweet on the spot.
6. Sharing information and being helpful
This probably is the #1 reason I have as many followers as I have now. Before the celebrities, nba players, and music artist, I was finding and sharing a lot of helpful information or information I thought others could benefit from. Be consistent with your sharing habits and try not to make too much noise.
7. Understand what Twitter really is
For me, Twitter is a means of communication. It generates and enhances relationships through social networking. I find value in not only my connections, but also by giving back to the community (see Habit 6 for more). What is Twitter for you?
Bonus: Attend tweetups or understand how to use twitter offline as much online for your personal life or busines
[ Authors Note] We recommend checking out Wayne Sutton’s excellent post on great Twitter Conferences to attend.
Share your Twitter habits in the comments!
*Note: This is the second part of our Highly Effective Twitterers (#het) series to highlight Twitterers who have achieved significant professional and personal success via Twitter. They share their unique approach towards building great networks here!
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