Socially Benefitting from My Twitter Habits

I’m sitting in front of the flat screen with my laptop halfway watching the new television program “Lie to Me” when I noticed that I’ve formed some habits, Twitter habits. No matter if I’m working or at leisure I’m drawn to Twitter.  

Is time spent on Twitter worth it?

I’ve a lot of work to do for my own business and for my clients and I can’t afford to spend lots of time on Twitter, particularly if it has no benefit.

First let me address a small portion of Twitter’s benefits:

Networking tool. I’ve met a good number of professionals who I can now call friends. We’ve been able to share and discuss tips, trends, tactics, etc and be of help to each other. 

Timely helps and resources. In need of immediate info, I’ve been able to make a request through Twitter and receive assistance immediately. Just yesterday I was conducting research for a client and someone on Twitter had a book that was loaded with the info that I needed. They volunteered to make copies of the info I needed or would mail me the book. I can give you dozens of other examples of generosity from people on Twitter.

Breaking news and new information. It has gotten to the point that most of the breaking news from either local, state and national news I’ve received through Twitter. I also am notified of just released industry articles and research. 

Research. Not only have peopled shared research and resources but I’ve been able to conduct my own research such as these two current polls, Is Cold Calling an Effective Ad Agency New Business Tactic?  How is business for your ad agency after the first couple of weeks of 2009?

Appreciation. Everyone likes to feel appreciated. When you help others through Twitter folks are quick to share their appreciation. 

Personal brand evangelists. Word of mouth and a friends recommendation is huge. When you give people on Twitter will reciprocate by telling others in their network, often with zeal. They can be as passionate about your brand as you are. I’ve said this often that tools like Twitter is like networking on steroids.

The Twitter habits that I have developed save me time, allow me to be consistent and stay connected with my online community. I thought identifying a few of these Twitter habits may be of help to tto FUEL LINE readers.  

When I sign onto Twitter, the first thing I do is check my direct messages and replies. I also use www.search.twitter.com and type in my Twitter name: Click here for a sampling of results.

I use a tool called Social Too to auto follow those who follow me and unfollow those who unfollow me. This tool does the best job of that over any that I’ve used. My ration of those I follow to those following me is within 100 persons and kept in balance due to this tool. An added benefit is the daily report that is automatically emailed to me daily letting me know of new followers and unfollowers. If there are lots of unfollowers I need to check to see if I’m using Twitter to the best benefit of my followers.

A program called Twitter Karma, helps me to automate the management of my Twitter follows and unfollows and provides daily report.

 Angela Maiers, educator, author, blogger who now leads Maier Educational Services,  developed a simple Twitter Engagement Formula that has provided provides purpose and direction for my participation. Using her 70-20-10 Formula.  

70 % of my Twittertime is spent sharing the resources of others as well as my own.

I have over 260 blog post containing helpful new business tips, tactics, tools, talents and trends. I use a tool called Tweetlater to post links to that content on Twitter. Tweetlater allows me preschedule the release date and time of each posts days or even weeks in advance. 

I am subscribed to another Twitter tool called Tweetbeeps. These are similar to  Google Alerts. I can easily keep track of conversations that mention me, industry information, blog URL, etc. 

In addition to my blog analytics I use Retweetrank to gauge what microposts are becoming viral and how I rank based upon people retweeting my posts. Today my Retweet rank:

@michaelgass is ranked 169 on retweetrank http://www.retweetrank.com/michaelgass/ Where do you rank?

Another metric tool that I use often is Hubspot’s  Twitter Grader, which measures the reach and authority of a Twitter user. I’ve been able to attain a Twitter ranking of 100 and am now ranked number two among the Twitter Elite in Birmingham.  You can also use Twitter Grader to make your own button to include in your post and encourage others to Tweet it: 

One of the biggest benefits from my Twitter habits is the traffic it generates to my blog. I started seriously using Twitter back in September. Within five months I now have over 2,200 followers on Twitter  and it has become the single best traffic generator to FUEL LINES. In the month of January, with a very specific niche audience of small-to midsize ad agencies,  I had over 14,037 page views. 

The better I become at using Twitter, Twitter tools and forming Twitter habits traffic to my blog accelerates. The more traffic more new leads that are generated.

Additional articles of interest:

• A Simple Twitter Formula for Ad Agency New Business
• Today’s Top 10 Twitter Post for Ad Agency New Business
• 5 Ways I Use Twitter to Help Ad Agency New Business
• Ad Agency CEOs Should Use Twitter
• Social Media “Teaches” Ad Agencies to Promote Themselves the Right Way