[tweetmeme] I frequently hear from business owners at networking events that they just don’t get Twitter. I can understand why. It can seem overwhelming trying to sift through the comments and figure out who to follow and how to interact with them. But Twitter can be an effective networking tool, if you follow a few simple rules.
Show Twitter Users What You Want to Talk About
The first way to get results from Twitter is to show others what you want to talk about. After all, if they don’t know what you’re interested in, how can they engage with you? There are a few ways to do this. The first is to include words in your Twitter bio that reflect you as a person, what your interests are – both personally and professionally.
The second step will be to show others what you like to talk about with the content you tweet. Then, start sharing conversations you’re interested in by using hashtags in your tweets. A hashtag is simply the pound sign on your keyboard. You type a hashtag directly before the keyword of the subject and use that in your post.
Another way to show people what you’re interested in is by using Twitter lists. You can group people you follow according to the subject they’re interested in and tweet about. For example, I have lists for Search engine optimization, copywriting and social media. People who visit my Twitter profile will see those lists and know that I’m interested in those subjects.
The key to effective networking on Twitter is being consistent with your message. If you keep a strong message of what interests you, you’ll attract the people you want to connect with most.
Next time, I’ll show you the best way to follow people and send messages on Twitter. In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter by searching for my username: GloriaRand.
