I’m a big fan of Twitter. I’ve been using the system for nearly two years now, since 12th May 2008 in fact, around a year after the launch of this micro-blogging system.
In common with many bits of social networking technology, you either get Twitter or you don’t. To the outsider, Twitter can look a lot like pointless banter and mindless updates, telling the world what you had for lunch for example.
Twitter is about much more than this.
Over the past two years I have used Twitter to find valuable resources, recruit staff, acquire clients, answer questions, discover books I’ve enjoyed reading, make friends and generally raise my profile. It’s been a really useful bit of technology.
During the 720 days during which I have been using Twitter, I have posted 2,574 ‘tweets’, the short messages that make up the content on Twitter. That’s around 3.5 tweets a day. Some days I will post less, some days I will post more. It depends a lot on what is going on and how much time I have to participate.
This week I was named as one of the 20 best money tweeters on Twitter in an article on thisismoney.co.uk. Apart from the wonderful warm feeling of being listed alongside Sarah Beeny and Declan Curry, this feels like an important milestone and yet more justification of using a system that is often dismissed as being too social or even irrelevant for financial advisers.
So, what stops financial advisers from getting ‘value’ out of their use of Twitter? Here are a few of the things I have picked up over the past two years.
1 – Don’t use Twitter.com. Using Twitter via the website is fine if that is your only option, but the desktop based applications are far more user friendly. Personally, I use Tweetdeck on my PC and iPhone to update Twitter. I rarely visit Twitter.com, other than to update my profile or find people to follow. Go to Twitter.com to set up your profile and then find another way in which to interact.
2 – You need a profile and a photo. If you want people to follow you on Twitter, you have to give them a reason. Write a short (limited to 160 characters) profile and keep it up to date. Upload a good profile photo so people can see who you are. I’m unlikely to follow people on Twitter if they have no profile and/or no profile.
3 – Use your real name. If it’s available, use your real name as your Twitter account name. For me, it’s @martinbamford. It’s a real turn off if people use some obscure combination of letters and numbers as their Twitter name, or even their hobby or nickname.
4 – Find people to follow. There is no point in setting up a Twitter account and then sitting back waiting for people to follow you. You need to follow people who interest you and build up your follower base over time. Don’t expect to reach 1,000 followers overnight and don’t ever sign up for a program that promises to boost your Twitter followers.
5 – Respect your audience. This is common courtesy, but say thank you if someone retweets your tweet and do not spam Twitter with loads of commercial messages. Keep your tweets relevant and, just like all forms of social media, avoid blatant advertising. You are there to build relationships and profile, not to sell to the first person you find.
6 – Keep your account tidy. There are spammers on Twitter; you will find them just about anywhere these days. If you are followed by a dubious looking account, block them at the first opportunity you get. Protect your password and do not give it away to third-party websites where you risk exposing your account to spammers.
7 – Be yourself. The best Twitter accounts to follow are real people. They don’t just tweet about business but tell you about what is happening in their personal life as well. You need to strike the right balance between business and person, but act on Twitter as you would in real life.
8 – Use words, links and images. Being restricted to 140 characters is sometimes a challenge when you are trying to convey a particular message. In time you will get better at condensing your message to this limit, although there is nothing to stop you from linking your tweet to a longer blog post elsewhere or uploading a photo to Twitter. They do say that a picture is worth 1,000 words.
9 – Remain consistent. If it has been several months since you last posted a tweet to your account, you need to readdress your social media strategy. You need to post regularly (but not too regularly!) if you want people to get to know you and what you stand for, you need to tweet.
10 – Don’t limit yourself to Twitter. To get the best results from social media, you need to use a range of options. It is unlikely that you will be able to build a valuable profile by using Twitter alone. Mix it up with a healthy dose of blogging, article writing and videos, and you will get the results you are looking for.
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