Tag Archive for: Twitter tips

Boost Twitter exposure from your blog

/in , /by

I want to shake some financial bloggers and yell, “Why are you giving up Twitter exposure from your blog?”

That’s the reaction I have every time I click a “tweet this” link on a blog post and the auto-generated tweet fails to state the blogger’s Twitter name. That’s an example of “What NOT to do.” If someone visits your website and shares your blog post using this kind of auto-generated tweet, you’re not maximizing your benefit from their generosity.

Sure, your blog post will get some exposure from an auto-generated tweet that consists simply of TITLE plus LINK. However, the person who shares your content is unlikely to take the time to research your Twitter name and add it to the auto-generated tweet. As a result, you’re missing an opportunity to get Twitter exposure for your name and to pick up Twitter followers.

It’s true that a tweet reader could click through to your blog and then look around to find your Twitter name. But it’s not likely. In fact, the tweet reader who doesn’t navigate to your post may instead associate your blog post topic with the person who tweeted your link—instead of you. That’s a shame if you’re trying to build visibility for your investment, wealth management, or financial planning firm.

Boost your Twitter exposure by doing this

Here’s an example of what your auto-generated tweet should look like (yellow highlighting added by me):

Tweet that boosts Twitter exposure

My key point? The auto-generated tweet includes @susanweiner, my Twitter name. You can include your Twitter name automatically in tweets generated using your blog’s social sharing plug-in. That’s what I had my web guy set up. This expands my Twitter exposure without my doing any extra work.

Someone who sees “via @susanweiner” may click on my Twitter name to follow me. Even if they don’t take that action, my name may subtly register in their head so they start to recognize me as an expert on financial blogging.

If you’re a financial advisor who blogs about topics that interest potential clients, please make it as easy as possible for them to follow you on Twitter. More Twitter exposure boosts that likelihood that someday a prospect will contact you to learn more about your services. That’s what you want, right?

Check your sharing plug-in’s capability. Act now and enjoy better social media shares for years to come.

Hey, loser, quit @ naming people to promote yourself

/5 Comments/in /by

I enjoy exchanging tweets with people. I’ve made friends and learned things from these exchanges. But I get annoyed when people repeatedly tweet at me only to promote themselves and content that they’ve written.

Here’s an example of what I dislike:

Hey @susanweiner, read our great blog post at http://…

Their using my Twitter name—my @name, @susanweiner—forces their tweet to my attention. I hate this. Well, I’m exaggerating a bit, but I think you’ll know what I mean if you spend a lot of time on Twitter. When I look at these people’s Twitter timelines, they are filled with promotional tweets that differ only in the person whose Twitter name is mentioned.

I can forgive—and perhaps even enjoy—a one-time promotional tweet directed to @susanweiner. Perhaps there’s a link with some great content that’s perfect for me. But repeated tweets of the same self-promotional content that’s irrelevant to me? No, thanks.

This doesn’t mean that I’m against using Twitter to promote yourself. I do it all the time. However, I recommend that you tread lightly in @naming specific people if you’re not sure they’ll welcome your attention.

Thank you for @naming me in other cases

After I published this rant, I realized that I might scare those of you who use other people’s Twitter names in a good way.

Let me clarify. It is perfectly fine—and even desirable—for you to use a person’s Twitter name when you share something they’ve written or shared. It’s polite to give credit to people. I appreciate the many courteous people who do this for me.

Note: This post was updated and expanded on Oct. 30, 2015.

Tweet your quarterly investment commentary for more impact

/in /by

“Second Quarter Market Update”—I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this boring status update in my Twitter streams, LinkedIn, or Facebook. You can attract more views, and get more people to click your links when you strengthen the status updates you share via social media. I have some tips for you.

1. Highlight your opinions, not the date

Everybody knows what quarter has just ended, but they don’t know your opinions about what drove the period’s returns or how you view the stock and bond markets’ future. This is why you should highlight your opinions with subject lines such as “3 reasons why stocks will continue to rise [LINK TO YOUR COMMENTARY].”

By the way, use a link shortener, such as bitly or the link shorteners in HootSuite, to make the best use of the limited character count available to you in status updates, especially Twitter.

2. Pose questions

People are curious. Take advantage of that by asking questions in your status updates. For example, “Which sectors are positioned to outperform for 2014? Read our views: [LINK TO YOUR COMMENTARY].”

3. Use images

Images increasingly drive social media engagement, even on Twitter. A powerful image will boost views and clicks. This may mean including two links in your tweets—one to the image and another to your commentary.

By the way, your logo or headshot photo doesn’t count as a compelling image. A graph or photo could work.

4. Link directly to your commentary

Many investment management firms force their social media readers to click twice to reach their commentary, which lives on their websites as prettily formatted PDF documents. However, every time you ask readers to click, you risk losing them.

To avoid this risk, put your commentary—or at least a big chunk of the opening text on an ordinary web page.

5. Tweet more than once

Don’t expect one tweet to reach all of your target readers. Share your quarterly commentary more than once. Mix up your status updates, perhaps highlighting a key finding in one, but asking a question in another.

Your tips?

I’m curious to learn what works for you in getting readers from your social media status updates. Please join the conversation.

Image courtesy of artur84 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Note: updated November 10, 2020

Twitter power user’s tip: Share your Twitter name as live link

/2 Comments/in /by

In less than 60 seconds you can supercharge the impact of sharing your Twitter name. Just follow my advice. Turn your Twitter name into a live link. You’ll pick up more followers faster.

Don’t do this

I was reminded of this issue when some colleagues shared their Twitter names as comments on a Facebook post. They shared their names in plain text. Like this: @susanweiner. In order to follow @susanweiner, any readers would need to copy-paste the name into Twitter to search on it, or manually type https://twitter.com/susanweiner. That takes time and effort.

Twitter name—share it like this

To make it more likely that people would follow me—and to make things easier for potential followers—I added a link to my Twitter page to the Facebook comment. It looked like this image:

Twitter name live link on Facebook

When possible, share your Twitter name as a live link. Like this: @susanweiner.

You’ll gain more followers and they’ll appreciate your making things easy for them.

YOUR Twitter tips?

Do you have tips for adding Twitter followers in a non-spammy way? Please share.

Happy Twitter birthday to me! A reminder to try new things

/in /by

I’m astonished to find myself celebrating my fifth birthday on Twitter. On the one hand, it feels like just yesterday that I joined Twitter. On the other hand, it’s hard for me to imagine life without Twitter.

I joined Twitter reluctantly. It seemed as if all of my writer friends were buzzing about it, but I didn’t want to add another form of social media to my busy life.

At first, Twitter struck me as stupid. There were so many short, disconnected snippets of information. And the volume was overwhelming.

However, eventually I figured out that I didn’t need to read every tweet. I started using HootSuite to filter tweets. I also started interacting with Twitter users, as I described in “Why I like some tweets more than others–and the lessons for you.”

I had a “Twitter moment” when I spoke at the Financial Planning Association’s FPA Experience conference about writing more effective emails. Thanks to my Twitter friends, my session was one of the more heavily tweeted sessions, despite its being scheduled early on the first day of the conference. Even better, I met people who felt as if they knew me, even though they’d only seen me on Twitter. For an introvert like me, it’s an enormous relief when people come up to me instead of my needing to tackle them.

My experience with Twitter reminds me that I need to keep trying new things. Just because something is unfamiliar doesn’t mean it’s bad.

If you’re new to Twitter

If you’re not yet on Twitter—or you’re still trying to figure it out—you may find these posts helpful:

Figure out YOUR Twitter birthday

You can find out your Twitter birthday by entering you Twitter name on the TWbirthday website.

 

Why I like some tweets more than others–and the lessons for you

/in /by

How can you write tweets that attract readers, retweets, and clicks? If you’re like most folks on Twitter, you’ve wondered about this topic. Here are lessons from some tweets I recently enjoyed.

1. Deliver content that helps the reader.

Everybody’s looking out for themselves. If your tweets deliver content that helps people, they’ll attract attention.

The following tweet from HootSuite caught my eye because I haven’t always been successful in getting help from companies on Twitter. The tweet made me click and share. The words “get what you want” caught my eye. The words “kicking and tweeting” made me think this might be a fun tweet to read.

Tweets that promise tips also appeal.

2. Start tweets with keywords that interest the reader.

Readers’ eyes tend to fix on the first two words of a line, so that’s a powerful position for keywords that appeal to your readers.

As I contemplate publishing more books, the term “e-book” caught my eye in the following tweet.

3. Ask questions and engage with readers.

My tweet of “How Do You Measure Success And Quality In A Financial Planning Firm?”—the title of a blog post by Michael Kitces—sparked a multi-person conversation. Much of this was probably due to Michael’s posing a question in his title.

Don’t forget: If people respond to your tweets, it’s important for you to respond.

4. Promise interesting links from reputable sources.

Tweets with links get shared more often than those without. I think it’s because there’s the promise of more content than can be squeezed into 140 characters. It helps when the tweets are shared by reputable sources. It’s even better when those reputable sources have written the material at the link.

5. Write sensibly.

Here are some rules that should help.

  • Write tweets that run 120 characters or less. This means I don’t have to edit or rewrite your tweets to share them. (2018 update: Now tweets can run 280 characters instead of 140. So now I suggest 240 characters or less.)
  • Write grammatically, within reason. Terrible typos will distract your readers and undermine your credibility. However, readers will forgive a little fat-fingered keyboarding. They can also handle an abbreviation or two. However, you’ll lose readers like me if you spew a series of the abbreviations that seem common in texting.
  • Give your reader a reason to read. It could be a download, a question, or simply your lively personality. Referring to “you” can help, as in the following tweet from Vanguard.

Some Twitter tips that I mostly ignore, but you may find helpful

  • Use hashtags—The right hashtag can increase the number of people who find you. I’ve found this especially helpful when I’ve live-tweeted conferences that have hashtags specifically for the purpose of following the conference.
  • Ask for retweets—Asking for retweets reportedly boosts the number of retweets. This is okay in moderation, but I generally prefer to see which tweets take off on their own. What I don’t like is when people repeatedly send tweets that mention my Twitter name solely to get me to see their tweets. This seems spammy.

 What have I missed?

I’m curious to learn your best tips for writing powerful tweets.

Note: In January 2014 I edited this post to delete a reference to my Twitter webinar, which was cancelled. In June 2018 I updated the post for Twitter allowing longer tweets.

 

4 Twitter #FF tips from my personal experience

/in /by

Thanks to everyone who has favored me with a #FollowFriday (#ff for short), I’ve
learned a few things about how to do it right. If you’d like to use the #ff hashtag to show respect or gratitude to others, consider these tips.

1. Keep your #ff tweets short

Your #ff tweets will get retweeted if you limit them to 120 characters or fewer. It’s common for some #ff honorees to thank the folks who honor them by retweeting. But a retweet might add 19 characters or spaces, as with the following text: Thx! RT @tweetname

2. Say why you like the folks you favor with #FF

“Add value with context,” as savvy user Mike Langford suggests. Some folks do this by highlighting one person per #FF tweet, with an explanation of why that person is worth following. Tip #3 offers another approach to this challenge. I know I’m more likely to click and follow if you give me a reason.

UPDATE on July 28, 2014: I’ve discovered that Commun.it suggests names for you to #ff.

3. Consider grouping your #ff names by type

If your FollowFriday goal is to help others discover the folks whom you honor, then go beyond a simple list of names. Mention a profession–such as advisors or writers–or a characteristic–such as great content for investors. This takes time, but it also boosts the likelihood that your Twitter followers will click to learn more about these individuals or firms.

If this sounds like too much work, consider picking one Twitter account every week. Use the extra space to highlight why that Twitter account is worth following.

4. It’s okay to skip FollowFriday

FollowFriday suits the Twitter personality of some folks, but not others. It’s okay not to participate in it.

It’s rare for me to originate #ff tweets. I figure that I show my respect for other folks on Twitter by retweeting their content and engaging with them.

What’s YOUR approach to FollowFriday?

I’m curious about your approach to FollowFriday. Has it helped you deepen your relationships with others on Twitter, win new business, or gain other benefits? I’d like to hear from you.