How to Maintain a Twitter Handle as an Executive
I know you’re busy. Very busy. And, I know you want to do exceptional work. I also know that you understand how important Twitter has become to our modern day workforce for establishing a more intimate brand sentiment, trusted engagement and thought leadership. Because of these things, I thought I’d give a solid “college try” to present a “how-to” for you, a busy executive, to win at using Twitter . And, I don’t know your version of winning, but this will at the very least, help you to know that you are doing your best to maintain your handle in a way that would make your company proud.
Basic Needs
Set up your Twitter handle
Fire up a handle, if you haven’t already, once you know you’re committed to having a Twitter presence. Flesh out your profile. I recommend stating your role at your company and the title that you represent. Also, sharing your city and state is good for potential networking opportunities.
Follow a core set of people at the get go
Utilize the resources you have on hand to help you get your root community established. If you know of even two to three people on Twitter, follow them and ensure they follow you back. Start keeping an eye out for if those you respect and admire are on Twitter and follow them. Use the mobile app for quick connections in this manner, especially at conferences and meetings.
Optimize your life to enhance growing your community
Add your *linked* Twitter handle to your email signature, when it’s not linked that’s useless to the end user
Add your handle to your business cards
Add your *linked* handle to all blog posts and other marketing communications which you engage in
I Can’t Possibly Find the Time to Tweet All Day
I have been so lucky to have a life filled with smart, busy people. Many are developers, engineers, CTOs, CxOs and more. Over the years, what I’ve noticed, is that so many of these people have the desire to engage and share but it’s impossible to innovate when one is actively trying to fit thoughts into 140 characters. And, consider this a fair warning, Twitter is like great chocolate — one bite often leads to many more, one Tweet will just unwrap the candy and those of us who spend our life passionately creating, just simply cannot tweet with an unending flow of conversation. So, here are my tips and perceptions around time and tweeting:
- Realize that many of us (the ones who are really, really slammed) may have conversations which are infinite and don’t adhere to time, per se. So, if you don’t respond right away, no big deal. That said, the conversation is most likely to get forgotten.
- Set aside a window of time to tweet daily, and stick to it. I recommend the evening time as it’s easier to feel conversational then and allow yourself to relax into your thoughts. That said, many executives have corporate communications to share, which only make sense to tweet when hot, early in the morning. In that case, I’d say to tweet corporate goodies in the morning, sign off. And, in the evening, set 30 minutes for dialogue, following new people, sharing interesting articles and bowing to the Twitter Deity for your daily devotional practice.
- Many people use things like Buffer to share the cool things they read on social media quickly. So many executives gain access to the coolest articles, videos and the like. Also, note the apps you use generally have “social share” capacity for you to share favorite content with the click of a button. Remember to share them on social media and your community will thank you for it! Hashtag like a champ so that people know how to find your gems.
Holding the Mic
I will not lie. Twitter is an ecosystem which is exposed and vulnerable. There are no shortage of opinions, and people willing to share them. Many of the voices will come at a range of temperatures: tweeting while irritated at work, amped on caffeine, stuck on a tarmac, or just happy-to-be-alive. Truthfully, not everyone is listening to you when you tweet, and I’m not trying to hurt your feelings. But, to find your tribe — and this is the same in life, you have to do the time and dance the dance. There’s some etiquette and like a magnet, your Tweeps will come to you.
- It’s about the quality
I have often said, “If Elon Musk and Oprah were my only two followers, would I be lame then?” as I’ve seen so many focus solely on the quantity of followers rather than the quality/demographics of followers. Tons of engineers say to me, “I”m bad at Twitter,” and I say, “You’re not SUPPOSED to be tweeting all day!” Focus on quality communications, content and camaraderie and all will sort itself out.
2. Use hashtags and @ for sharing content
Using hashtags relevant to the content is important to letting the Twitter ecosystem know that your tweets are important. It’s like adding them to a very specific library, tagging them with a hashtag which clearly defines the post to say, “this is what my tweet is about! People into this, should read my tweet!”
For example, if I were to tweet about vegan ice cream and I said, “I cannot wait to have #vegan ice cream with my friends this weekend!” that would work, as it’ll draw vegans to my thread. If I say, “I cannot wait to have vegan ice cream with my friend! #veganpartywithpatricia” that wouldn’t draw many people because the only time those customized tweets work are for things like wedding parties which have a group of people who know (and care) what #veganpartywithpatricia means. If that doesn’t make sense, just do a little research on how to use hashtags. :)
3. When you share content, check if the author is on Twitter if you have time. It’s a great way to engage and also, give props to people who have worked hard to create content you enjoyed digesting.
It Ain’t Serious
I know many people take follows and unfollows very seriously. It is a compliment, yes, when someone amazing follows me (not that you’re all not amazing). But, over the years, I’ve learned that…there’s actually something very cool about not really being attached to who follows or unfollows you. In fact, I read an article about how smart people deliberately “prune the garden” from time to time, follow new batches of people, let go of people they haven’t gained much insight from.
That’s your method to discover.
In any event, I hope this post helps you on your road to tweeting effectively, being the busy person that you are. Would love to hear your experiences and feedback.
patricia
