Bitly and Twitter

Using A Link Shortener with Twitter

Bitly is an online service which is known as a “link shortener”. This service converts long URLs to a shorter URLs. You sometimes want to link to other content within your tweet but if the URL link is too long then this can be a problem. You don’t want to use a large portion of your 280 characters simply by providing the linking URL. A link shortening service “shrinks” long URLs into much smaller ones. Link shortening is very valuable for Twitter.

How Does Twitter Fit into Your Marketing?

Twitter As A Marketing Awareness Tool

If you are like many marketers, you are often confused about what part of your marketing is working and what part is not. You may even be confused about something that appears to be working but you cannot really measure by how much.

Join the club!

Here is some advice on how to better understand and therefore realize the value of Twitter as a marketing awareness tool. Part of your confusion may be because you are trying to measure every aspect of your marketing in the same way. By using the same performance metrics for every marketing tool you use may (and often does) lead to confusion.

How Do You Become an Influencer on Twitter?

Increase Your Influence on Twitter

I want to state up front that for you to be influential almost always means that you have specialized. You know your topic well. You can discuss it from multiple viewpoints and in an in-depth way because of this specialization.

Of course, there are some exceptions. Some people have influence beyond their expertise just because of their reputation or their position or their perceived intelligence. This post is not about those special influencers. It is a post for people who do not have that special position of influence and who want to become more influential in their specific area of expertise.

Using Twitter Lists Improves Efficiency

Reasons to Use Twitter Lists

By using Twitter lists you can quickly check on a select group of Twitter accounts to see what they are tweeting about. Checking specific lists helps you to focus and to be both more efficient and effective on Twitter.

This is a Twitter Tip post about using Twitter Lists to become both more efficient and effective on Twitter.

In prior posts, I covered items such as a great Twitter profile and a wonderful Twitter header graphic as well as the use of Hashtags to gain exposure for your tweets.

Now I want to specifically address the task of gaining Twitter followers which is essential for success on Twitter for multiple reasons.

Cover the Twitter Basics First!

Here are some ideas which will help you establish a baseline of good techniques on Twitter. However, before you get started give some thought to your overall strategy for your Twitter account. A strategy will have multiple aspects to it and some of them are vital and essential.

Twitter Transportation

Bring Tweeple to Your Center of Content

Twitter Transportation

Have you ever thought about how effective Twitter can be as a transport mechanism?

Twitter can be very effective as a short message, a headline, and to start the process to get someone to visit your center of content. A tweet is more like a headline. A tweet cannot be long. A Twitter message must catch the attention of a reader quickly. A tweet can act like a headline and introduce a thought or concept. It can be an introduction to something that contains more information and more value.

Short and Longer Term Value of Hashtags

Leveraging Hashtags on Twitter

A hashtag is a word or phrase that is written without any spaces and prefixed with a ‘#’ symbol. Like so: #example

The word Hashtag (#) has become so significant that it was added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2014. The actual hashtag definition says: “a word or phrase preceded by the hash sign (#) used on social media websites, especially Twitter, to identify messages on a specific topic”.

Hashtags can be a very powerful tool to promote your content on Twitter. Of course, they can be used to help you find things – which means they act like a search engine on Twitter. But this “search-like” function for hashtags is fundamental to helping you gain more exposure for your tweets as other people use hashtags to find your content.

Use Hashtags to Promote Your Content on Twitter

Your Twitter header graphic can be a major factor in how someone views your Twitter account. It can also be a factor many consider when they are trying to decide whether to follow you or not. The header graphic is something that helps me to decide whether to follow or not.

It is a good move to create a Twitter header graphic that is captivating, a header graphic that is true to your brand and helps people to understand quickly what you are all about.

Here are some of my favorite Twitter header graphics and why I like them. Each of these header graphic examples has a very real human aspect to them. This is important on social media.

How To Make a Tweet with 4 Images

A tweet can only be 140 characters. This is a wonderful thing. No verbose or long-winded announcements on Twitter! Because of the short nature of a tweet, a picture can really boost engagement and help your tweet to get noticed.

You can attach up to four images in any single tweet and for some tweets, this can make a great deal of sense. These 4 images will display as a preview collage in your followers’ timeline. Anyone viewing the tweet can expand it to see each photo individually.