on August 12, 2011 Social

Would You Follow Yourself on Twitter?

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If you're using Twitter for business, and/or to build your personal brand, it's important to have a strategy. At the most basic level, you need to know:

  • Who you're trying to reach
  • What kind of content you plan to share
  • The person or brand you want to present
  • The goals and objectives you want to achieve 
  • Metrics you'll use to measure success
  • How you'll allocate time to keep your account regularly updated

It's also important to remember that your strategy shouldn't simply be developed early on and forgotten about. You need to revisit your Twitter activity on a regular basis, and make sure that you're sticking to what you've set out to do. Especially with a site that is heavily reliant on immediacy, it's easy to slip into bad habits, like excessive public tweeting of personal communications, posting irrelevant updates, reading too much from others without providing much value yourself, or tweeting sub-par content just to keep your account fresh.

twitter followers

To avoid this, try the "Would I Follow Me?" test. It's simple:

Go to your Twitter page (i.e. twitter.com/laurelmackenzie) and scan through your most recent 10-15 tweets. Ask yourself: 

  • How much of what I've posted is interesting or entertaining? 
  • Am I participating too much in private conversations or silly banter?
  • When was the last time I posted an update? Am I tweeting frequently enough? Too much?
  • Would I click on any of the links I've shared?
It's also a good idea to periodically check in on your bio and photo
  • Are they up-to-date? 
  • Do you still look like the person in your photo? 
  • Is the bio still a good representation of the you that you want to present to the world? 
If you aren't happy with what you see, then it's time to rethink how you're using Twitter, and what value you provide to your followers. Update your strategy if needed, or simply use what you found to refocus your efforts. If you wouldn't follow yourself on Twitter, why would you expect others to want to?
 
Laurel Miltner is the assistant vice president at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter: @laurelmackenzie.

 

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