Twitter Tips learnt from 8 years on twitter

It is #MyTwitterAnniversary

I have been on twitter for 8 years!

I hope you follow @fibrobloggers there. 

I have 13.8K Followers
and it has taken constant daily tweets to get these followers. 
BUT what I have learnt is it is not the amount of followers but the connections 

that I have made that are important to me.

Why Do I Care about Twitter?
People come to Twitter to share what is happening with them and
to find out what is happening to others and connect with them.

"Brand involvement in culture is especially important among consumer between the ages of 18 and 35, and those on Twitter vs the general population are more passionate, informed,& feel more strongly about brands aligning with culture." TWITTER

Your readers are already on twitter, and according to twitter they are ready to connect. 

So how can you reach them, make an impact, and get more readers?

My Tips learnt over 8 years on Twitter

Just like twitter I will keep it short. Maybe that is why I like twitter it keeps things short and to the point and that's my style. Let's get started...

• Use hashtags, but not too many, because it looks spammy.

• Link into other people's relevant hashtags to expand your reach. When I started out I linked in to #WednesdayWisdom #ThrowbackThursday etc. I still love #FollowFriday so I can showcase other bloggers.

• Be conversational. Start a conversation, join in one or keep one going. Thank people and ask questions. Visit your twitter stream at least once a day to join in, especially when starting out.

• Check out your notifications and interact with those people. They are liking, following and retweeting you and need some connection. 

• Use images. I use them more than 80% of the time because most people are visual. Create visual images that are the correct size for twitter 1600 x 900 px. Brand your images with your name or your blog's name so that share's are working for you.

• One simple idea per tweet works best.

• Retweet relevant content i.e. relevant to your brand.

• Share other people's content as well as your own.

• Work out what your followers like and do more of that.

• Don't just try and get click-throughs to your blog, think about creating your "brand". Who are you and what do you stand for? Stick to your brand's topic.

• After you get 1,000 followers it gets easier to get followers so work hard to get those followers by tweeting regularly and connecting with others.

• Mix it up by sharing a variety of tweets: I share quotes, jokes, links to other blogger's posts, awareness information, branded images and quotes and campaigns for different months linking in to international awareness days.

• If you are going to DM someone don't be spammy. It is the start of a conversation, not a sales pitch.

• Tweet everyday.

• Followback.

• Don't be stingy with the like button... that little heart gets noticed.

These tips may seem simple but if you follow all of these actionable twitter tips you will grow your twitter followers. 

Here are some tweet examples and why they worked. (by worked I mean were well liked and retweeted):

In September I linked into Pain Awareness Month. 

This was one of the most popular tweets.

It followed many of the things I have learnt about twitter. 

It was simple with one idea, 

it was conversational, 

it was an image,

it was branded.

This was another popular tweet from the same campaign.

   It connected emotionally with many people's experience 

   of living with fibromyalgia. 

People love humor. 

The following is from #FunnyFibro where I 

share a daily joke that people 

who have fibromyalgia can relate to. 

This was so popular because it is something relevant to my 

brand ("fibromyalgia awareness") and my followers.

I hope you have found something to help you on your twitter

journey in my tips.

If you have any questions about these tips I will answer them 

in more depth in the comments.  Also please let me know 

if you have a great twitter tip to share.

FIBRO FRIDAY fibromyalgia link up week 336

FIBRO FRIDAY week 335 - fibromyalgia link up

 We are glad you are here to share your posts about fibromyalgia and find out what others have to say. Just click on the links below to find out more. 

What should I send in my emails?

In this post I will be addressing the question of what to send to your email list.

Many bloggers ask "What should I write in my emails?"

They have been told the importance of having an email list and why they should build one, over and over, by many experts but they do not know what to write in their own emails, to their own list of people.

As bloggers we have a lot on our plate - with regular blogging, promoting, reading and connecting.  It's important to decide if you have the time to also manage an email list but more importantly your reason for having one in the first place. This in turn will direct you to what you should write in the actual emails. 

"If you write something, speak up or otherwise interact with someone, you probably have a reason. There’s a point to your statement, a goal to your instruction. The change you seek to make." ~ Seth Godin.

Yes, we need to work out our reason for having a list in the first place. What is our Agenda? What Is The Purpose of Our Email List? We need that compass. Once we know this we will know what to write.

Here are some of your options:

NOTIFY YOUR LIST

Many great bloggers use their email list to just let their list people know they have written a new post. This is the simplest type of email to write (in my opinion). They include a small part of their post and a link to the main post. So the agenda is bringing people, who have grown numb to facebook and twitter, back to their blog. The email optin is to capture those people who may come to your blog once, read an article but never come back again. Your emails would be to attract them back to your interesting articles. Your opt in box could say something like " Let me keep you updated on my latest adventures with ..." or "Get my best stuff sent to your in box."

Things To Consider: Do you want traffic to your blog or do you want people to read your content. The first option is a "teaser' email; the second is sending them the whole post. Another option is sending teasers about your new posts and alternating with full posts from the past. You do these individually each time you write a post. Aweber call these Broadcasts. If you write blog posts more than once a week you can email your list just once a week with a list of that week's topics.

PROMOTE WHAT YOU DO

If we are promoting something like a book or a service then what we write in our emails is obvious. we are trying to make a sale. We give value and interest around the same topic as our book/service. Let our email openers get to know us a little more, what we have to offer and why we are offering it. This is called a campaign in Aweber, my favourite email service. You can set up an automated campaign that goes into motion once someone signs up to your email list. I suggest sending one a week. Once you set it up it goes automatically each week to whoever signs up. After three emails providing value the fourth is recommending your book/service. If you allow responses to your emails you will get questions that need answering or ideas for your next emails. Your opt in box could be "Get a free paragraph of my upcoming book."

Things To Consider: One email could be about the pain point that your product solves. Try to think what objections people may have to purchasing and answer each one in another email. You could send a testimonial email with what people who love your product have said.

TRY A SERIES

If this is all too much we could just pick one small agenda and see if it sticks. We could start with a short series of emails about one specific topic and see if that gets interest. Don't think of it as a never ending list, maybe consider it as a group of friends who want to find out more about you and a specific topic. Drill down in your niche and find a topic that interests you, that you can explore more and that others may find helpful. Send just 6 emails over 6 weeks. After these 6 emails it might grow or morph into something else. The opt in box could say "Let me tell you about my experiences and suggestions about living with migraines" or it could be a freebie around your topic "Enter your email to receive "8 Ways I cope with migraines" and other useful info.

Things To Consider: after the inital 6 weeks decide if you want to keep sending your emails and don't skip a beat. You could change topics or ask your readers to choose from a selection of topics.

MIX IT UP

Send a variety of different email types from the ones suggested above: A welcome email, a get to know me better email, a snippet from my new book email, a these are my favorite blog posts of all time, a what do you what me to write about next email, a check list or spread sheet freebie etc etc etc.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Your big decision is still do you have the time and energy to start an email list but as with most things in life you may never really understand the benefits unless you jump right in and try. 

P.S you might also be interested in another of my posts about HOW To Start an Email List Today.