10 tips to get ahead on Twitter this year

From Twitter Counter

Twitter wouldn’t be Twitter without the connections between people. It thrives on retweets, replies and the connections that people make. A mention is a little act of generosity that takes about one click but is always much appreciated.

Hi there,

It is a brand new year and we finally got over our hangovers here at Twitter Counter so we decided to wish you a happy new year and give you a few tips on how to get the most out of Twitter in 2013. As you might know Twitter is still growing strong with millions and millions of new users, and potential new followers for you, joining every day. Are you making the most of your online presence? Is your profile up-to-date? Here are ten tips that will help you plan for the rest of 2013:

 

1: Check your password
That password you’ve signed up with a Twitter 4 years ago and never changed? Yeah, now would be an excellent moment to change that. Security is getting more and more important these days.

Bonus tip: want to know if your password is secure? test it at http://howsecureismypassword.net

 

2: Change your looks
Don’t get us wrong, you look AWESOME today! It is just that your profile reminds us of Geocities homepages. It really doesn’t hurt to change your Twitter design every other year or so.

Here is a direct link to the Twitter settings: https://twitter.com/settings/design

BONUS TIP: Sign-up for a Kuvva account and then head to the settings to connect your Twitter Account so Kuvva can add beautiful artwork to your background design at Twitter: http://www.kuvva.com/

 

3: Rewrite your profile
You probably still worked at your previous company when you wrote that personal description and your URL still points to your Myspace profile? Or maybe you’ve updated it yesterday? Either way, take another good look and make sure you are properly representing yourself or your brand: https://twitter.com/settings/profile

BONUS TIP: On that same page you can choose to connect your Twitter account to your Facebook account. Could be an easy way to kill two birds with one stone. Or more correctly; post to two networks with one update.

 

4: Make new friends, forget old friends
We all focus on new followers and that is fine. But as Churchill said ‘We make a living by how many followers we have, we make a life by who we follow’ or something like that. This might be a good moment to check out who you are following, unfollow a few boring people and replace them with some new friends!

BONUS TIP: to see if you have a healthy follower/following ratio run your Twitter handle through out profile check: http://twittercounter.com/pages/account_check

 

5: Get an app
A lot of people still use the web interface, and not that there is ANYTHING wrong with that, but you might want to get more pleasure from using a dedicated app for your computer, tablet or phone. I use TweetDeck on the Mac and the official Twitter app for my iPhone and iPad. I hear great stories about MetroTwit for Windows 8 and Echofon for Android.

Bonus tip: If you want to get even more professional about your tools check out Hootsuite for group based tweet account management and Bufferapp.com for scheduling tweets. I pay for both tools and love them!

6: Go Pro
Twitter is all fun and games except when you are serious about your (personal) brand. And if you are, you want statistics to back up your theories about what works and what doesn’t. So why not treat yourself to a Premium or Pro account at Twitter Counter? You know you are worth it!

 

7: Disconnect 15 apps

Okay, maybe 15 is too much, but browse over to your Apps settings at Twitter and check how many apps you have given permission to do basically everything they want on your account. Some might still be relevant (Like Twitter Counter, don’t delete that one!) but there might be a few you tested once and never used again. Might as well disconnect those. https://twitter.com/settings/applications

BONUS TIP: you can’t revoke access for iOS apps from that page, but it does help to go through them to see which apps you’ve given permission to and maybe double check those on your devices.

 

8: Get a Bitly account for better link stats
Twitter automatically shortens URLs for you when you compose a tweet. But they use their own shortener and that doesn’t give you the extra statistics you need. Some Twitter clients allow you to connect to Bitly and that way you can always go back to that site to see which URLs did well.

BONUS TIP: did you know you could see the stats for any Bitly URL, even other people’s. just by adding a + to the end of the url? Like this: https://bitly.com/PAVfqj+

 

9: Optimize for more followers
When you just got your Twitter account you were announcing it left and right to get to your first ten followers. Remember that? Nowadays you might have it listed in some places, but maybe it is time to renew your promotion efforts. Do you mention your Twitter handle in your email signature? Is it on your contact page and in the sidebar of your blog? Do you have it visible at the entrance to your office? Does it make sense to print stickers and hand them out? Maybe it is time for a newsletter to your employees, members or customers with a friendly reminder that you are active on Twitter and a few instructions on how to follow you?

BONUS TIP: Another way to get more followers is to promote your Twitter handle at Twitter Counter. We don’t sell followers (that would be dodgy) but we can promote the hell out of you and put you in front of hundreds of thousands of people who are looking for new people to follow.

 

10: Keep your inbox clean
Twitter sends out very friendly emails once or twice a week and that’s just fine, except when you already get a lot of email or have several Twitter accounts to manage. Fortunately it is easy to stop the email avalanche by opting out of them altogether. Just go to the Email Notifications page and uncheck everything, then go through each one and think about if you REALLY want an email for that: https://twitter.com/settings/notifications

BONUS TIP: Use TwitterMail to tweet! One of our tools is called TwitterMail and does just what it describes. You can use email to post to twitter. It can be a super useful tool and it has a small army of loyal users, and it is free for Twitter Counter users. Give it a try: http://twittermail.com

11: Super Bonus Bonus Tip: show some love
Twitter wouldn’t be Twitter without the connections between people. It thrives on retweets, replies and the connections that people make. A mention is a little act of generosity that takes about one click but is always much appreciated. Say hello to a few people, and when you do, say hello from us too. ;-)

Sincerely,

Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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