by Mayowa Ogundele

Make sure your tweets are educative, informative, inspiring, entertaining. You can tweet about anything; current issues, jokes, your day-to-day experiences, your beliefs and ideas.

After much persuasion from your friends … you have finally opened a Twitter account and after five minutes of staring at your blank profile: 0 following, 0 followers, 0 tweets, no bio, no location, no url, no nothing… you are still wondering when the magic will happen.

Well guess what… it won’t! At least, no until you GET IN ON IT!

• The very first thing you do after registering an account on the mini-blogging site is load your profile with interesting information. No body wants to follow a boring ‘sombori.’ Update your profile image, bio and location! These three are very important.
• Second thing you should do is compose your first tweet. It’s up to you what this would be. Just make sure, it’s catchy and summarises the reason you are on Twitter. E.g My very first tweet! Let’s have some fun! OR Finally on Twitter… Here for business, networking and (of course) some fun.
• Next thing you want to do is let the whole world know you are accessible on Twitter. Compose a small, catchy message containing you Twitter handle (name) i.e @OhLuWaMaYoWa and send to ALL your friends, business associates and your existing online platforms – Facebook, Hi5, email etc.
• People will follow you… follow them back (if you like). You can also make use of the search engine. Find old friends or make new ones. You can follow as many as you please.
• One very crucial aspect of Twitter is increasing your followership. We all want followers!!! To do this, you need to tweet A LOT. Make sure your tweets are educative, informative, inspiring, entertaining. You can tweet about anything; current issues, jokes, your day-to-day experiences, your beliefs and ideas.

                That’s a wrap for #NewOnTwitter 101 … Watch out for #NewOnTwitter102

Talking about getting a ‘Follow Back’ without asking… i’ll have you know that you will need patience and consistency.

When people follow you back, it helps increase your followership and gives you more of what i term ‘TwitCred.’ Imagine if your favourite music star or top social figures are following you… that’s a plus for you!

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to get a follow back from certain people and if you are someone like me who doesn’t always like to ‘ask’… follow these simple rules.

• STALK THEIR HANDLE!!! Yes, there is no law guiding twitter except the ones people create so free free to stalk the handle of your desire. Retweet the person’s tweets, always reply, always tweet at them. Be quick to empathise with them when something happens to them. If you are artistic… good for you! Do something creative and send to them with a small ‘I’m A BIG Fan’ note.
• If you notice that the person has not tweeted in a while … tweet at them! Tell them you miss their tweets even if you don’t. *yimu*
• If after the first two, nothing happens! Take it up a notch! Buy them gifts on their birthdays and ask how you can get it across. EVERYBODY likes presents… they will follow you one time!
• If the handle of your desire is business/trade oriented, tell them you’ll like to send a DM (direct message) about a proposal. They need to follow you in order to achieve this.
• ‘Psyche’ them from time to time! E.g I just saw @OhLuWaMaYoWa at Ikeja Mall… i totally love that outfit! can i borrow it? *winks* — This tweet is witty and flattering; you will get a reply.
• If ALL fails… my dear, stop priding and just beg for a follow back jeje… It won’t kill you :p

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If you REALLY LIKE this article, copy and tweet this: “Hi @OhLuWaMaYoWa! Just read your #NewOnTwitter101. Thumbs up… “

Mayowa Ogundele is a journalist, writer, speaker who is addicted to Twitter. I think it’s a world of unlimited connection!

 

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