10 More Things That Kindergarten Taught You About Twitter

Who Saw Socia On Twitter?

Socia Malaise is back with more great ideas for creating relationships on Twitter. If you missed last weeks post see it here. Socia says: All you need to be successful on Twitter you learned in Kindergarten. I'm sure most of you have heard the Robert Fulghum poem, if not you can find it here. 

...continued from last week


10.Warm Cookies Are Good For You: No one likes cold cookies and warm milk. Try not to be the Debbie Downer of the Twitter Feed. There are blogs and places for that kind of negativity. (Not that I particularly enjoy them.) Don't clutter the feed with baseless complaints, rejection stories, insults and your account of the worst day of your life. 


11. Live A Balanced Life:  Set a specific time for social media everyday and decide what you want to accomplish in the allotted time. For example, spend two hours online a day and each day have a goal. Either scheduling future tweets, building your email list, finding new people to follow or participating in a chat. Anything that is going to put some water in my social media bucket. Or break this time up thoughout the day and sneak mini-moments when you can. Remember the Tortious and the Hare. One big loud rush and then nothing isn't as good as slow steady growth.  Many twitter activities can be done when you're catching up Fringe, sitting in a doctors office,  just not when you're driving. 

12. Learn Some, Think Some: The successful Twitter users are generous. What are they offering? Content, worthwhile content.  Don't you just hate it when someone goes on and on about themselves? #annoying I don't know about you, but I really don't care what anyone had for breakfast, unless of course you are sharing a new restaurant or recipe. What I am interested in is good content. What are you offering to your followers? Share your knowledge, promote other people's content and offer your followers links to something you know will interest them. Think before you Tweet.


13. And Draw and Paint and Sing and Dance: Be sure to use an interesting photo or background for your twitter page. What does your back ground say about you? Images are becoming more important in the online dialogue, don't get left behind. Tweetpic allows you to post pic's from your phone to the twitter feed. 


14. Play and Work Everyday: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. If you only tweet about your book and where to buy it, people are going to lose interest and most likely unfollow you. #spamsucks Have fun, engage in Twitter chats and Tweetups, let people get to know you and your brand, the why of what you do.


15. Take a nap every afternoon: It's a great idea to take vacation from social media. That's right, take a break. No Twitter, no Facebook, no blogging, no internet...Sound too hard? It's difficult but your social media participation will be better for it. Be sure to tell your followers you are on a break and when you will be back.  When you step back and take a break you come back rejuvenated and fresh, something your followers will appreciate.

16. When you go out...Watch Out For Traffic: This is all about tuning into what's going on around you. You can't be relevant if you aren't aware of what people are talking about. How do you do that? Check what is trending at least once a day. If your tweets can include a subject that is trending your tweets will be seen by a larger audience. Be part of the bigger conversation.


17. Hold Hands and Stick Together: If you say something and someone answers, don't pass up this opportunity to connect. It's called a conversation. Auto-responders aside (more on that in another post), post while the conversation is still warm. This is something you can't afford to mess up on. Conversations are how relationships are built. Make sure your cookies are warm.

18. Be Aware Of Wonder: Children are always ready to learn something new. Twitter is the big thing now, but next year it may be something else. Be open and prepared to make adjustments and learn new things. And besides it's good for your brain.


Me: Socia thanks so much! This has been incredible and I know I want to start implementing. At the same time it's overwhelming.


Socia: Don't let it be. This isn't a race to some invisible finish line. Take one new thing and work on it and then the next week try another. 


Me: I will. Now what can we look forward to in the coming weeks?


Socia: After a quick Twitter vocab essentials review, we will be looking at Facebook next and that Timeline thing that has everybody screaming. Then some things to look forward to are Google +, Linked In and something that I'm really excited about social media for Tweens. 


Me: Don't forget to ask Socia anything about social media and she will answer them on the last Tuesday of the month for our QA.

All You Need To Know About Twitter You Learned In Kindergarten

Socia's been lurking on Twitter

Socia is here again with a very important message about building relationships on Twitter. And believe it or not she says we already have the tools! 


Everything you need to know about building relationships on Twitter, you learned in kindergarten. I'm sure most of you have heard the Robert Fulghum poem, if not you can find it here. 


No way, you say? Twitter didn't exist when I was in kindergarten. True. But the concepts you need to employ, for a successful Twitter experience, were. There are actually 18, we will cover 9 today and another 9 next Tuesday.


But, first.


Know your niche. Find your niche. How interested in the latest recipe for fish tacos would a group of people be that are discussing which quarterback just got traded? Not so much. We will be talking more about this in later posts. 

1. Share Everything: The first thing a child wants to do when he learns something interesting is to share it with someone else. They aren't worried about keeping the knowledge to themselves. The Retweet on Twitter is where we can share things we learn, enjoy and are entertained by. If you like it, retweet it!


2. Play Fair:  Don't hide behind a mask on your profile. Twitter isn't like chat. Use the name you want people to identify with you. And always use a real picture, not your book cover or company logo. People can't connect with a cartoon avatar or book cover. If you're serious about building relationships you have to be willing to put your face out there. 

3. Don't hit people: Your tooling along the Twitter feed and all of a sudden a tweet all in CAPS JUMPS OUT. Ouch! It's like having your mother yell at you. Or how about when someone uses 40 or their 140 characters for exclamation points!!!!!!!!! Again, ouch. No one likes to be hit over the head with anything, even if it is a good idea. 


4. Put Things Back Where You Found Them: A common complaint of newbies to Twitter is how confusing watching the feed can be. How can anyone have any meaningful conversations? There are some great tools to help you do just that. One of my first discoveries was Tweetdeck which helped me organize columns so I could watch conversations about particular subjects. Twitter also has lists that allow you to organize the people you’re following into groups. For example: You can have a group that consists of all the writers you follow. The benefit? Time Management. [Check out Kim Garst's article]


5. Clean Up Your Own Mess:  Take a good long look at all the tweets you have made as a whole. What kind of picture have you created about yourself? If you don't like what you see, perhaps you need to evaluate why your tweeting and what your goal is. What about your profile, does it tell people who you are and why you do what you do? It is important to tell your readers why they should care. Fix that fast!

6. Don't Take Things That Aren't Yours:  If you're going to quote someone or copy a passage from a blog or article, make sure you attribute where you got it. Offer the link to your followers so they can find the source. It's just bad manners and unprofessional to highjack someones idea and present it as your own. 


7. Say Your Sorry When You Hurt Somebody: Inevitably, someone may disagree with one of your tweets or even be hurt by it. Don't just ignore these great opportunities to engage in a dialogue. Respond in a positive manner and encourage the conversation. Some of my best clients when I was in sales were the ones that started off on the wrong foot. Why? Because I went out of my way to understand their point of view. This is when your ego needs to be checked at the door. Be open, willing to ask questions and most of all learn.


8.Wash Your Hands Before You Eat:  Never send a tweet without reviewing it first. Now, all of us make boo-boos every once in a while and a few can be forgiven. Carelessly typed tweets are a quick way to lose followers either because they're irritated or don't know what your saying. Clean up those tweets make them as concise and clear as possible. Use punctuation. Tweeting isn't texting. It's micro-blogging and the idea is to get your idea through to as many people as possible. 

9. Flush: Listen carefully... You don't have to follow everybody that follows you. Don't waste time following someone you wouldn't be interested in having coffee with. There are three reasons to follow someone: 1. You can learn something. 2. The reason they are tweeting resonates with you. 3. You are interested or entertained by their content. 


Wow! Those were some great ideas Socia. We look forward to the other nine concepts on next Tuesday. 
Please feel free to ask Socia any questions you have and she will answer them on the last Tuesday of the month for the Social Media QA session. 


In the meantime, here are some additional links that Socia Malaise found helpful:


Twitter Profile Mistakes That Writers Should Avoid
How To Embed Tweets In Your Blog
Building The Best Twitter Lists
How To Build Relationships On Twitter
Twitter For Authors