If you are a Twitter user or want to get started using Twitter, here are 19 great tips.  The tips are from many of Women in Consulting’s top Twitter users – some are social media experts, and some use Twitter for their business.

Read on… and let us know if you like these tips or have a tip to share in the comments section at the end of the article.

1.      Jen Benz – http://twitter.com/jenbenz

Share ideas and resources freely, show your personality and be clear about your point of view.

2.       Jen Berkley – http://twitter.com/jenberkley

I use TweetDeck to help me better manage the flow of information.  It’s helpful to set up columns for various topics that I’m monitoring which allows me to keep up-to-date on topics and trends in my field.

3.       Susan Bernstein – http://twitter.com/WorkFromWithin

Use Twitter for strategic networking by using the Search feature. Type in key words (example: “executive development”).  Scan the interesting tweets and find the people behind them. Add interesting people to your targeted lists  (like my http://twitter.com/#!/list/WorkFromWithin/working-well list). Scan the posts in that list daily. You’ll notice patterns in who tweets helpful or intriguing tweets. Over time, send a direct message (“DM”) to those people. Ask to talk to them by phone and nurture new professional friendships.

4.       Pam Fox Rolllin – http://twitter.com/PamFR

You can create up to 20 Twitter lists, which can be public or private. For example, I created a list of WIC members on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PamFR/womeninconsulting-sfbay Lists contribute to your branding (people can easily see what I care about from my lists), help others find you and your favorite associates, and are gold for making the most of time on Twitter (for example, I have a private list of clients who are on Twitter, so I can easily check their tweets).

5.       Nancy Friedman – http://twitter.com/Fritinancy

Be a beat reporter for your followers. I’m a former journalist, so when I heard this piece of advice it immediately clicked. But we’re all beat reporters—your beat is simply what you know best. My own beat is brand names, so you’ll see me tweeting about business and product names, weird names, and verbal branding in general. But I also mix it up. A related bit of advice: Don’t be boring!

6.       Karen Goldfarb – http://twitter.com/kareng7

Use a combination of automating the process via tools such as Tweet Spinner and old fashioned hands-on management in order to grow your base. Tweet Spinner will let you follow and find Twitter users by keywords, as well as mimicking the Twitter followers of users who are similar to you. I also highly recommend you still take an active role in reviewing who the tool chooses for you to follow and manually customizing the list. Last but not least, once you’re following those folks, engage with them like a real person. Automation is all well and good but it, like Twitter, is just a means to an end, the end being to grow your network of real contacts who are interested in what you say and do and, heck, may want to hire you.

7.       Kathryn Gorges – http://twitter.com/kagorges

One of the best ways to get unexpected visibility for your blog is to set up hashtags when you use Twitterfeed to automatically tweet your blog entries.  Your hashtags give people a way to find you when they search in Twitter for topics they’re interested in.  Make sure you choose ones that correspond to all your blog posts because they’ll be attached to every tweet from your blog!

8.       Avery Horzewski – http://twitter.com/averyh

Use TweetDeck or similar tool to manage your tweets. TweetDeck is easy—no real learning curve, and it’s robust. Schedule Tweets or post immediately. Auto-shorten URLs. Track numerous lists. Use groups to categorize the people you follow. And manage multiple accounts, to name a few. I monitor and manage my own account, WIC’s, and several clients all from within TweetDeck. And it’s accessible from my notebook, iPad, and Droid. TweetDeck is a must.

9.       Rachel Melia – http://twitter.com/rachelmelia

Tweet during conferences for additional insight and to build your followers and lists.  I like tweeting behind the scenes at conferences (in-person or online) to see what others are saying about the content.  And, other attendees will follow you, possibly re-tweet your tweets, and add you to conference or industry related lists.

10.   Lucie Newcomb – http://twitter.com/NewCommGlobal

Leverage the potential of a RT. Instead of saying, “thanks for the RT” (even worse as a DM), use it as a springboard for dialogue and appreciation. I usually find one of the RTer’s tweets and lead with RThx (RT + Thx = RThx) to show my appreciation and demonstrate some attention to them and their tweets.

11.   Adrian Ott – http://twitter.com/ExponentialEdge

I limit twitter to no more than 15 minutes a day.  I use Rescuetime to track how many minutes are spent and it sends a warning if I have exceeded my time limit.

12. Linda Popky – http://twitter.com/popky

Share content that is high value and relevant. This can include observations on current events or your market or industry, as well as re-tweeting (RT) great things you’ve seen others say. Use Twitter to follow people who say interesting things so that you can find good material to pass on. But mix it up: Tweets should be a mix of your observations, others’ thoughts, and useful links with a bit of tasteful and *well thought-out* humor thrown in on occasion.

13.   Sherry Prescott – http://twitter.com/MarketThis

I’m starting a new Twitter mini-campaign “90-Days of Marketing Intelligence” around the launch of my book to e-book format. To drive awareness and create momentum, I am leveraging my existing book content! I try to take a bite-size chunk of content from my book and talk about it daily on my blog. Then, as a follow-up, I try to post to Twitter on a daily basis leading back to my blog on my website so people can read about my tip from the book. In addition to this mini-campaign effort, I try to follow at least 10-20 new people weekly and I also try to post articles and interesting news trends that I think my followers would want to read about.

14.   Karmen Reed – http://twitter.com/kickofftopic

Create a free Twitterfeed account where you can setup any RSS feed to be tweeted automatically from your Twitter account. You can customize each RSS feed with a specific post prefix or suffix, set keyword filters, set your update frequency and more. I use this to auto-tweet all WIC blog posts and some of my favorite social media blogs.

15.   Jan Richards – http://twitter.com/MrsRoadshow

Contribute. Provide resources and ideas that you think others will find useful. Retweet (“RT”) generously.

16.   Carla Schlemminger – http://twitter.com/@Socialbrite, http://twitter.com/carlainsf

1. Every employee is now in customer service. Empower them through training on best practices & tools. 2. Aim to address someone’s question about what product to use, etc, by first being helpful <as opposed to pushing your product out of the gate>. 3. Address issues that come in through Twitter initially on that platform, then quickly move to a more private space. 4. Define customer’s influence more broadly than a large number of followers. 5. Measure efforts against business goals.

17.   Tracy Sestili – http://twitter.com/tracysestili

Get more fans by establishing thought leadership and showing you are an expert in your area of expertise by posting a daily tip. Be sure to use a hashtag such as #SMTIP (social media tip) or something that is relevant at the end of your tweet. If your daily tip is on your website and you are promoting via a blog post, be sure to not only use the hashtag but use a url shortener so that you can track clicks.

18.   Sandi Smith – http://twitter.com/brainhappy

To get the highest match on following prospects in your ideal-client category, find people on Twitter who are serving your ideal client and follow their followers.

19.   Melissa Stacey  – http://twitter.com/melissastacey

Don’t allow Twitter to be a “time sucker” – Set a time limit to post updates, read your twitter feed and connect with others.  Using a timer is a great way to track your time so you don’t go over your limit.

Do you like these tips? If you have a tip of your own, share it here!

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4 Comments

  1. Mo May 25, 2011 at 9:18 pm - Reply

    Fantastic tips! Thanks so much for putting this together!
    I just retweeted!

  2. Rachel Melia May 25, 2011 at 9:27 pm - Reply

    Mo – Glad you like the tips and thanks for retweeting! -Rachel

  3. @LKhere May 25, 2011 at 9:35 pm - Reply

    Great tips! Thanks for sharing. Here’s another one: If you’re wondering what to tweet about, think of the kind of thing you might share in email with your smartest friends — an interesting blog post, newspaper or magazine article, clever lyric or quote…and tweet it instead — succinctly, of course.

  4. Rachel Melia May 25, 2011 at 9:41 pm - Reply

    Great tip Laurie.. Thanks for sharing! -Rachel

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