At a networking talk I gave recently about social media, one of the questions I was asked was ‘how do you use things like Twitter without wasting so much time?’
First of all it’s important to have a focus in what you want out of using social media. It is very easy to go in without any idea of what you want to get out of it, so you watch and read everything that is going on, get sidetracked into areas that aren’t anything to do with you or your business, and before long an hour has gone by.
Whereas if your purpose is to find out more about your niche or subject that is relevant to you, you could post up statements or questions aimed to provoke an answer or feedback, follow like-minded or expert followers who could provide more information about your line of business, or even put up tweets that promote or explain your business (but a word of warning here, Twitter is about networking, not selling) so that interested tweeple might want to read it, retweet it and comment back.
I use TweetDeck to follow mentions of my username or any other keyword I have chosen, columns of interesting tweeple who I like to keep an eye on and experts/competitors you want to follow, and dip in now and again to see what’s going on. I give it about 30 seconds for anything to grab my attention, otherwise I go back to work.
If there is something worth-while, I participate by answering or retweeting what I think is applicable. I wait and read the main Twitter-stream for a while to see if anything comes from my contribution, and respond accordingly. Sometimes I go back to work for a quarter of an hour and then drop in again to see if there have been any more responses to earlier tweets, but again keeping my presence to a minimum.
This is my way of getting my work done, but still being aware of what is happening on Twitter within my pre-determined group of followers.
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Well spoken. I have to research more on this as it is really vital info?
Hi everyone,
I want to share with you one powerful tool called “Twitter – Posts Schedule tool”
This is software that you can schedule your posts on Twitter and it’s Free.
It’s similar with Twuffer and Tweetlater, but it’s more convenient to work with because it is installed on your computer.
Here you can read more details and download this tool for free: http://bit.ly/byoHmU
Great information… thanks for your review and tutorial about how to comment. I think if we walk to other blog we must comment to give appreciate for owner..
It can be fatal! Like you say, it can soak up so much time. I now use Hootsuite to schedule tweets so i don’t have to worry about being ‘absent’, if that makes sense.
I prefer to use SocialOomph.com as it is much easier to use, although Hootsuite.com does have extra features that are worth noting. Even if you do schedule your tweets in advance, don’t forget to go in later to acknowledge those who have responded to your tweets – there is nothing more annoying than someone who takes without adequately giving back.