She Owns It

Celebrating, Connecting, and Supporting Women Entrepreneurs

Why You Need to Start Using Hashtag Generators

by 2 Comments

Hashtags have, over time, become a popular marketing tool for most brands, marketers, and content creators.

Why is this?

Hashtags increase your chances of reaching more people.

But it’s not that easy.

Using hashtags is a art. You need to know which hashtags to use for which posts so that you can increase your reach. You also need to know how many to use to avoid looking spammy.

For example, using more than six hashtags on Instagram posts can decrease your engagement.

Scary, right?

So, how can you know which hashtags to use and how to use them properly?

Use hashtag generating tools.

What Are Hashtag Generators?

These are tools that help you research and generate hashtags.

How do they work?

For some of them, you manually enter a keyword, location, or hashtag, and the tool helps you find common or popular hashtags. With others, you upload a link or image, and the AI algorithm suggests hashtags based on the image or link content.

But how can they improve the effectiveness of your hashtag campaigns?

They Help You Find Trending and Popular Topics

Hashtag generator tools use an algorithm to find the most popular and most frequently used hashtags in real time. You can then use them to join conversations with relevant content that adds value to the discussion.

They Help Protects You from Re-Using Hashtags

I am sure you know some common and popular hashtags used by everyone for almost every topic.

For example: #love #fashion, #fitness, #photography, #music, #travel, etc.

You can still use them. But if you want your posts to have high engagement rates, you should incorporate niche hashtags with sizeable followings. By using popular hashtags alone, you run the risk of limited visibility in high demand topics.

So, how can hashtag generator tools help?

They have an algorithm that can help you find high engagement hashtags specific to your niche. These tools can also help you find hashtags your competitors use or generate hashtags specific to your business or campaign. You can do a partnership with the best influencer marketing companies that can help out to manage your campaign with the right Hashtag.

They Help You Boost Your Reach

Social media users are also intelligent and will notice if you use irrelevant hashtags in an attempt to gain likes or followers. However, with relevant hashtags, you can reach many social media users who are likely to be interested in what you post.

By using hashtag generators, you can find relevant hashtags related to your niche. And if you join a conversation related to one of the top hashtags with valuable content, you increase your chances of boosting your reach.

But which hashtag generating tools should you use?

The infographic below on my blog ShaneBarker.com offers a list of some of the best hashtag generator tools you can use to find suitable tags for your posts. Check it out!

15 of the Best Hashtag Generator Tools for 2020

Image Courtesy: ShaneBarker.com

 

 

Are Hashtags Killing Social Media? by @ScotDuke

by Leave a Comment

by Scot Duke | Featured Contributor 

The answer is yes.

To me if the content of the social media message you post is not enough to capture the interest of your audience why would you think Hashtags would?

The reason hashtags were developed was to provide a way for all the social media associated with a hashtag to be gathered in one place.  Hashtags can be created for a subject of an event.  A viewer could click on the Hashtag and see everything about that subject or everything that includes that Hashtag listed.

But now, there are so many people using sometimes dozens of hashtags in their social media for no reason other than wanting people to see them as knowing what they are doing…which they do not.

What does it mean when more than one Hashtag is provided?

When I go to answer that questions this classic video does it better than I could.

I could also answer that question by saying the use of more than one hashtag indicates that the user does not know what they are doing…or cares.  But I won’t.

Usually, the person (Place or Thing) who uses more than one hashtag will create ‘Vanity Hashtags’ which only are relevant to the user.  Vanity Hashtags mash together a phrase in hopes it impresses upon readers someone’s cleverness.

What hashtag posting is really doing is killing social media.

As I have mentioned a number of times, the dark side of the internet loves to see people post a large number of Hashtags.  Hashtags for the deviants of the internet are an open invitation for them to Spam those Hashtags with all kinds of Spammy stuff making the entire Hashtag a waste.

Hashtags can be good for events or Live Video Streaming..that is if only one hashtag is developed for the event or streaming.  Going for more than one Hashtag in a post is like waving a red flag to a bull….not a really good idea.  Stop the madness and…let me know how I can help.

Talk With Your Audience, Not To Them by @DrRKayGreen

by Leave a Comment

by Dr. R. Kay Green | Featured Contributor

It is no secret that social media makes connecting with your audience easy. But some people assume that “easy” means that it does not take any time or effort. This is not the case. “Easy” just means that you are now capable of connecting directly with consumers, while before you had to go through a middleman like a journalist or an advertising firm.

The power to connect with your audience directly is not to be taken lightly.

Social media has completely changed the way that consumers interact with brands, and vice versa. If you want to connect with them, it is not enough to simply dole out information on your latest products. For a truly engaged following, you need to facilitate communication and generate real interaction.

In other words, you need to talk with your audience, not to them.

A connection between a brand and a consumer base does not pop up overnight. However, here are four steps in the right direction you can begin taking today.

Utilize Hashtags

People on social media want to be part of something. Creating a hashtag for fans or consumers to use can help to fulfill that desire.

Twitter and Instagram are the platforms that benefit most from this, naturally. Making it easy for consumers to find each other means that you will be able to encourage them to talk with each other about your product. It will also make it easier for you to find them, as well.

Hashtag campaigns that promise a reward are especially effective. People will be much more inclined to get involved if they think they can get something out of it.

Of course, using hashtags goes both ways. While encouraging your consumer base to use certain hashtags, you should be doing the same — making yourself visible and making it easier for potential consumers to find you.

Ask Questions

A statement is not likely to generate much conversation. A question, on the other hand? That makes it easy for consumers to respond and engage with you.

Get into the habit of asking your consumers questions. They should not be complicated, either — most questions (and answers) should easily fit into Twitter’s character limit.

Ask your consumers how they are using your product. What their favorite thing about it is. What they would like to see changed or improved upon.

You might be surprised by the amount of engagement you will see back. However, this is only the first step. In order to really facilitate conversation, you need to …

Get Involved

It is not enough to just ask questions or encourage your consumers to talk. You need to acknowledge them, too.

When people say something nice about your product, thank them. When people complain about it, reach out (politely) and tell them that you are looking into it.

When people ask a question, answer them. When people answer your questions, comment on those answers.

Being seen as engaged and approachable is one of the best things you can be on social media. After all, it is called social for a reason — you should be able to hold your own in a conversation.

Be Authentic

People do not want to talk to a brand — they want to talk to a person.

So when your brand is active on social media, it needs to come across as friendly. Brands that succeed are ones that have a personality of their own. Take the time to figure out what your brand’s personality is going to be.

This will ensure that people will actually want to talk about your company.

———————————————————————-

Dr. R. Kay Green – Marketing Expert from RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. from Atlanta, GA.

Dr. KayDr. R. Kay Green is the CEO/President of RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. With over 190,000+ Twitter followers, 35,000+ Facebook Likes, and the Top 1% LinkedIn profile designation, Dr. Kay, a self-motivated trailblazer, is the Quintessential “New-Age” Professional Woman, and PhD Marketing Pro. She earned a Doctorate of Business Administration in Marketing, and has completed PhD coursework in Leadership and Organization Change. She also holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Management, a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing, and an Associate of Arts in Marketing Management.

She is affiliated with several prestigious universities and has instructed over 350 courses online. A popular speaker on Marketing and Business topics, Dr. Green is currently featured on Huffington Post, Black Enterprise, Black News, The Network Journal, Business Review USA, Digital Journal, College View, Business New Hampshire Magazine, Bay State Banner, Reader’s Circle, North Dallas Gazette, Harlem News, Top News Today, One News Page, NE Informer, Women in Business PR News, Consumer News Today, Women PR News, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Daily Herald, The Miami Herald, and Book News Articles.

Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn

The Digital Marketing Strategy Behind Using #Hashtags by @DinaArsenaultPR

by 2 Comments

by Dina Arsenault | Featured Contributor

We have all seen them, those random pairings of words forming phrases, pre-cursored with the number sign so eloquently or sometimes not so eloquently embedded in various social media posts.  Many of you have probably wondered to yourself, “Is there a point to this?” or “Is this even effective?” and the answer is unequivocally YES!

The use of Hashtags, when done properly can be one of the easiest and most effective ways to market you and your business online.

According to The Balance, Hashtags are:

“Used to categorize content and track topics on Twitter and other social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and LinkedIn. When you use hashtags, you help people who are interested in your topic find your posts and Tweets more effectively.”

As you can see, the very definition of a hashtag makes it an extremely effective way to search for specific content throughout various social media platforms as well as to promote you, your business, your upcoming event or your campaign.

When used properly, hashtags are a great way for individuals and brands to stand out on social media and as a result increase their organic reach and engagement in the process. They give individuals useful context and cues for recall, aggregate posts and images together, and update a group of like-minded individuals on certain topics in real time.

When you are looking to strategically market you or your brand online, use hashtags as a research tool, to find what terms or phrases are trending in not only your country, but your specific region, town or more importantly, your specific target audience as well.

Hashtags, when used properly will actually improve your visibility in search engine rankings which will allow you to generate a higher return on your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) when developing your website or designing your content marketing and social media strategies.

So, now you are wondering, “Well this all sounds great on paper, but how do I actually go about creating an effective hashtag?”

Read on – Don’t worry I have you covered…

How Do I Create And Use An Effective Hashtag

  1. Get creative and pick a phrase that is easy to read and relatively short in length.
  2. Research what terms are trending in your geographic area.  This will allow you to see what people are talking about and how this can relate to your business.
  3. Use a little humour that will reflect you and your business brand positively.
  4. Check your social media analytics and see which ones worked.  Which ones got the most responses, shares, likes, re-tweets, comments or traffic to your website.  These will help you to tailor what your future social media posts will include in order to generate the most effective content marketing strategy for you and your business brand.  If this particular hashtag didn’t work, then go back to the drawing board and try another approach.  Initially, it really is about trial and error and really getting to know specifically who and what your target audience is all about.

The great thing about hashtags is that it is a wonderful way to unify a campaign across all of your social media platforms.  When using a specific hashtag for your brand or an event, it allows your audience to search across all platforms easily and effectively, allowing you and your brand to generate new customers and essentially give back to existing ones.

If you are still wondering if hashtags are an effective and essential marketing tool for you and your business brand in today’s social media age, read what Kim Garst, named one of Forbes Top 10 Social Media Power Influencers has to say:

“Hashtags: Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re an integral part of using social media. With reams of content being produced and promoted on social media each and every minute, hashtags provide a simply way to search for specific, topical content. With every major social network now allowing the use of hashtags, understanding why they’re such an important part of social media marketing is even more important.They allow us to whittle down the thousands of updates we receive daily from friends, colleagues and businesses, as well to find new people to interact with and new conversations to follow. They give us the ability to track conversations about our brand and our products, and help us keep an eye on what’s going on in our industry.”

At the end of the day, digital marketing practices are constantly changing and adapting to the technologies that are readily available.  In order to stay competitive we have to change along with them.  If you don’t want to be left behind, put on your creative thinking caps and get hashtagging!

Remember to use this tool wisely, and don’t overuse – that can be extremely annoying for followers. It can also lead to a new phenomenon on Instagram as of late called, Instagram Shadowban:

“This occurs when your hashtags become ‘un-discoverable’. You can use your hashtags, however you’ll only show up in hashtag feeds of your current followers. This means that your images won’t show up in hashtag feeds of anyone who DOESN’T follow you, obviously reducing the reach of your account and making it much harder to reach a new audience.”

If you are:

  1. Using bots, automated services or buying followers
  2. Using the same hashtags for months on end
  3. Receive a recent surge in activity
  4. Use broken hashtags

An Instagram Shadowban can occur.  It just goes to show, that if you place your marketing focus on building relationships over acquiring instant sales by providing value to the community you are striving to build around your brand, these types of things can and will be avoided.  So my best advice for when you venture into the world of hashtags is to utilize strategically and above all else have fun!

——————————————————————–

Dina ArsenaultDina Arsenault Digital Media Strategist and the undisputed reigning Madame of creativity, community and connection for the Ontario Chapter of http://acueconsulting.com/.

A celebrated and sought after speaker and writer, Dina is a caffeine fueled and food delighted ( locally sourced of course) Community Builder, Relationship Nurturer and all around Small Business Supporter. Dina’s online expertise is driven by her desire to promote your business online while connecting and elevating others in the process to foster community and the all around ‘good feels’.  If you want to be visible, connected and engaged with your community (and exposed to great food and fun) Dina is your gal!

Connect with Dina: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Snapchat: dinaarsenault7

Save

The Hidden Value of Joining Twitter Parties by @sociallysavvy4u

by Leave a Comment

Coloured air balloons. 3d render.

by Manon Leroux | Featured Contributor

What is a Twitter Party anyway?

It’s an event that can be held either online or offline, where people are actively involved in using Twitter. In some cases you get a chance to win free prizes!

Got your attention yet?

So who doesn’t like parties anyway, they’re fun, entertaining and we usually get to dress up. Are you curious yet as to what an offline party can possibly look like?

Just imagine being at a party, lots of people having conversation, laughing, having fun, except you are in your home viewing, it either on your computer plus if you don’t feel like it you don’t have to dress up (although that is the best part for me).

For today’s post I will be covering the hidden benefit of the online version of a Twitter Party.

First, for those who may have never experienced one yet, I will fill you in quickly. To put it as simply as I can, a Twitter party is basically a #hastag conversation. Yes, a whole bunch of Twitter users following a #hashtag, listening, engaging, participating in conversation – sounds like a party, doesn’t it?

So who can attend these? Anyone can join in, not necessarily followers of the event organizer – these are open to all. You can expect engaging questions, conversations and of course we often see prizes being given away as well.

Who promotes these online events? Pretty much anybody can. We see parties from brands, groups, individuals, etc.

Although there are many benefits of participating in these online events I wanted to mention one that might not be as obvious as well the obvious “fun and freebies!”

This hidden benefit of participating in Twitter Parties is that you make new connections and gain new followers.

Yes, do you see it?

Now you are joining in on a virtual conversation where many are listening and connecting. So this hidden benefit is gaining qualified followers, not just any followers, but highly targeted followers – these are real people engaging and using Twitter. I don’t know about you, but I have seen my fair share of bots, spam and everything in between. The concept of using this platform for free is awesome, but weeding out the riff-raff comes with the territory.

With this being said, I always look for creative ways to find new followers that will lead to more online connections and eventually grow my online community. By far this has been my favorite – I mean what better way to meet new people talking about things that I enjoy, not just putting up a front!

So if you do not have any followers planning Twitter Parties then do a search for the term and join one that is of interest for you. That way you’ll know the participants are a great match for your online community.

——————————————————————————-

Manon Leroux Social media manager by day, mother of two and dog lover by night, a well-dressed fashionista all the time – Manon Leroux is founder of Savvy Social Solutions, a social media manager directory helping small business owners find freelancers and social media manager attract clients.

As a serial entrepreneur, Manon brings a great deal of energy, passion and enthusiasm to every client opportunity.  After years of working with companies to deliver effective and strategic social media programs she turned her focus to launching and growing Savvy Social Solutions.  She works with social media managers and small business owners to understand their social media outsourcing needs, the goal of the directory is to provide a resource of credible SMM’s for small business owners.  Social Media managers can help small business owners efficiently use social media marketing to build their business by creating brand awareness, building online communities, increasing audience engagement and more.

When she’s not making the social media world a better place – one “Like” at a time – Manon is trying to coral her two sons, aged 13 and 15.  She benefits of more than 20 years of customer service experience: she understands the power of strong customer relations.  Her professional portfolio includes multiple Fortune 500 companies.

To connect with Manon:

Via email: manon@savvysocialsolutions.com | Twitter | Facebook | Google+

“What’s a Hashtag and How Do I Use It?” Your Social Media Questions Answered by @eMakeitHappen

by Leave a Comment

Hash Tag Number Pound Symbol Message Backgroundby Emily Worden | Featured Contributor

Last year I shared 10 tips to dominate social media. All of those rules still apply today, and some are now more important than others. For example, here’s Tip #5: “How can my posts be most effective? Use the least words possible, include an image, and 1-3 hashtags…”

Let’s stop right there and talk about hashtags. They have spiked in popularity in the last year. What was once a niche social media marketing tool has now become part of everyday conversation. Hashtags can be very beneficial for marketing, but too few people know how to use them properly. Read on to learn all about hashtags and how to use them strategically to boost your business.

The power of hashtags: What is a hashtag? It’s most popular on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and technically it’s just a word with a “#” in front of it. Really though, it’s the key to social media success. Use hashtags to direct conversations, track trends, monitor your competition, and so much more.

People use hashtags to track topics (#marketing), monitor breaking news (#Cairo), and follow special events (#election). Sometimes hashtags are funny (#ThingsKidsSay) or part of a trending topic (#SuperBowl).

There are well-known hashtags too like #ThrowbackThursday (#TT) or #FollowFriday (#FF). See what’s popular right now with What the Trend (www.whatthetrend.com) and use Trendsmap (www.trendsmap.com) to view popular trends by location, which is great for local businesses.

Why should you care about all this? It’s important to use trending hashtags; a lot more people see posts that include popular hashtags. Use hashtags to keep track of your industry too. I own a custom-made bag business, so I use hashtags in our social media posts like #custom, #bag, #fabric, or #fashion. Other like-minded people who are searching those hashtags will see my message and hopefully continue to eThreads’ site.

Six hashtag rules: Here’s my time-tested rules for using hashtags with social media:

(1) Use a limited number of hashtags. Include hashtags in every post on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, but never more than 1-3 per post. Instagram is an exception, you can use up to 10 there. Everywhere else, keep it short or it looks obnoxious.

(2) Use appropriate hashtags. Don’t just pick a popular but irrelevant hashtag and attach it to your post; it’s considered spammy and turns people off. Scan the trends for what’s popular and only choose hashtags that are relevant to your business.

(3) Search for hashtags related to your niche and “favorite” or retweet stuff people say. For example, if you sell soy candles, search social media sites for #candles, #soy, or #ecofriendly and get involved in the conversation.

(4) Track hashtags the competitors use. For example, I like to search #Longchamp or #Coach to see what people are saying about those bags. Then I study Longchamp and Coach’s social media sites and note the hashtags they use.

(5) Study other hashtags your target audience uses. I had never heard of #ootd  before starting social media. It means Outfit of the Day and I discovered that lots of people who love fashion use that hashtag. Study the hashtags your target audience uses and include them in posts.

(6) Use Hashtagify (www.hashtagify.me) to find popular hashtags in your industry. For example, type in “marketing” and you’ll see #SEO, #business, #socialmedia, and #jobs are popular. If you were writing about marketing, you’d use these hashtags in your posts to boost engagement.

Now that you’re familiar with hashtags, let’s cover basic social media rules:

(1) Be active on social media when your target market is. For example, people are on social media a lot during the weekend. If you can only post one night a week, make it Sunday night when everyone is home and on their computers. Search for the most popular hashtags in your industry and use them with your Sunday night posts for an extra boost in traffic.

People are on social media during work too, particularly 1-3 pm (after lunch). Besides Sunday night, this is the second best time to post. Mondays are popular as people ease themselves back into the workweek. Thursdays and Fridays are good too because it’s the end of the week and people are more relaxed at work and checking social media more often.

(2) Experiment with different dates and times. If you have a Facebook business page, Facebook Insights gives you great statistics about how many people have viewed or shared your posts. Experiment with posting at different dates and times and determine the most popular time to post. Use the hashtags your target audience uses (like #ootd, as discussed above) to boost the popularity of your posts.

(3) Don’t overdo it. Facebook is a personal social media site; don’t post more than once a day or you’ll overcrowd followers’ walls with “advertisements.” You can post a lot (2-4 times a day) on Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr, and Instagram, but space out the posts so you don’t overwhelm followers’ feeds all at once. Twitter is a free-for-all; everyone knows it’s just about fast updates. Tweet up to a dozen times a day, people won’t hate you for it.

(4) Schedule posts to save time. It’s a lot of effort to post and interact every day; save time and plan posts in advance. Use a social media scheduler like Hootsuite (www.hootsuite.com) or Tweetdeck (www.tweetdeck.com) and write all the posts at once. For example, I run six social media accounts. Every Tuesday I spend 2-3 hours writing and scheduling posts for the week for those various accounts. Then, I spend just 15 minutes a day on social media sites to “like,” comment, or retweet other people’s stuff.

What type of stuff should you say on social media? Well, you should focus on communicating with customers, not pitching them. I recommend 1 in 7-10 messages should be a sales pitch. About 85% of the time you should be engaging your followers with industry tips, humorous messages, and behind-the-scenes info. Communicate with customers – ask questions, get opinions, and reply to messages. Combine these tips with popular hashtags and you’ll have a dedicated group of social media followers in no time.

——————————————————————————

Emily Worden – Entrepreneur, Business Strategist, Impossible Optimist – Cambridge, MA

headshot1sheownsitEmily Worden is a Boston-based entrepreneur, consultant, and writer. She started her custom handbag business eThreads.com in 2006 while pursuing an MBA and working 3 jobs. After a particularly awful shift at her weekend catering gig, Emily threw down the apron and said, “Screw it, I’m going to do something I love!” She graduated in 2008 and quit everything to pursue eThreads full time. Emily started the cat lifestyle business Ferocious Friends in 2012 with her husband Case to satisfy the needs of their cats Lulu, Smoke and every feline around. She started her consulting business emilyworden.com in 2013 to assist other businesses with persuasive writing, strategic vision, and customer satisfaction.

Emily is an avid DIYer and loves making things with her hands. Her happy place is the library where she walks once a week; she’s always excited to learn something new. Her extra happy place is a great view of sunset with music pumping in her ears. Emily is grateful everyday for following her dreams and hopes to inspire others to do the same.

Web – Twitter

7 Ways To Use Twitter to Position Yourself As an Expert by @ShelleyWebbCSO

by 13 Comments

7 Ways To Use Twitter to Position Yourself As an Expert

by Shelley Webb | Featured Contributor

Shelley Webb speaking at a National Symposium on DementiaThere are many ways to use social media and one of them is to use it to position yourself as an expert in your field. The real  idea behind positioning yourself as an expert is that when someone searches for information in your field of expertise, they find YOU.

This leads to requests for articles, interviews, speaking gigs (ones that pay), and ultimately more clients and more cash in your pocket.

I began with a blog and a Twitter account.

Well, that’s not actually true.  I also had a degree in nursing and some experience in my chosen niche, which at that time was eldercare.  Eldercare is NOT sexy!  But it was my passion and it was what I knew.

For the first year I had my blog, I concentrated solely on Twitter.  I had a Facebook page and a LinkedIn account but rarely set “mouse” on those sites.

Once you have a blog and some good quality content, you can begin promoting yourself. I use the word “promoting” but really, it’s more about building on-line relationships with people who are interested in your expertise.

Here are my  favorite ways of doing that.

1. Create a Twitter bio that shows who you are , what you do and how to find you. This is very important.  You’ll want to use your own (good quality) photo. You may want to have professional photos taken as you’ll be using them a lot anyway. Describe what you and where folks can find out more about you (your website address is fine). Throw in a little personality (such as your favorite hobby) and you’re good to go.

2.  Connect with those who either work in your industry or who are interested in your industry.  Use Twitter’s search feature and input the keywords associated with your niche to find others who have that similar interest.  For instance, I used “caregiving”, “eldercare”, “seniors”, “dementia” and “Alzheimer’s Disease” as my search words.

Work on your connections daily. Follow as many of those Twitter users as you are allowed to within a given time period.  You can follow up to 2000 people before Twitter kicks in its policy that states that you can follow no more than 10% above the number of Twitter users who are following you.

* Do not use an auto direct message to thank your followers.  It’s annoying and a waste of what was once a great Twitter feature.

3. Tweet out your own content but also retweet good content from other Twitter users.  Again, use the same search words and method to find content to retweet.  Content curation shows people that you keep up with what’s new and because you are recommending it, you position yourself as an expert.

Additionally, folks like to be retweeted and they are more apt to follow you if you are retweeting their content.  *Read the content before you retweet and check to see that the links actually work.  Always thank those who retweet you, even if they are retweeting your REtweet.  It’s just good etiquette.

4.  Use your industry’s #hashtags in your tweets so that your subject matter can be easily found, but don’t flood your tweet with them. 1 or 2 are enough. Seriously!

5.  Participate in Tweet Chats related to your subject matter.  Tweet chats are a wonderful way to show the world what you know.  You may not be BOOKED as the expert of the hour but it’s easy to show folks that you know your subject matter AND you have a captive audience eager to retweet your words of wisdom to their followers.  You can even create your own tweet chat, if you want.

6.  Don’t be snobby.  Follow back everyone unless they don’t have a photo, or are obviously a “bot”.  You don’t necessarily know everything about the person behind the Twitter tag and to whom they might be connected. For instance, I have no idea who decided that I was interesting enough to be considered a featured expert on Sharecare.com, which was created by Jeff Arnold (of webMD fame) and Dr. Mehmet Oz in partnership with Harpo Studios, Sony Pictures Television and Discovery Communications but SOMEONE was watching me. That one person who seems a little boring to you?  She may be the booking agent for an Oprah show!

*I have never used the auto-follow method because I want to take the time to see who is following me, but Twitter will soon be doing away with that feature anyway.

7.  Just have fun with people.  Ask and answer questions.  Be excited for the accomplishments of others and let them know. Sympathize with them when they are having a bad day.  Many of them will become true friends.

It’s not rocket science.  It’s just Twitter.

————————————————————————–

Shelley_82headshot 300300ishSocial Influence Expert – Shelley Webb is founder of On The Webb Social Media, an agency devoted to teaching professionals how to position themselves as an expert in their field using the power of social media.

Having worked as a registered nurse for over 30 years, Shelley suddenly found herself as the soul caregiver to her father who suffered from dementia. She began writing a blog in order to support other caregivers and just by using the power of social media, rose from a simple nurse to an award winning blog owner, “social media rockstar”, sought after speaker and expert writer for Dr. Oz.

People began asking her if she had a publicity agent. Her response: “social media is my publicity agent”. Soon, requests for social media assistance came flooding in and so in January of 2012, Shelley founded On The Webb Social Media Services.

Born in Canada, raised in southern California, she currently resides in a small town in northern Idaho with 2 dogs, 2 tortoises and about 35 chickens.

On The Webb Social Media blog
The Intentional Caregiver blog
Twitter: @ShelleyWebbCSO and @ShelleyWebbRN
Facebook: OnTheWebbSocialMedia and TheIntentionalCaregiver
Google+: ShelleyWebb
Pinterest: OnTheWebbSocialMedia