Twitter Tips – What works for me.

Twitter Tips – What works for me.

I started tweeting on Jan. 15th 2010.
Here are some tips and tricks that work for me.

I like to think of twitter like chain mail. You tweet something, it goes out to all of your followers, those who are online will see it, they then choose (or do not choose) to RT your items out to their followers.
The next thing that happens is the following:
If you are lucky (or a hard working tweeter) your item then gets tweeted by one of your followers, and it then is seen by whomever is online, and maybe if you are lucky they RT it again, and so on etc.
The tweet will live on until it is no longer tweeted out to anyone.
Here are some tips and tricks on how to get your items RTed out to as many followers as possible.
1. Use the same name for your twitter account as your shop name.
Often tweeters when RTing will put the @ symbol in the middle of the tweet (in front of your shop name) after they go and get from your shop.
If the user name is the same, it is much easier for you to see who is RTing you because it will show up in your mentions column. If for some reason you can not do this, you will need to type in the name of your shop in the twitter search often, to see if you are missing tweets, as they will not show up in your mentions timeline.
2. To be RTed you will need to tweet - Meaning, you need to tweet others items to have them RT your items. As a general rule, these should be items of peeps that you follow.
Personally, if I am tweeting your items, and you are giving me a “thank you” (or worse yet, not even a thank you) in response, you can pretty much kiss my tweets goodbye. As a tweeter, I suggest you do the same.
Do not waste your time tweeting peeps who do not return the favor, unless you just like wasting your time. Or it is an item that you particularly love.
There may be occasions where the tweeter is gone, offline, or other, but you know this tweeter is always a good swap, then by all means continue to RT, but otherwise, just drop RTing their things, you are wasting your time.
3. Use the list feature on twitter – put your favorite tweeters on that list, when you have time, RT  everything that comes by your list, even if they are not your best and favorite RTers. Chances are that if your twitter friend (who is an awesome follow) is tweeting them, they will turn out to be a great follow as well. Who knows, you may actually get a new awesome RTing friend out of the deal.
4. Twaitter, Autobots and such. I use Twaitter to post shop promos. I do this in addition to, (not instead of) a RT for my followers. This is just one more way to show my followers that I love and appreciate them. I send these out without expecting a RT in return, I do these just because. If I receive a RT of my item, I still try to make sure the I RT an actual item from that tweeter in return, and often if I can find them, I tweet more than one of their items. Just remember, if all you send out is auto tweets of shop promos, that is most likely all you will get back in return, a canned feeling tweet. So in essence, try to keep it personal. Also (like in my case) summers are a bit more tough, school is out and kids are home, keep these types of circumstances in mind when you RT – is it a local holiday in the country the tweet came from? If so, cut them some slack. Again, this goes back to, is this a tweeter who always gives you a RT? If so, keep on tweeting them until you know they are not going to respond back with a RT, then ditch them. LOL
5. Don’t follow too many peeps at once. Keep your numbers somewhat close until you have a pretty high following. I got the funniest tweet today it said “follow me back please, twitter will not let me follow anyone else until some people follow me back” this is because he was following 2000 tweeters, and had only like 600 followers. Twitter sees you as potential spam if you follow far too many tweeters before you have some back.
6. Never, ever, click links in direct messages unless you are on twitter chatting at that very moment, with the person (and you know them well) Often spammers and such are are trying to hijack your twitter account and clicking on links in your DM's may result in your account being taken over by spammers, or other.
7. Tweet items directly from any of your favorite twitter friends shops, here is how:
Go to the shop of your twitter friend who RT's your items. Find the link (soon to be on the left hand side of the page) that says - "Share" click it, you will get a drop down menu that shows multiple links. Click on the link that says "twitter" (some people may have to hold down the shift key) it will open a window in your twitter account, you will then need to either add the @ before the shop name that already exists in the text,  or you will need to add the @theuserstwittername at the end of the link, you would do this if the twitter name is different than the shop name (see #1 in this post for more on this).
By adding the @ and the twitter name, the user whose item you are tweeting will then see it in thier mentions column, this will likely result in a tweet or RT of one of your own items. This is generally the way a good tweeter rewards you for tweeting one of their items.
8. Add the @yourtwittername in your own item tweets, this way it will show up in your mentions column, it helps you to make sure the tweet went through properly, and also helps you to keep an eye on all of those who RT your items, by doing this you will surely not miss RTing the ones who have taken their time to RT your post. Additionally, I often find it hard to figure out which items belong to the actual shop doing the tweet, adding this @myname, ensures that when a person goes to your profile to find an item to retweet to reward you for your efforts, they can easily tell which items are yours. They simply look for the (in my case) @glimmeringgems, and they know that when they select that particular item to tweet, they are actually tweeting one of MY items and not something I had tweeted to promote someone else.
9. Tweet one of your OWN items at least at every 20 tweets you do for others. Make it easy for others to find your items to retweet. I know this is difficult since we often find ourselves too busy to find time to tweet our own things. Remember however, the easier it is to find your items, the more likely they are to be retweeted. On some applications such as tweetdeck, when you click on the profile, it only shows around 20 tweets deep, after that you will have to do a search. Make it as easy as possible (when you can) to be found.
10. PLEASE do not send out those auto tweets "thank you for following, visit me at" via DM when you follow someone. I (and most others) NEVER open links in DM's, especially from people whom we do not know. It is very annoying, and often I will just go and unfollow the person who sent it. I am sorry, but there are just too many people on twitter that pretend to be "you" then hack accounts. I personally will never bother to open them.
11. MOST IMPORTANT - AVOID CLIQUES!  If you are like me, you are on twitter to make money.
Twitter is an extension of your store or shop, the best way to loose customers is to get a bad reputation in any aspect of the the way you represent yourself. If it is not something you would do in your shop, do not do it online. Saying ugly things about others, (especially when you are putting it in writing) will always find a way to reflect baldy on the one making the comments. Though you may feel a particular way about another tweeter, it is best to keep it to yourself. If you are unhappy with the behavoir of another, the best thing to do is to just disassociate with them and not involve yourself with petty and idle chatter behind their backs. Additionally, I am not sure why anyone would waste their time worrying about what someone else is doing. Focus on your own business, this is the key to success.


I will add to and post when I can think of more, but this was just a quick list that I hope helps some understand the way to have your items RTed.