To truly unleash the power of Twitter, you must dedicate yourself to learning the tricks of its trade. It’s just like how Daniel-san in the Karate kid learned how to “wax on and wax off.”
Yes, that’s right. You can’t just post on Twitter and hope that everything will work out. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. There is a learning curve that every marketer needs to go through. The good news is, no wax on and wax off required.
Here’s some more good news: I’ll share some of the amazing tricks that have worked for me over the years. Learn from my mistakes and trust me—these will help you shorten your learning curve.
To date, I’ve been featured on top list to follow on websites such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, Lifehack, Mashable and many more.
So, how did someone from a little town in Asia compete with the big guys?
Here’s everything that I’ve learned. These are the tricks I’ve learned that as helped me build my personal brand.
You’ll need a great photo. If you think your username is important, it’s not as important as having a great photo. Your avatar on Twitter is what people will notice when you tweet, retweet, follow them, etc. It’s your brand! Put effort into your photo if you want to get noticed. I recommend a close-up photo instead of a full-length photo because it allows people to see you clearly.
You need a rockstar’s bio. Think of your bio like a resume used to get people to hire you. Bios are important because people will read your bio before they choose to follow you. I won’t recommend you fill up your bio with search engine words. It doesn’t show much about you when having those type of words in your bio. Instead, put time in, and tell a little about what you do and what you love to do for a living.
Here are some examples of tweets from people mentioning my hair, which proves that they’ve read my bio before following me.
Have a blog. If you want to brand yourself as an expert, you need to have a blog. If you don’t, you need to contribute to other blogs or websites. This allows you to showcase your area of expertise. How this worked for me was people then could easily read my blog or contributions if they wanted to know about my area of expertise, helping me to brand myself as an expert of a particular topic or industry.
Provide Value in your tweets. You need to provide value as well as limit self-promotion on Twitter. People don’t like to follow someone who’s constantly promoting themselves. It’s just off-putting. You can provide value by:
- Retweeting other people: Simply create a list of people you like to follow, find content that resonates with your audience, then retweet these people.
- Use Post Planner: Post Planner has a viral photo feature that can help you search for great content from Facebook pages / Instagram that you can use to add value on Twitter.
Here’s an example of a quote that I found that had over 1000+ retweets.
Join Twitter chats. One of the best ways to brand yourself as an expert is to talk to people about your expertise. You can do this by joining relevant Twitter chats in your industry. Twitter chats usually last for an hour, and are filled with questions about a particular topic. You can answer those questions, chat with other participants, and so on. This shows people your expertise directly, and shows you know what you’re doing. Doing a quick Google search will being up Twitter chats, and you’ll find one on just about every topic out there.
Post personal photos. I’m probably breaking the biggest rule right here when I say that people should post personal photos. For me, when you’re more personal on social media, people will remember you more. You’re not just another marketer with great content. You’re someone they know. You’re an expert with a passion for fishing for example. By sharing this, people who share a similar passion will remember you more.
Sharing personal photos adds a flare that no one has. It’s YOURS!
Start your own Twitter chat. This tip is the hardest to pull off but can give you many returns and help you brand yourself as the expert. Starting your own Twitter chat is like starting your own podcast. It’s a great way to get people to come together to talk about—or just listen in on—a particular topic. It allows you to brand yourself as the expert because you’re constantly putting your name and your company out there directly to your audience. Imagine all the exposure that you can get from it.
#Mediachat, started by Aaron Kilby, does about nearly 2000+ tweets each week. Imagine what it does for his personal branding.
Form a “Mastermind Group.” Just in case you’re not aware, there are groups out there that are committed to helping each other out. You can find some in platforms such as Triberr, but many are quiet. I know this because I’ve been invited to join plenty of these type of groups. I’m actually in one right now. In these groups, individuals come together and help each other, whether it’s by sharing a tweet to help promote a blog, helping to grow a community, etc.
You can create your own if you don’t know how to find any. Find other people with similar goals as yourself and ask them to join you and your quest.
Know the who’s who! You need to know the who’s who if you want to brand yourself as an expert in your field. You need to know who the other experts are, as well as the influencers and other the important people in your industry. I recommend you create special lists for these people.
Once you’ve done that, constantly engage with these people. I like to say “retweet someone once, they will notice you, retweet them a few times and chat with them, they will remember you.” This tip is crucial! You need to be networking with them to learn of their tricks and to get them to notice you.
To brand yourself as the expert or the “go to” guy in your industry will take a while. It’s not something that can be done in a few days. Sometimes it requires months. But trust me. When you get the ball rolling it gets easier and easier.
photo credit: Twitter bird paper-toy via photopin (license)
