Social Media Tools - Part Two

In the last post I looked at TweetAdder, a very useful tool for gaining additional followers, without being over aggressive. Now I'm going to turn my attention to the tool I use on a daily basis to manage my tweets, namely HootSuite. One of the key advantages of HootSuite is the ability to manage all social media on one platform. On one dashboard you can manage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ as well as other sites such as FourSquare, WordPress, MySpace and mixi.  

Let's start by looking at how incoming tweets can be managed. The Twitter element of the dashboard has a number of feeds, either already set up, or those that you can add later. The first feed is the 'home feed', which is the same as Twitter itself, in that you can see all tweets sent out by the people you follow. Once your following runs into hundreds, managing this feed becomes almost impossible, but more about that in a moment. The second feed is your 'mentions'. These are all tweets being sent out by other people, but which include your Twitter handle. This again you can view on Twitter, but you need to keep jumping around and changing pages to see this information. With HootSuite it's all there in front of you. Next in line are your 'direct messages' - DMs, then next to the DMs are the tweets you've sent out. So four feeds of data on one screen. Much more practical than using the Twitter site. But it doesn't stop there. You can now add your own feeds, enabling you to cherry-pick from the overactive 'home feed'. This part of the system can be as bespoke as you want it. For example, let's say you join The Independent Author Network and want to follow tweets which include their hashtag #IAN1. With HootSuite you can set up a feed to do just that. This would then sit neatly next to the other four feeds I have just described. Once the number of feeds increases, as you add to them, some will begin to move out of sight on your screen. However, it is simply a case of scrolling across the screen to look at them. So that is a quick overview of the incoming tweets.

 


The other element of HootSuite is of course sending out tweets. This can be done one of two ways. Manual or automatically. You can also set the time the tweet will be sent, depending upon when you believe your target audience is most likely to see it. I'm based in the UK, so if I have tweets specifically for a UK audience I don't want them going out in the early hours of the morning. You can schedule future tweets by using the HootSuite Publisher. HootSuite Publisher also allows the bulk uploading of future tweets. This will require the use of very specific CSV files. If you would like a tutorial on how to create these, then please visit my author website which describes, step by step, on how to build a HooteSuite Bulk Uploader CSV file. Using the CSV file I developed, I can now upload tweets in bulk, and it only takes a few minutes each day. So your presence on Twitter can remain, even when you are sleeping.

So that is a quick whistle stop tour around HootSuite. Happy tweeting!

Understanding Twitter's 2000/10% rule

What is the 2000/10% rule?

If you are fairly new to Twitter you may find problems with Twitter once you want to follow more than 2,000 accounts. This is due to an obstacle the designers of Twitter have placed at the 2,000 follower level. Regardless of how many followers you have, you can follow 2,000 people without a problem. So even if only 100 people follow you, you can follow 2,000. However, if you want to follow 2,001 you'll hit a problem. At this point the 10% rule comes into force. In essence you need more followers to enable you to follow more people. Only once your followers exceed 1,819 will you be able to follow more people. But how many exactly? Once you exceed 1,819 you can follow an additional 10% over and above the number of people who follow you. Let's say you have 3,000 followers. You can now follow a total of 3,300.

Breaking through the 2,000 follower barrier

What I now intend to share is how I breached the 2,000 limit in just 42 days. First things first, you'll need some tools to help you, as Twitter cannot be managed purely online via your Twitter page. Knowing who you are following, and who is following you, takes a lot of managing, but two tools I've found particularly useful are HootSuite and JustUnfollow.

HootSuite (http://www.hootsuite.com)

HootSuite enables you to monitor tweets as they come through via your timeline, and separates those that specifically relate to you - Mentions. Mentions show all tweets people have created which include your Twitter name. Other columns can be set up to follow certain groups you may belong to by using hashtags (e.g. #mywritinggroup), create lists of specific groups of people you want to create - such as Thriller/Writers, and also set up future tweets so you can still be tweeting whilst sleeping. (If you want to use HootSuite's bulk uploader facility, I've written an article on my author website explaining exactly how to create the necessary files.) So in essence, HootSuite is great for seeing what is happening, and managing what is most important to you.

JustUnfollow (http://www.justunfollow.com)

The second tool I want to introduce is JustUnfollow. If you want to grow your twitter 'followers' you will need to manage very carefully the list of people you are following. If you hit 2,000 and your followers are, say, at the 1,200 mark, you may struggle to get more followers if you don't 'release' some of the people you follow. Now, you may have a number of people you follow who have followers in the millions, but only follow a handful of people themselves, such as actors, sportsmen and sportswomen etc. These may be people you want to continue following regardless. That's not a problem. But what about those regular people who you follow, but they don't follow you? You need to consider why you are following them. If you are an author using Twitter to build relationships and create awareness of your books, you need to follow people who are prepared to reciprocate. In just a few weeks I've linked up with some great people, but I've also come across a lot who are totally self-focussed. They love you to follow them, but don't seem prepared to reciprocate. These people will stop you from growing your followers, once you reach 2,000 in terms of who you are following. These are the people you need to unfollow, so that you can reduce your following number to below 2,000, and then follow a new group of people who may reciprocate. This is where JustUnfollow helps you. It will show you who doesn't follow you, who you don't follow - but does follow you, etc. You can whitelist your favourite celebrities, but the remaining people who don't follow you can be listed, giving you the opportunity to unfollow them. JustUnfollow will also highlight those people who have decided to unfollow you, whether or not you follow them. It may seem counter-productive to 'release' a person you are following, who has many thousands of followers who could be interested in you, but if they steadfastly refuse to reciprocate, by following you, they will never hear about you - or your book(s).