Beginner’s guide to Twitter for business

Want to start supporting your business with Twitter but don’t know where to start? All you need to know is in this handy guide.

Authored by eModeration Community Management Team July 2013

www.emoderation.com

Beginner’s guide to Twitter for business

Table of contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 4

Part One: Getting started ..................................................................................................................... 5

Should you be on Twitter? ......................................................................................................... 5

Setting up your Profile ............................................................................................................... 6

Promoting your Twitter acccount via your online presence .................................................. 8

The anatomy of a tweet ............................................................................................................. 9

Finding and following ............................................................................................................... 10

Part Two: Using Twitter ...................................................................................................................... 12

Having conversations on Twitter ............................................................................................ 12

Replies ............................................................................................................................ 12

Mentions ......................................................................................................................... 12

Direct messages ............................................................................................................ 13

Retweeting ...................................................................................................................... 13

Creating your sources ................................................................................................... 14

Using hashtags and keywords ...................................................................................... 14

How to post links (URLs) in tweets .............................................................................. 14

Posting images and videos ........................................................................................... 14

Best practice on writing tweets .............................................................................................. 15

Dos and Don’ts on Twitter ....................................................................................................... 16

Part Three: next steps ........................................................................................................................ 18

Twitter lists ................................................................................................................................ 18

Search on Twitter ..................................................................................................................... 19

To find people by name ................................................................................................. 19

To browse accounts by interest .................................................................................... 19

To search for tweets containing a keyword or hastag ............................................... 19

To search for tweets mentioning a user ...................................................................... 19

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Beginner’s guide to Twitter for business

Choosing Twitter tools ............................................................................................................. 20

Twitter clients, to publish, read and engage (for Mac and PC) ............................................ 20

Twitter apps .............................................................................................................................. 21

Twitter chats ............................................................................................................................. 23

Part Four: Stuff you need to know .................................................................................................... 25

Hacking and security ............................................................................................................... 25

Twitter lingo .............................................................................................................................. 26

Twitter Terms and Conditions ................................................................................................. 29

About eModeration ............................................................................................................................ 31

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Introduction

Twitter is arguably one of the easiest social networks to engage in. Unlike Facebook and Google+, there is no distinction between a Twitter account held by a business and a personal account. You don’t have to link the account to any online identity via an email address and there is no limit to the number of accounts you can hold.

Why use it for business? It’s said that Facebook is for talking to the people you know; but Twitter is for talking to the people you want to know. And this is true: Twitter is a wonderful medium to reach and engage, share news, and information, debate, converse and make contacts. Twitter really can help business grow, as these case studies demonstrate.

For customer service, it’s becoming a must-have: 30% of top brands have dedicated Twitter feeds for customer service. Your customers are probably already talking about you on Twitter: it’s time to become part of that conversation.

However, it’s easy to make mistakes, be confused by jargon and the different tools available. It is easy also to forget that Twitter is not a broadcast medium: the voice behind the account should genuinely want to engage with other users.

How can eModeration help? This guide is aimed at people just starting out to use Twitter as part of their social media marketing efforts for their business. Our guide has been designed for beginners, and is as accurate as we could make it at the time of writing. If what you seek isn’t covered here, do check out Twitter’s own Basics Guide. Please open a Twitter account before reading this guide as you’ll need to be signed in to follow many of the Twitter links.

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Part One: Getting started

Should you be on Twitter?

Before leaping in, take some time to prepare yourself properly:

Have you got the time to devote to Twitter? It’s a time-consuming platform, and you may find yourself needing to respond to tweets outside office hours. If so, you will probably need a contact tree for out-of-hours escalations.

On the same note, people have come to expect very speedy responses on Twitter. Can your business provide this level of customer service?

What are you hoping to achieve with your business tweets? And (importantly) how will you measure your success?

How are others using it? It’s a good idea to look at what other similar organisations to yours are doing. What are they using the platform for? Are they using it to broadcast, or helping to solve customer service issues?

What do users what to hear from you? Users follow brands and organisations for lots of reasons: promotions and customer service are high on the list – but so are ‘exclusives’ and entertainment. Find out what works for you.

Are you authorised? If you are representing an organisation or business, make sure you have got the necessary authorisation before setting up any Twitter accounts. Double check your company’s social media policy.

Keep it secure! Decide who will have access to the password and be prepared to change it on a regular basis.

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Setting up your Profile

Your business Twitter home page Your profile page (https://twitter.com/username) is where you can put your company’s best face forward: set the tone of the account, give important information such as links to website, blogs or Facebook, use your house colours and images and display a cover image which reflects your brand. Any tweets you post will appear on your homepage, and anyone searching will land on it.

What information is visible on your profile? Apart from your bio, your Twitter profile page says a lot else about you: your recent tweets, who you follow, who is following you, who has you ‘listed’, your own lists, and your favourited tweets. When deciding whether or not to follow you, others will check out your profile. Make sure it represents you well.

Write a good bioWrite a clear, concise bio that describes your brand, products or services. To help others find you, it’s a good idea to treat your bio like your website SEO, although you need to leave some room for personality among those keywords.

We would advise against using hashtags in a bio: apart from making you look impersonal, they use up valuable characters – and you’ve only got 160 available, so make them count.

Include a disclaimerIf you are not tweeting on the part of an organisation but have mentioned your role in your profile, it’s a good idea to put in a disclaimer that your views don’t necessarily represent those of your employer. Indeed, the social media principles of your employer may require you to do so.

State your office hoursIf you are using your account to provide customer service and can’t monitor it 24/7, then give your ‘office hours’ in your profile, so people know when to expect a response.

Make it look good If you’d like help on choosing and formatting your profile pictures, Mashable has some good advice here. You can create your own custom Twitter background (you can get a designer to do this for you, or make your own). Be sure to check your profile on different screens, from smartphones to tablets to laptops to desktops.

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What is a verified account?You may sometimes notice the verification tick on some Twitter accounts, usually popular accounts in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, advertising, business, and other key interest areas, and anyone else deemed at high risk of impersonation.

Unless you’ve received an invitation from Twitter, you won’t be able to get your account verified: however, linking to and from your website should be enough to establish your identity.

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Promoting your Twitter account via your online presence

Link from Twitter In order to encourage traffic from Twitter to your website and tell people what you are about, you should include a link to your main website or to a specific landing page – make this trackable if possible so you can measure the success.

Link to Twitter Linking to your Twitter URL from your website, Google+ page, Facebook page and any other social places (including your email signature) will help build up a following. Click here to learn how to add a ‘follow’ button to your website. Make sure your Twitter contact is on your stationery, email signature and business cards.

Use your networkGo through your prospects, client list, partners, suppliers and friends and make sure that you’re following them. Are you following all of your LinkedIn connections on Twitter?

Useful tools Tools like Rapportive can be added to Gmail and will show you an email contact’s social media presence and output – including Twitter – right inside your email inbox (see the image). This is a great way to learn more about your contacts and grow your network. It’s also a reason to be circumspect about what you tweet, as your recent tweets will appear in the inbox of people who have Rapportive installed.

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The anatomy of a tweet

The different parts of a tweet can be confusing. Here’s a typical tweet, dissected:

Profile pic. This will appear next to all of your tweets. It can be a company logo, avatar or picture of you. Most people choose to include a picture of them, to make it seem more personal. If you are tweeting for a company account, it’s usual to use the logo, but you can blend a face and logo, or sign each tweet to make it more personal. Don’t forget to name your photo – it helps with search.

Name. You can use your full name, your business name or a nickname, up to 20 characters. This doesn’t have to be unique. We suggest you use the same name as you would use for your business so that people can easily recognise you.

Username. This will always start with @ and - unlike your name - must be unique. Keep it as short as possible to take up as few of the 140 allotted characters as you can (you have up to 15 characters). You can change your username if necessary, but if you do, any existing links to your Twitter account will no longer work.

Tweet text. Remember all tweets which are not ‘Direct Messages’ are public and can be seen by everyone. There is a limit of 140 characters which includes all hashtags and ‘@somebody’s – but note that if you include a link, you only get 121 characters.

Link to more content. In this tweet, there is a link to see more on a website. The link has been shortened to reduce the characters needed.

Timestamp. This is when the tweet was sent. It may be expressed as a time relative to when you are viewing it.

Available actions. When a tweet is viewed, other users can choose to reply, retweet - or save it as a favourite to find it easily.

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Finding and following

An account has ‘followers’ and accounts that it, in turn, follows. This information is public and visible on your profile.

How do users find me? To help you connect with other users, your default account settings allow others to find you by your name (the name you registered the account with), your @username and your email address. After you add a mobile phone to your account, your mobile settings by default allow others to find you by your phone number. You can change these settings at any time.

Is my email address and phone number displayed? Not unless you have put them on your bio. However, users can find you via the email address or phone number registered to your account through the Find Friends feature, the Who To Follow section as a suggested account to follow, or on third-party services.

What is on my homepage? When you open up Twitter, the page at https://twitter.com is your home page. The tweets of everyone you follow (known as your timeline) will appear in your home page.

Unless they follow exactly the same people you do, no-one else will have the same timeline as you.

Can I read someone’s tweets if I don’t follow them? If you don’t follow an account, you’ll only be able to read their tweets if you search for a topic (by word, username or hashtag), if you are mentioned in their tweet, or you have a direct link to a tweet.

Should I always follow someone back? While you may want to follow someone back who has followed you (and there are tools to enable you to do this automatically if you choose), it’s not a great idea. You may become a target for bots and find it difficult to hear the voices you want to listen to.

Can I follow anyone I like? You can follow (listen to) whomever you want, provided their tweets are not protected. We wouldn’t advise you to protect your tweets: it defeats the open nature and purpose of Twitter.

Target markets. We all have companies we’d love to do business with. Make sure you follow them and engage with them on Twitter, but don’t go straight for the sell: Twitter is about building connections and relationships first, and understanding what makes the other person tick.

Can I stop someone from following me? You can block an account so that you do not see any ‘@’ tweets from them in your mentions, and they can’t add your Twitter account to their lists or see your profile picture. You can also report accounts – for example, for spamming. Tweepi claims to be able to force users to unfollow you.

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Why can’t I send a user a Direct Message? If an account isn’t following you, you won’t be able to Direct Message (DM) them. Direct messaging is the only messaging NOT visible to all. If you need to say anything private or share confidential information, then we would always advise following a customer and then asking them to follow you so that they can DM you (to send their contact details for example).

Follow other Twitter accounts which have similar interests to establish a network on Twitter. You can find these accounts organically, by searching on keywords to see who is tweeting about issues important to you, by using the Twitter webpage and its suggestions (which are based on which users the people you follow are following) and by keeping an eye on your Timeline for interesting re-tweets. Use their lists to find other people to follow.

Be nosy. Who are your competitors following on Twitter? Is there anyone on their following list that you should be following and engaging with, but are not? Have a look at their Twitter lists, and create some of your own.

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Part Two: Using Twitter

Having conversations on Twitter

The use of the ‘@’ sign, and who can see what tweets where can get a little confusing, so here’s a quick run-down. You can see more information on this in the Twitter help section.

How is the ‘@’ sign used? Twitter accounts are denoted by putting ‘@’before the username. You can click on any @username in a tweet and it will take you to their Twitter profile. Visiting another user’s profile page on Twitter will show their tweets; not tweets that mention them. However, you can search for all tweets mentioning their username in the search box by searching for “@username”.

Replies

What is a reply? You can click the ‘Reply’ button on a tweet, or just start a tweet with @username to make a reply. A reply always has the ‘@username’ first, before the rest of the tweet.

Who can see replies? A reply will only be seen by the person you replied to and people who are following both of you. Nobody else will see it in their timeline (although it will show up on your profile page and in Twitter search).

If I see an @reply in my timeline, how do I know what tweet they replied to? Click on the tweet and it will expand to display the tweet they @replied to. You’ll also see other content related to the tweet – i.e. the conversation.

Where can I see replies to my tweets? These replies are also collected in the ‘Connect’ tab on the ‘mentions’ page on Twitter.

All replies are considered ‘mentions’ (but not all mentions are replies!). If you also follow the person who tweeted the reply, you’ll see the tweet in your timeline too.

How can all my followers see a reply to another user? If you want all your followers to see your ‘@reply’ to someone, then preface the ‘@’ with a full stop (period), like as above.

Mentions

What is a mention? A ‘mention’ is any tweet that contains ‘@username’ anywhere in the body of the tweet. It could be a reply or just a call-out.

How does it differ from a reply? If you tag a username anywhere but at the start of the tweet, everybody following you will see that message.

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Where can I see tweets which mention my account? Mentions are collected in the ‘Connect’ tab on the ‘mentions’ page on Twitter. Other tools or apps you use to view Twitter will usually call them mentions too.

Does someone have to follow me for me to ‘@mention’ them? No. But if they don’t follow you then your tweet won’t appear in their home timeline, only in the ‘mentions’ tab.

Can my followers see my tweets with ‘@mentions’ in them? Yes, unless the mention is an ‘@reply’ with @username at the beginning of the tweet (see @replies, below).

Can I ‘@mention’ more than one person in a tweet? Yes, and all people mentioned will see the full tweet in their mentions tab.

Direct messages

Can I send a private message that no-one else can see? Yes, you can send a Direct Message (DM), but only if the recipient is following you (although a few Verified Accounts have the option to exchange DMs without following first). You can either click the ‘Direct Message’ icon to send one, or preface a tweet with DM username. Note that there is a space between ‘DM’ and the username, and no ‘@’.

Retweeting

If you use the retweet icon to retweet (RT), it will be retweeted with the original tweeter’s logo instead of yours.

Otherwise, to keep your own avatar on the tweet or just to be able to make a comment as you pass it on, then begin with ‘RT’ followed by the @sign and the original Twitter handle and paste in their tweet.

Some Twitter third party tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck offer you this option automatically, though it isn’t yet available on the native Twitter page.

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If you edit the original tweet, then use ‘MT’ instead of ‘RT’.

Crediting your sources

Tell your followers where you got the link: either the media title, the author, or the user who shared it with you. If you share straight from the Twitter share icon on a website, the “via @username” to credit the title will automatically appear, but otherwise, you can add it manually, using ‘via’ or ‘|’. Telling your followers where you got the news is not only a courtesy: it adds credibility to your tweet.

Use hashtags and keywords

Use the search facility on Twitter for keywords and #hashtags regarding your brand and topic, so you can read tweets you are interested in, and find accounts to follow. Use hashtags and keywords in the tweets you write to reach an audience doing the same.

How to post links (URLs) in tweets

Posting a full URL would take up too many characters (which are now reduced to 118 characters if you are including a link). For this, and other reasons of security, any link you post via Twitter.com will automatically be shortened to an http://t.co link of 20 characters.

You may choose to use a link shortening service like bit.ly, which tracks the clicks on your links, and provides you with valuable data on the engagement with your posts. Or if you use a third party tool to manage your Twitter account, the tool will provide its own shortening service (See Choosing Twitter Tools section).

Posting images and videos

The most retweeted content tends to contain links, pictures, videos or quotes. You can insert image and video files as links in your tweets, which can be seen directly in the timeline when the tweet is expanded.

How to include a picture (a Twitpic) in your tweet:

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1. Begin a new tweet and click on the camera icon.2. Locate the image you want to upload on your computer / phone / tablet when prompted. 3. Your character count will update to include the image’s shortened URL. Type your message and

click tweet.4. If you selected the wrong image or no longer wish to share that image, just click the x in the

thumbnail or next to the filename to delete the current image.

How to include a video in your tweet:

If you post links to videos shared via the following sites, the videos will play in the expanded tweets: YouTubeVimeoUstreamJustin.tvTwitlensTwitvid What is Vine?

Vine is a service launched in January 2013, initially just for iPhones, allowing the user to film and tweet a six second video. Read more about it on Twitter, on the Vine blog and on the eModeration blog. Brands are starting to get very creative in their use of it: Econsultancy has some great examples of good and bad practice to give you inspiration.

Best practice on writing tweets

You can use your tweets in a number ways: to ask followers for their opinion, share an interesting bit of news or information, converse with your followers, respond to a another tweet, retweet someone else’s tweet, reach out with an ‘@someone’ and initiate a conversation.

Tweeting is easy, but writing good tweets is an art. Here are some tips to get you started: Make your tweets personal. Tweets should sound useful, conversational, unique and ultra specific to your audience. Write to the person – use ‘you’ and ‘your’. Avoid marketing speak.

Wit works. If it’s appropriate to your brand, Twitter is a good chance to show off your razor-sharp humour and know-how. Twitter is a place of entertainment too.

Be brief. Try to leave some space to let other people retweet your content and add their own message.

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Take your time to write your tweets and make sure you re-read your tweets before you send it off. Avoid any spelling mistakes or bad grammar.

Censor yourself. Never tweet anything you wouldn’t want to be read by the whole world. Actually, it’s a good idea never to DM anything you would be ashamed of either.

Content – for each self-promotional tweet post five to 10 tweets about something else. It’s also best to have more than one team member able to update the Twitter account – it adds variety to the posts and avoids any issues should your solo tweeter drop off a cliff.

Read before you RT – don’t just see a tweet with a catchy heading and hit the RT button. Read the article first. Then you’ll have an informed opinion when you RT, and avoid seeming to endorse content you may not actually agree with. RT-ing content from edgier sites can be problematic – the editors may have no problem with swearing, but you and your followers might prefer not to read an article laced with ‘F’ words.

Dos and Don’ts on Twitter

Do…

Respond to people who talk to you (by using @username), and keep that personal touch. Acknowledge and address criticism as well as praise (but be careful not to get drawn into an argument).

Be transparent about what you are tweeting and respect others on Twitter. If you want to have a private conversation – and you are following each other – use the ‘Direct message’ facility to take your conversation to a private space.

Acknowledge your sources. Thank others and say where you are linking from.

Provide value to your followers. Think before you tweet and ensure your tweets are relevant to your followers.

Retweet interesting tweets and comment on them.

Don’t…

Schedule tweets to provide – say – links for your blog when you aren’t at your desk, but be careful that you are not pushing out unmonitored content which could be erroneous, offensive or inappropriate, so for example, avoid scheduling tweets during major news stories, e.g. the Boston bombings, as your account could be seen as being insensitive.

Spam. Don’t use Twitter to push out ads or brand messages. Twitter is about conversations. Don’t #spam #with #hashtags. Don’t over-tag a single Tweet. (Best practices recommend using no more than 2 hashtags per Tweet.)

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Be boring. Don’t use Twitter to tell everybody about your daily tasks, your lunch or who you are meeting. You are on a public forum and your tweets are visible to the world. And ... it’s not all about you. Mix your content up! Add media, have conversations, retweet others. Don’t stick to the same tweeting format all the time: only retweeting or posting news items.

Be dodgy. Don’t tweet out spam phrases, use @ spamming, send duplicate links, duplicate tweets, advertisements.

Be absent. Tweet regularly. Otherwise it’s a ghost town and you won’t get or keep followers. Twitter closes inactive accounts too.

Flood your followers. Don’t tweet too much though – a particular problem when you are live tweeting an event. If you drown everyone else out, expect to be unfollowed.

Be non-responsive. Accounts which show no interaction, those that follow back less than 10% of the number following them, or have streams that are all feeds from their social media channels.

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Part Three: Next steps

The first parts of this guide concentrated on getting you set up on Twitter with the right kind of profile, suggested ways to build up a following and showed how to reach out and engage using the correct formats.

Now you’re ready to take off. Part three concentrates on really using Twitter as a business aid: list curation, the tools to use, participating in chats and live tweeting. Plus a handy glossary of Twitter lingo and a look at some of the Twitter terms to be aware of.

No cost optionsThere are many ways you can spend money with Twitter (advertising) and on various Twitter management tools and clients. You may indeed choose to go on and allocate your marketing budget in this way, but it’s perfectly possible to promote yourself without any outlay at all, so this guide won’t try to sell you a thing.

Twitter lists

To find interesting users to read and follow, you can also use lists of accounts which others have curated (and of course create your own).

You can see the lists a user has curated and the lists to which they belong on a user’s profile page.

Drill down to see the individual members of a list. Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream of tweets from only the users on that list.

What lists are you a member of? You can see who has included you in lists, which is useful feedback to know what category you are being placed in; to reach out to the list owner, and to check out other profiles on the list.

Subscribe or follow. You have a choice with other people’s lists: you can ‘subscribe’ to them or follow them directly. If you only subscribe then you’ll receive their updates, but they won’t be notified, counted among your followers and can’t DM you, or you can follow them one by one. (Do this slowly – see Twitter Terms and Conditions).

Can I send a tweet only to list members? Lists are used for reading tweets from a curated group of users only: they are not the same as (for example) a Facebook list, a Google+ circle or an email group. You cannot send a tweet only to members of a list. Your tweets go out to all your followers. If

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you don’t want a list to be publicly available, you can make it private. Create your own lists (private or public) and use a tool to view them (for example, you might have separate lists for ‘journalists’, ‘customers’, ‘influencers’ and ‘friends’).Read more about lists, including how to create them, in the Twitter help centre.

Search on Twitter

You can search for tweets, or you can search for people. Twitter profiles and tweets show up within other search engines – Google for example. Keep in mind that the words you write in updates may also be indexed and come up in a search for those terms.

To search from within Twitter:

To find people by name:1. Type the person’s name into the search box at the top of your Twitter homepage. 2. Results for your search will show up under the People tab on the search results page.3. You can also search by typing the person’s name into the search box on the Connect page. To browse accounts by interest:1. From the Discover page, click Browse categories. 2. Click on any interesting category to get a list of accounts you may want to follow.3. You can also browse by interest using

the search box at the top of the Browse categories page. Type in a keyword and you’ll see a list of account results for that search term.

To search for tweets containing a keyword or hashtag:1. Enter the keyword or hashtag into the search

box.2. Toggle between viewing People and tweets

results by clicking the menu on the left side of your page.

3. When viewing tweets, choose to view Top or All results by clicking the options at the top of your search results timeline. (You can also choose to see results about a given topic from only the accounts you follow by selecting People you follow.)

4. Click here to learn how to save your search.

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To search for tweets mentioning a user:1. Enter the user’s username, preceded by the @ symbol, into the search box.2. Tweets results display tweets mentioning the username; People results display accounts

matching that username. Toggle between the two on the left side of the page.

Previously, Twitter search only used to show results going back about a week, but they are beginning to extend that period further back in the past. The tweets bought up in a search will only be a percentage of what was actually tweeted, and are based on highest levels of engagement.

Use search operators for advanced search, to drill down more precisely.

Choosing Twitter tools

Whether you choose to tweet and manage your account from the native Twitter page, or one of the other free or paid-for clients is up to you. Your choice will depend on how busy your account is; what reporting and analysis needs you have; what devices you are tweeting from; who else will be sharing the account with you – and your budget! As we said previously, we are only looking at free options in this guide.

Twitter clients, to publish, read and engage (for Mac and PC)

Twitter twitter.com The native Twitter webpage and smartphone/iPad app. This is still a favourite for searching for accounts, watching trends, getting recommendations and live tweeting events.

Hootsuite hootsuite.com Web, mobile and desktop. Our personal favourite, Hootsuite offers three sign-up plans, including a free option which allows you to manage four other social network profiles (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ Pages) through the tool and offers basic analytics, scheduling and team collaboration. You can organise your view into ‘streams’ (columns) of groups of accounts, searches, or keywords.

Tweetdeck tweetdeck.com (now owned by Twitter) Web and desktop only. This allows you to create columns for lists of accounts and searches, which helps you to monitor your incoming feed and not miss tweets from those you follow. You may have (for example) different columns for ‘customers’, ‘news media’, ‘suppliers’, ‘friends’ etc as well as the standard columns for your @mentions, direct messages, your own tweets etc.

Echofon echofon.com (iPad, smartphone) It does all the basics — tweeting, retweeting, messaging

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— and can easily sync all unread tweets across multiple devices. Plus, it features a clean interface, allows for drag and drop attachments, and can manage multiple accounts.

There are many more clients for desktop and mobile which are worth considering, and please note that for reasons of space, we have not included any of the excellent paid options available.

Twitter apps

Also, to help you manage your account, there are hundreds of free Twitter apps. Here are just a few which are worth mentioning:

Posting

Tweriod tweriod.com Usefully - despite the twerrible name - Tweriod will analyse when the people you follow are most active and DM you the results in pretty graph form so you know when it’s best to tweet and engage your followers.

Bufferapp bufferapp.com Use this to easily share and schedule content to your social networks from wherever you are, mobile, newsreader etc.

Twubs twubs.com A useful hashtag directory to discover topics and twitter chats, check the availability of hashtags and register your own.

Monitoring

Twilert twilert.com Get updates of tweets containing your brand, product, service... any keyword you like. Great for making sure you don’t miss a crisis brewing, a sales opportunity or a chance to say thanks.

SocialMention socialmention.com Real-time social media search and analysis (not just for Twitter) (Also listed under ‘search’.)

Search

Hashtag Tracking hashtracking.com Gives you all the tweets on a hashtag, # tweets, followers, impressions etc.

Twitter Advanced Search Twitter.com/search-advanced Often overlooked but very powerful searching capabilities.

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SocialMention socialmention.com Real-time social media search and analysis (not just for Twitter).

TweetGrid tweetgrid.com Twitter search dashboard that updates in real time.

Topsy topsy.com Real-time search for the social web. Google for the social web.

Postpost postpost.com A tool that helps you to discover interesting tweets that might otherwise have been buried.

Measuring influence & reputation monitoring

Klout klout.com measures your influence on your social networks.

Kred kred.com Another good influence measurement company.

tweetLevel tweetlevel.edelman.com Tracks influence and shows the algorithm used to calculate it.

PeerIndex peerindex.com Measures influence by topic and person, etc.

tweetGrader tweet.grader.com Check the power of your Twitter profile.

RetweetRank retweetrank.com Tracks your rank and retweets.

tweetreach tweetreach.com Measures the reach of tweets, links and hashtags.

Analysis

Bit.ly bit.ly Track information you post to Twitter by custom URLs.

SocialBro socialbro.com Powerful Twitter analysis.

SocialBakers socialbakers.com Global Twitter stats.

ManageFlitter manageflitter.com Powerful Twitter account management, both free and paid.

Twittercounter twittercounter. To just keep an eye on your activity and growth (and that of the competition) you can use the freemium level of this app.

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Organisation

Unfollowing You may find yourself following a lot of accounts which may no longer be active, are fake, or of little use to you. A number of apps such as Manageflitter and Tweepi offer a service to analyse and categorise your following list and then make it easy to unfollow them (though beware of either following or unfollowing too many at once, as Twitter sets limits on this and may suspend your account).

Twitlistmanager twitlistmanager.com fetches the people you follow, as well as any lists you’ve already created, and puts everything on a single page. You can create new lists if you want to, and simply check boxes to add or remove people to your lists.

Twitter chats

An excellent way to contribute, meet people and exchange views on Twitter is by participating in Twitter chats. Twitter chats are conversations around any topics, organised by a hashtag for that topic, and sometimes held at prearranged times. They might be a one-off, ongoing, or often a regularly scheduled event.

The idea is that anyone can join in by searching for that hashtag and using it in their tweets – but don’t use Twitter chats to spam people with links: you’ll find yourself quickly blocked and reported for spam by communities which police themselves.

On the other hand, if your tweets add value to the conversation, you’ll find a ready-made audience ready to click your links, retweet your best stuff, follow you and welcome you into their hashtagged community.

Examples:

#Usguys – an ongoing discussion where any topic is ok#cmgr – an ongoing discussion around social media community management matters#fitblog – The weekly #FitBlog Twitter Chat is held every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET and focuses on all the hot topics facing the fitness and healthy living community that week#cmgrhangout is a combination Google Hangout and Twitter chat for community managers. Every Friday at 2pm EST and the 2nd Saturday of every month at 11am EST. More details at http://mycmgr.com

How can I find a Twitter chat?There is no definitive directory of Twitter chats, but this article from Social Media Today lists a number of popular chats and includes a link to a spreadsheet of known groups: The Twitter Chat Schedule. Robert Swanwick hosts a Google Spreadsheet listing more than 750 Twitter chats. If you know (or host) one that isn’t on his list yet, feel free to add it. The public Google doc is editable by anyone.

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Also check out:

Chirpguide chirpguide.com provides a searchable directory of chats and live tweeters – but please note that this is still in Beta.

Tweetchat tweetchat.com allows you to search for chats by hashtag. Things tend to move pretty quickly during a twitter chat and it’s easy to miss handfuls of comments at a time. Tweetchat allows you to see all updates in real-time but it also “smart-pauses” while you scroll down the stream, ensuring you don’t miss anything.

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Part Four: Stuff you need to know

Hacking and security

There have been many instances of Twitter accounts being hacked, either as part of a political action, by mischief-makers or a rogue employee. Here’s what you can do to help protect yourself:

• Keep the password secure and try not to share it (you can use tools such as secure log-in systems or Grouptweet to share the account).

• Make sure the password is unique and long. So, it’s not used on any other account and preferably 20 characters or more, uses uppercase and special characters. Nothing guessable, like ‘MyC0mpanyName’ please.

• Change the password frequently.• Remember which email address you are using with the account, and keep it secure.• Get a mobile/cell number associated with the account via the profile settings and verify it.

Consider using the new two-step authentication process offered by Twitter. • Watch your output. It’s stating the obvious, but make sure that you have a column open watching

your feed and that it is monitored as close to 24/7 as you can get.• Have an escalation process in place with 24/7 contacts. Ensure it is available to all who may need

it. Keep it updated!

If your Twitter account has been hacked, then speed is essential.

• Change your password immediately, if that’s still possible.

• If you can’t log in to change it, then request an email from Twitter via the password resend form, which will give you the opportunity to reset it. Be sure to use the username and email address associated with the account.

• Lost access to the email account associated with the account? Try entering the phone number you had verified in that form instead to reset it via SMS. If you’ve lost access to the email address that’s linked to your Twitter account and haven’t got a phone number associated, you can try contacting your email service provider to try and regain access. Here are contact links to common email providers.

After you have control again

• Put out a statement alerting the public to the hacking and misinformation, with an apology to the community.

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• Delete the errant tweets and pictures.• Use humour - if humour is at all appropriate - to get the crowd back on your side.

Twitter lingo

Not only does the Twitter platform have its own special jargon (to which Twitter has helpfully published its own glossary), you’ll have noticed that – due to the 140 character limit – Twitter is full of abbreviations and acronyms. Here’s a list to get you started:

Technical Twitter abbreviations:CC = Carbon-copy. Works the same way as emailCX = CorrectionCT = Cuttweet. Another way of saying partial retweetDM = Direct message. A direct-message is a message only you and the person who sent it can readHT = Hat tip. This is a way of attributing a link to another Twitter userMT = Modified tweet. This means the tweet you’re looking at is a paraphrase of a tweet originally written by someone elsePRT = Partial retweet. The tweet you’re looking at is the truncated version of someone else’s tweet.PRT = Please retweet, a plea to put at the end of a tweetRT = Retweet. The tweet you’re looking at was forwarded to you by another userSP = sponsored (link or tweet).

Industry Twitter abbreviations:EM = Email MarketingEZine = Electronic MagazineFB = FacebookLI = LinkedIn *SEO = Search Engine OptimizationSM = Social MediaSMM = Social Media MarketingSMO = Social Media OptimizationSN = Social NetworkSROI = Social Return on InvestmentUGC = User Generated ContentYT = YouTube

Conversational abbreviations:# = start to a hashtag, or a way of organizing subjects on TwitterAB/ABT = AboutAFAIK = As far as I knowAYFKMWTS = Are you f---ing kidding me with this s---?B4 = BeforeBFN = Bye for nowBGD = BackgroundBH = BlockheadBR = Best regards

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BTW = By the wayCD9 = Code 9, parents are around CHK = CheckCUL8R = See you laterDAM = Don’t annoy meDD = Dear daughterDF = Dear fiancéDP = used to mean “profile pic”DS = Dear sonDYK = Did you know, Do you knowEM/EML = EmailEMA = Email addressF2F /FTF = Face to faceFB = FacebookFF = Follow FridayFFS = For F---‘s SakeFML = F--- my life.FOTD = Find of the dayFTW = For the win, F--- the worldFUBAR = F---ed up beyond all repair (slang from the US Military)FWIW = For what it’s worthGMAFB = Give me a f---ing breakGTFOOH = Get the f--- out of hereGTS = Guess the songHAGN = Have a good nightHAND = Have a nice dayHOTD = Headline of the dayHT = Heard throughHTH = Hope that helpsIC = I seeICYMI = “In case you missed it,” a quick way to apologize for retweeting your own materialIDK = I don’t knowIIRC = If I remember correctlyIMHO = In my humble opinion.IRL = In real lifeJK = Just kidding, jokeJS = Just sayin’JSYK = Just so you knowJV = Joint ventureKK = Kewl kewl, or ok, got itKYSO = Knock your socks offLBS = Laughing but serious... LHH = Laugh hella hard (stronger version of LOL)LMAO = Laughing my ass offLMK = Let me knowLO = Little One (child)LOL = Laugh out loud

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MM = Music MondayMIRL = Meet in real life NBD = No big dealNCT = Nobody cares, though NFI = No Further Information or Not F---ing InterestedNFW = No f---ing wayNJoy = EnjoyNSFW = Not safe for workNTS = Note to selfOH = OverheardOMFG = Oh my f---ing GodOOMF = One of my friends/followers ORLY = Oh, really?PLMK = Please let me knowPOIDH - Pictures, or it didn’t happen! QOTD = quote of the dayRE = In reply to, in regards toRLRT = Real-life re-tweet, a close cousin to OHRTFM = Read the f---ing manualRTQ = Read the questionSFW = Safe for workSMDH = Shaking my damn head, SMH = Shaking my headSNAFU = Situation normal, all f---ed up (slang from the US Military)SO = Significant Other (or S/O = Shout Out)SOB = Son of a B----SRS = SeriousSTFU = Shut the f--- up!STFW = Search the f---ing web!TFTF = Thanks for the followTFTT = Thanks for this tweetTJ = tweetjack, or joining a conversation belatedly to contribute to a tangentTL = TimelineTLDR/TL;DR = Too long, didn’t readTMB = tweet me backTT = Trending topicTY = Thank youTYIA = Thank you in advanceTYT = Take your timeTYVW = Thank you very muchW or W/ = WithW/E or WE = Whatever or weekendWTV = WhateverYGTR = You got that rightYKWIM = You know what I meanYKYAT = You know you’re addicted to YMMV = Your mileage may varyYOLO = You only live once

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YOYO = You’re on your own YW = You’re welcomeZOMG = OMG to the max Common hashtags and chats:#BrandChat = private chat about branding#CMAD = Community Manager Appreciation Day#CMGR = Community Manger topic chat#FB = The user is sending this post to Facebook#FF = Short way of saying Follow Friday, or a recommendation that others follow the user#in = the user is sending this post to LinkedIn#LI = This user is sending this post to LinkedIn *Use this hashtag to cross post your tweet to LinkedIn (set it up here)#LinkedInChat = For general use questions and questions about marketing/self-promotion on LinkedIn#Mmchat = Marketing and social media chat#Pinchat = a chat for maximising Pinterest use#SMManners = Social media manners chat#SMMeasure = For discussion of analytics and measurement, led by MarketWire and Sysomos#SMOchat = Social Media Optimisation chat lead by Stanzr#SocialChat = Social media chat lead by SocialParle#SocialMedia = an all-inclusive chat for subjects big and small in the subject of Social Media

Twitter Terms and Conditions

The Twitter rules are here and are designed to protect against copyright violations, spamming, trademark and privacy infringements. Please read them.

Assuming that you are NOT indulging in black hat marketing and are mindful of the law on copyright, including copyright of images, the rule which you are most likely to accidentally fall foul of is spamming by following or unfollowing en mass, posting the same link within 24 hours, or posting too many times within a period. The latter could be a problem if a group of you are, for example, live tweeting from the same account, or reaching out to followers in a marketing campaign. This infringement can result in your account being suspended, so be careful.

Posting limitsSee here for the rules on the limits of DM, tweets etc per day (at time of writing, 1000 tweets per day).

Follower / following ratiosSee here for more from Twitter on best practices for following (again, designed to avoid spamming and unethical marketing techniques). Note that once you’ve followed 2000 users, there are limits to the number of additional users you can follow: this limit is different for every user and is based on your ratio of followers to following.

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Automation rulesMany third party applications exist for Twitter automations: auto follow-backs, auto follow-acknowledgements, automated tweets based on an action you’ve taken (for example, posting to Twitter when you upload a video in YouTube) – the list goes on.

Whether automation is a good idea is up for debate. Some say yes, and some no. It really depends on the size of your account and how personal and tightly targeted you want to be. There is a great danger of your tweets appearing like spam.

If you do choose to automate your tweeting, be aware that Twitter holds you responsible for the actions of your account: be sure you’ve checked out the app concerned and it’s not violating Twitter rules on automation. An example of violation is automatically tweeting to trending topics – anyone who has attended a popular conference with a Twitter wall knows that moment of despair when the spam bots leap on the hashtag and the wall is suddenly covered by naked nubiles proffering links. Please check out the rules here.

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About eModeration

eModeration is a social media management agency which delivers high-quality multi-lingual community management and moderation services, social media consultancy, and crisis management training and simulations.

With offices in London, Los Angeles and New York, we work with some of the world’s biggest brands across a wide range of industry sectors. These include: automotive, kids and entertainment, FMCG, financial services, luxury brands, media, pharmaceutical, publishing, and telecoms.

The agency works with leading global brands, including BBC Worldwide, HSBC, Mind Candy (Moshi Monsters), MTV, Sony Mobile, ITV, Hyundai, Smirnoff, the LEGO Group, Sprint and The Economist.

It also works with a growing roster of agencies, including Starcom MediaVest Group, Wieden + Kennedy, Ogilvy, Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB Worldwide, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Publicis Groupe.

Committed to providing a safe and engaging social media experience for children and adults, eModeration’s CEO Tamara Littleton has over 11 years’ experience of community and social media management and moderation. She has also advised the UK government on guidelines for child safety.

eModeration contributes to the development of social media expertise via its white papers, and blogs and has a strong roster of returning clients who appreciate the agency’s high quality services and expertise in social media tools and trends.

© eModeration Limited 2013. This document is the intellectual property of eModeration Limited and may not be duplicated or disclosed to any third party without the written permission of an authorised officer of the company.

Disclaimer: All information and links correct at the time of publication. eModeration does not take responsibility for any of the tools or apps featured in this guide.