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Alright fellow interneters. It's about to get real. Part three of building a social media presence, and it's time to catch up to my present state on Twitter. If you missed parts one and two, click those underlined words over there <--.
So after my first 3-4 weeks of stumbling around, I suddenly remembered what Twitter (and all social media) is really about. Um...being social. Yeah, I'm a bit slow, I know.
Oh well.
Anyway, I got social. I was already underway finding like-minded copywriters, so I simply started to interact more. I liked tweets that I thought were good, and I retweeted the ones that were even better. Also, I found that a simple retweet is much less powerful than one with a comment. So, if you're going to do some retweeting, I'd suggest adding your own thoughts onto the original. That way, you can add whatever hashtags or mentions you think apply. And it gets a conversation going with the OP.
Nice, I'm starting to NOT look like a grandpa out there!
This small change (interacting) has made a huge difference. Which led me to a realization. It's something obvious, that we all know deep down, but we don't always say out loud. What was it, you ask?
People like to be liked.
In fact, we love it. We love attention. No matter how cool, aloof, or "I don't give a shit" someone might seem, they secretly crave the warm embrace of human attention. Even from random internet strangers.
I'm not ashamed to admit it - I love that rush when someone likes a tweet or follows me. Sure, some of you might be numb to that high after years Twitterage, but for someone who's still new, it is very real.
Oh no, I think I've found the connection between social media and heroin!
So for all my fellow beginners, remember that people want to be liked. Literally. They want their tweets to be liked. And retweeted. And commented on. The more you do this for others, the more they'll do it for you. Plus, this gets your name around, makes you more visible, and shows that you care something (other than yourself).
It's a win-win-win.
It might've taken me a month and a half to remember the social in social media, but I'll just remind you that I haven't used Twitter since my sophomore year of high school (ten years ago), so have some mercy. You can still laugh though. Don't worry, I can't hear you (through my tears).
Now, I may not be a SMM pro, but I know that this is good advice for anyone trying to use social media for business: engage with people in your field. That's been my biggest takeaway on Twitter to this point. If you put in the time to connect with people, they'll be much more likely to pay attention to what you have to say. By the way, this doesn't mean you have to spend hours a day on Twitter. Take fifteen minutes or a half hour, and go all out. And then...
...put it away. It's easy to waste time.
So, to recap: break out of your shell, connect with people, show that you're a real person with useful information (who's actually willing to share it), and you'll be doing a great service to your business. That's pretty much it.
Aaaannd...we're up to date! That's my Twitter career to this point. I hope you've had as much fun as I have. In part four, we're going to start looking at Instagram. The hilarity continues.
If you want to catch up on the first two installments of this series, click here for part one and here for part two.
Check out my Twitter account @LeBeardedScribe, and throw me a follow if you're feeling generous.
And, as usual, if you need a (non-social media) writer, click here.