So You Want to be a Twitter expert: Part 4

Post 4 of 4: Keeping Up Appearances

No doubt after my last blog post you have gotten the hang of managing your followers, but now you’re probably starting to notice a new problem: you can’t control what your followers are saying, and what they are saying is showing up on your very public profile.

When you have a personal profile, this really isn’t a big deal. You simply block the user and be done with it. Sure, you lose the follower, but it’s not like you are trying to sell anything.

Running a company or brand’s twitter is an entirely different matter. Let’s face it. You are trying to sell something; and, what shows up in your public feed represents the company. Profanity, politics – these are things that you don’t necessarily want to link to your business. But blocking a user removes them from your profile, and you don’t want to come across as the brand that censors its fans. 

You can start to see the Catch 22.

Fortunately, a couple of techies got an idea. Why not filter a Twitterfeed? https://oauth.filttr.com/ is a site that controls what shows up in your Twitterfeed without having to unfollow anyone. In simple terms, it’s a way to keep a clean presence without censoring.

Here’s how it works: You whitelist the words you want to show up in your feed and blacklist the words you don’t. For CBD Marketing, a whitelist word could be designing. A blacklist word, swearing.

You can see how helpful this tool starts to be.

However, remember, that this is not an ultimate solution. Twitter requires constant monitoring, and a computer can only go so far. What it considers to be a negative comment can very well be a positive one. It doesn’t identify sarcastic tones or jokes. That’s our job— no matter how time it takes.

Quick Tip of the Day: Just because there’s a social media platform for everything doesn’t mean you should be on everything— this goes double for businesses. Try each network out, but only manage a few.

Tags: blacklisting words, CBD Marketing, filttr.com, marketing, online marketing, Sarah Rising, Social Media, social media management, social media manager, social media monitoring, social platforms, tweeps, Twitter, Twitter expert, Twitter followers, Twitterfeed, whitelisting words

So You Want to be a Twitter Expert: Part 3

Post 3 of 4: Danger! Just because you CAN unfollow doesn’t mean you should.

By now, you are probably happily unfollowing with the tools of my last post. But I feel it’s my duty to forewarn: practice moderation.

Twitter is known for keeping an eye on its tweeps, and you WILL get banned if you unfollow in what it considers a “bulk size.” I know its boring and drool-worthy dull, but you should always read a social networks’ guidelines. If you’re serious about managing a network, you need to know what you can and can’t do. It’s as simple as that.

So, how many is a bulk size? Well, only Twitter knows that. Kind of foreboding when you think about it, but I’ve found that sticking to unfollowing users once a day, no more than 125, is a safe bet. However, the fact of the matter is you shouldn’t need to unfollow any more than that. If you are, you aren’t doing your social networking duties. Think about it. If users are dropping off like flies, you need to analysis the “why.” Is your content boring? Are you all about “me, me, me?” Sometimes, all you need to do is make a slight attitude change. Other times, you just need to mention users to get them to follow back.

For me, I generally use unfollowing tools to list the users I need to contact. As a rule, I give them 3 or 4 tweets before I call them a lost cause. I know this is hard to do today, but always think before you click.

Tags: building followers, marketing, online marketing, Sarah Rising, Social Media, social media tactics, tweeting, Twitter, Twitter expert, unfollowing