45 Power Users Twitter Productivity Secrets

45 Power Users' Twitter Productivity Secrets 89 How Twitter power users get things done on Twitter with their thousands of followers. Photo Credit: Garrett Heath Download The Ultimate Twitter Job Search Guide Phyllis Mufson, @phyllismufson: My Twitter productivity (and enjoyment) leapt when I signed on to TweetDeck and began using its’ column function to organize my followers by special interest groups. I recommend it highly â€" or other similar services like Seesmic. I also make a lot of use of the ‘Favorites’ function. When I have a few free minutes in the day, I ‘favorite’ tweets with articles, videos, etc. that look interesting, and then have a stockpile of interesting material to explore when I have free time. Susan P. Joyce, @JobHuntOrg: For me, TweetDeck/JobDeck make Twitter manageable and more, because they can be added or removed instantly, shuffled around to be always on screen or not â€" Create up a Group of my career friends, so I see their latest Tweets in a column. Follow a good list, like one for world-wide news organizations, one for US business news, etc. to get the latest news across the globe in a column, and TweetDeck turns the list into a column of Tweets Turn a search into a column of Tweets, like #encorecareers or #jobsearch or #jobhunting (I have all 3, plus a few more). If I were job hunting, I’d create: a Group for my target employers a Group for the thought leaders in my industry or profession a Group of the top career people to follow (like you and me, of course) a Group JobHuntOrg list of employers-recruiting, the list of job-postings, the list of recruiters, job search experts, etc. TweetDeck allows me to follow 16,000 people and turn all that Twitter “noise” into useful/usable information. I certainly still miss a lot, but it has allowed me to expand my universe enormously. I just counted, and I have 15 TweetDeck columns going right now. I fire it up before I open a browser or email, now. Wow! (Of course, maybe I spend too much time and energy on Twitter, but I LOVE reading all the information that flows by me!) Use whatever of the above fits and is appropriate. Rosa E.Vargas, @resumeservice: Make a private list to follow your favorite pple and you can DM them once in a while to say hi. Good virtual relationship building. Also, you really should follow back as many as you can as they will RT you and appreciate the follow. I use to be too selective. Now, I have more RTS but distill with a private list. Schedule Twitter time (really) + write down great tweets that come to mind when off line for later + monitor hot RT trends Alison Doyle, @AlisonDoyle: Sign out. It’s important, especially when job searching, to balance the time you spend on social media with other job search activities. Willy Franzen, @willyf: Follow fewer people. You’ll have a more manageable amount of content flowing through your feed, and you’ll build better relationships. Dan Schawbel, @DanSchawbel: my top Twitter productivity tip is to use SocialOomph to schedule tweets for throughout the week so you can concentrate more on marketing and communication, rather than publishing valuable content every day (because it will happen automatically). Rachel Levy, @bostonmarketer: “Get in and Get out” â€" Go on Twitter, update your status, reply to a few people, RT a few tweets, and GET OFF! Don’t leave Tweetdeck open all day, or else it will suck you in. I use TwitterGadget (Firefox gadget) for quick checks through out the day to see if someone sent me an @reply. Alexandra Levit, @alevit: Only tweet at certain times of the day. You’ll avoid heavy traffic and manage to get other work done in the process! Rebecca Thorman, @modite: Enjoy your real life so you have interesting things to tweet about. Jennifer McClure, @CincyRecruiter: Use TweetDeck or a similar tool to group people that you’re following and set up searches for keywords mentions. Helps to focus attention! Susan D. Strayer, @DailyCareerTips: best tip is to proactively reach out. i look for people frustrated about job search and ask how i can help. engage, engage, engage! Miriam Salpeter, @Keppie_Careers: Use a Twitter app to help organize your incoming tweets. Set searches for hashtags or topics of interest particpate in the conversations. Jen, @PongoResume: Set up searches in HootSuite or TweetDeck to reach out to people who are asking questions that you have expertise in…being helpful is key! Jeff Lipschultz, @JLipschultz: U need not actively recruit follwersâ€"let ur following grw naturlly. It will take longer 2 get a large number, but u’ll have a qulity group. Chandlee Bryan, @chandlee: Budget your time. When you login, know when you’ll log out. Use listsâ€"they are islands in your stream. Star favorites. Tweet as much from others as you do of yourselfâ€"sharing is contagious. Log out. Connect face-to-face w/Twitter friends. Cindy Kraft, @CFOCoach: With so many resource tips, Twitter minutes can turn in2 hours. Bookmark favs 2 read during a specified chunk of time. Then get back 2 work. andyheadworth, @andyheadworth: Use List function on Tweetdeck. Create a list of people you want to follow with interest. ALL their tweets can be seen whenever you logon. Applicants, @applicants: Be consistent. Don’t tweet 50 tweets in one day disappear for a week. Consistency on twitter is as critical as everything else. Heather R. Huhman, @heatherhuhman: Use a 3rd party app, like TweetDeck, devote a certain amount of time to Twitter each week. Don’t go above or below that number! nghafouri, @nghafouri: I’m a freelance marketing consultant and manage 4 corporate Twitter streams. Here are my favorites applications to make Twitter more manageable: Twitter Karma: Let’s you manage followers/following. I found it particularly useful when I hit the 2k following roadblock with my clients. I’d use it to identify people who weren’t following me back and then unfollow the ones who hadn’t posted in a long time. TweetFunnel: FULL DISCLOSURE: I consult for TweetFunnel and have helped market and develop the product. But even if I wasn’t working for them, I would use this app because is makes my life SO much easier. I can manage multiple accounts and multiple tweeters per account, stockpile content, schedule tweets, track clicks and do pretty much everything I need to from one interface. Keyword monitoring alerts send you an email when the keywords you’ve set get tweeted. This one feature has saved me so much time combing through Seesmic and Twitter. Seesmic Desktop: This app is great for monitoring for @replies, etc. because of the pop up notifications. It’s also what I used for keyword monitoring before TweetFunnel added this feature. Adrienne Bailey, @AdrienneBailey: Use Tweet Deck to set up separate ‘search-term’ columns for terms/names you are typically on the lookout for. Then, spend about 5 minutes every hour reading an engaging with those actively participating on Twitter. This limits the amount of time you spend scrolling through your Twitter feed. I personally monitor trends and my clients Twitter handles through Tweet Deck, being organized and utilizing the tools available makes it all seem less over-whelming. Thanks and please let me know if you need anything else. Recruiting Animal, @animal: Take other people’s postings make them better. Jessica Levin, @JessicaLevin: Tweet 3 times a day. 5 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes at lunch and 5 minutes in the evening. You Tweets should be a variety including article that you have read or written, replies to other or tweets. A nice mix of information sharing and interaction can go a long way. Shel Horowitz, @shelhorowitz: I check in briefly several times a day (using TweetDeck, mostly).Big impact w/ small time commitment. Cheryl Harrison, @CherylHarrison: Groups groups groups. Segmenting Twitter followers into categories (media, bloggers, industry, friends) prioritizing Barbara Safani, @barbarasafani: Reciprocity-Be diligent about sharing strong content from other peeps that promote your content. Ronnie Manning, @RManning_Mynt: use a 3rd party app like TweetDeck which allow you to update/ add/ search topics / categorize users to topics of interst Scott Stadum, @IdealistScott: Working with Idealist.org, we use Twitter in a number of ways. We actually have a team of four people that use CoTweet to manage the incoming thoughts, ideas, requests and comments â€" To promote surveys and get feedback To interact with crowds during both Idealist graduate school fairs as well as volunteer workshops…we’d post thoughts and questions and interact with the people that respond To interact directly with our uses in a customer service capacity To promote grad fair and career fair events To promote jobl istsing and volunteer events In July I attended CrisisCamp in Washington, DC and used Twitter to track thoughts and notes from my session. I would organize the tweets using Google docs into an outline and then thought it would be easier if I published the Google Doc to Twitter and gave access to everyone from my session to help with the notes. Within minutes of posting the url to the #CrisisCamp hashtag, I have eight other attendees adding thoughts, notes, photos and helping to clean up the outline. Hillel Fuld, @HilzFuld: Choose a Twitter client like Tweetdeck, use Twitter lists to categorize the people you follow, and always leave extra space in your tweets so people can retweet you. Jonathan Fields, @jonathanfields: Batch your time. Use a client like tweetdeck to categorize who you follow. Jump in, don’t catch up. Suzie, @AceConcierge: My platform of choice is Tweetdeck- 2nd would be Hootsuite. Creating lists are also value added, enabling me to further filter the “noise”. I also use search columns to help keep in touch with many of my followers. Of course it is never easy to engage w every1 as the amt of followers expands but the dialog/conversations do lead to engagement outside of Twitter to help deepen the relationship. So I don’t exactly have just one tip. :] I do respond to every @ and DM. It is part of social media and for me, simply being real. I def could spend some time. 140 characters keeps us concise and little more direct. Aaron Lee, @AskAaronLee: Ask and you shall receive =) Works for me =) Mollie Marti, @DrMollieMarti: Get 1 BIG task done before 1st am session. Set a timer (one fav is American Pie song â€" 8.5 mins). Include a RT in each session! monicahamburg, @monicahamburg: Lists can be very useful, and private lists can be a great way of checking out a group of people you’d like to get to know better and with whom you’d like to establish a stronger relationship. For instance, if you’re a restaurant owner and there a few online magazines/bloggers you’d like to communicate with â€" segregating them into a private list, just for your eyes, allows you to see what’s going on â€" and get you into the conversation, at a glance. Bill Vick, @BillVick: Networking is like a road with two directions. You have to give “group savvy” valuable information, not just self promotion. I use a number of tools to help me manage my twitter (and social media) experience. Two of the better ones are:1 â€" HootSuite A great and simple posting tool that feeds to Twitter, Facebook (via Ping.fm) and LinkedIn. Not only will the Hootlet menu item parse and shorten the URL but it will capture the heading if available. It supports immediate and timed, or send later, tweets. HootSuite also has rudimentary statistics on tracking tweet/re-tweet activity. 2 â€" NutShellMail I receive a twice a day comprehensive report and overview of my twitter activity, new and un-followers, reacap of my lists activity and a recap of my Facebook activity. It’s free and a must have. Dawn Bugni, @DawnBugni: My best weapon in my Twitter productivity arsenal is a kitchen timer. I so easily get sucked into conversations, reading articles tweeted by my colleagues or following interesting threads to hear varying points of view, an hour or two slips away before I even know it. I finally broke down and moved the timer from the kitchen to the office. I use it to time intervals between times I can check the Twitter stream â€" 20-30 minutes focused, uninterrupted writing earns a short Twitter break. Or I set the timer for the time I can spend on Twitter before re-directing my attentions back to client work. The social interaction and knowledge sharing is vital, especially for solopreneurs. But moderation is key. Too much of a good thing is not good. Tim Tyrell-Smith, @TimsStrategy: Create a Twitter list of your target companies. Call it: “Great Companies In (City)” or “Best of (City)”. Now you can easily keep track of each company, re-tweet their ideas and perhaps build a relationship with someone who works there. Jason Alba, @jasonalba: twitter productivity tip â€" don’t read the first page of Twitter… ?? David Benjamin, @DaveBenjamin: Provide value in different ways. Some might need advice, others suggestions. Sometimes it’s as simple as making someone laugh who is down. Hannah Morgan, @careersherpa: Follow great people! Gr8 = inspiring, cutting edge, trenders, inside your field, outside your field, make you think, make you scream! Ruhani Rabin, @ruhanirabin: Search and list the right people on right topics.. use the right tool .. retweet useful stuff.. Blair Semenoff, @Flipbooks: “Your Tweets are a reflection of you. Don’t waste your time ReTweeting irrelevant information” ~B davidtheprguy, @davidtheprguy: Develop many sources of great information of interest to your followers and share them freely, whether or not you wrote them. Sally Falkow, @sallyfalkow: Here are my tips: Use a tool like Tweetdeck and keep it open on your computer Use AllTop to track intesting news in your space. Or use your RSS reader Tweet good content with the link Follow those who mention you or retweet you and engage with them Always give value â€" tweet good content