Update 2020: This post is now outdated and archived, but feel free to read it to remember what it was like. ?
Twitter, as we all know, is a very popular and growing social media site. It only started in 2006 but it is very popular now (You should really try it out if you haven’t!).
So if you are an active twitter user, here are 10 ways to improve your twitter, most of which you hadn’t done.
1. Block auto DMs and enable email notifications for DMs
In case you didn’t know, DMs are Direct Messages. And they can be automated. So whenever you follow a person who has automated DMs enabled, you get a “Welcome” DM from them, which isn’t genuine.
So, why not block it? If you do so, your twitter inbox would be much cleaner. You would only receive genuine DMs. Here are the steps to block ‘em.
1) Log in to Twitter.
2) Follow @OptMeOut.
3) Wait for @OptMeOut to follow you back. @OptMeOut will send you a DM to tell you it has followed you.
4) Then send a DM to @OptMeOut. (You can write whatever you want in the DM, it does not matter.)
5) After sending the DM, unfollow @OptMeOut. (This way your opting out remains private since you won’t be in the list of @OptMeOut’s followers. We will unfollow you as well.)
Must be done in that order.
For more information of opting out of auto-DMs, click here.
And now that you have gotten rid of all the spam, you can enable email notifications now.
Now you will be notified every time a person sends you a genuine, personal direct message, via email 😉 .
2. Share your replies with others
If you send out a reply starting with ‘@username’, a big bunch of people is not going to see that reply, unless they are following you and the person to whom you are replying.
So if you think your reply is useful, go add something before ‘@username’ like
‘Hey @username I think it looks brilliant! http://bit.ly/2t6XtY”
or with a full stop.
“.@username I think it is amazing! http://bit.ly/2t6XtY”
3. Get a custom twitter background
A custom twitter background is cool and pretty (Much, much better than the default one). It also gives your profile visitors some information about you. Plus, it gives more evidence that you are a human and not another bot, which most people don’t like to follow.
Here is my example of a twitter background.
Click here for 10 websites to look for stunning (and free) twitter backgrounds.
4. At least, tweak the colors
If you don’t think you have the time to create a twitter background, you should at least tweak some of your twitter profile’s colors. Default twitter colors are just too…default.
Go to Settings >> Design >> Change Design Colors to do that.
5. Subscribe to a twitterer
Well, sometimes it’s easy to miss tweets on twitter when you are away. If you don’t want to miss tweets from a particular person, subscribe to their twitter feed using an RSS reader.
Of course, subscribe to a person (so that it won’t mess your RSS reader up) whose updates are interesting, useful, or important, like @spam, or even celebrities.
To do this, click on the RSS icon (the orange thingy) at the sidebar of a twitter profile and paste that link into your RSS reader.
6. Create a twitter landing page
When you click the homepage link on a twitter profile, you go to the person’s website. Have you ever thought of creating a twitter landing page specified for visitors from twitter?
On the landing page, you can introduce yourself, your best blog posts, etc.
My example of a twitter landing page.
7. Capitalize your twitter username (i.e. twitter handle)
We’ll use John Yankee as an example.
http://twitter.com/johnyankee –> http://twitter.com/JohnYankee
Get the idea? It makes your name looks less confusing and easier to read.
To do that, go your twitter settings and capitalize the first letters of your name. And…you’re done!
Don’t worry, twitter profile addresses are not case sensitive so you can reach http://twitter.com/JohnYankee if you type http://twitter.com/johnyankee.
8. Don’t just tweet about what you are doing!
Sometimes people are not very interested to know what you are doing.
So, tweet other stuff, like
- Links
- Quotes
- Facts
- Jokes
- Puns
- News
Here are 16 types to tweets to tweet.
9. Come on, tweet something personal!
If you tweet a lot of links and quotes and facts and stuff, you should really tweet something personal; something interesting about your life. If it is not interesting, make it interesting.
Tweeting personal tweets help your followers to get to know you and your personality better. It also helps to prove that you are a real person and not a robot.
10. Use twitter like Yahoo! Answers
(Credits to @the_gman for this point)
Twitter is an interactive tool so it is important to occasionally tweet some questions for your followers to answer. This shows to your followers that you want to interact with them and they will probably answer your question.
Here are some tips when asking questions
- Use it as a research tool.
- Sometimes twitter is better than Google in helping you solve your problems. Example.
- Don’t ask questions that are impossible to answer, or they won’t be answered at all.
- Ask questions that are easy to answer to generate more replies.
- Ask questions when your loyal followers are most active.
And, not only you should ask questions, you should answer questions and help people solve their problems too, which builds friendship.
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So those are my 10 ways to improve your twitter. If you liked this post, please feel free to share it with your twitter buddies. 🙂
Do you know of any other ways to improve one’s twitter? Please feel free to share them in the comments 😉 .
Happy tweeting!
To add the the #10 point. When using Twitter as a research tool also sometimes you can use Twitter Search to search for topics that are related to what you are looking for. This will allow you to see related topics as they are being discussed on Twitter in real time and you can just jump right into a conversation via an @reply if you like.
.-= Gerald Weber´s last blog ..Multi-Author Blogs – Should you use Single WordPress or WPMU =-.
Hi Gerald.
Thank you for the useful suggestion! Twitter search is indeed amazing 😉 .
Awesome Tips. All the tips are to the point and great to follow. I have liked idea about landing page. It is creative. Nice . Thanks to share.
.-= Phoenix2life´s last blog ..The Google Story =-.
Yes, agreed with the points listed above. People has using the advantage of Tweeter to emphasize their social and marketing tools. I do encounter difficulty managed my tweeter followers. I’m try to limited myself follow others. Perhaps can share about how to managed your tweeter followers 🙂
.-= Simon Liew´s last blog ..How to Manage Your Web Blog =-.
Yeah. Sometimes keeping up with tweets is hard. So, don’t try to keep up with every single tweet because as your twitter grows, you won’t be able to keep up with every tweet .
Good thoughts by following these rules one can prove himself the genuine Twitter account holder that would matter a lot in future to make you account differ from the lot of other users .
Buddy you have suggest really very impressive tips and by using these tips anyone can be a effective twitter.
These are nice tips. Actually, I’m blowing my brains out in trying to make something out of twitter. 🙂
Phoenix2Life – Glad you like the idea
Seo London – Agreed.
cottages in cornwall – Thank you very much!
Walter – Thanks, Walter!
I like the Yahoo Answers thing, you can get feedback, tips and also organize polls in twitter and that makes it a great place to collect answers.
I use @replies a lot, that may seem spamming to a lot of guys but i like interacting with people. (That is what twitter is all about, Right?)
.-= Gautam Hans´s last blog ..36 Quality Tweeps to Follow =-.
Haha LOL. Yeah. Twitter is a really good place to get answers, personalized, in 140 characters. Hehe.
Hey kids..nice sharing tips…especially follow optmeout..something new to me..
Hello, Really a good post. The following portion “Block auto DMs and enable email notifications for DMs” – is totally unknown for me atleast. It is really informative for me, Thanks anyways. Keep it up.
Very informative post Gloson. I’m pretty new with twitter and I find it way different from facebook which I’m really acquainted. I learned something from here, thank you sweetie.
Wow, it’s great having this tips in twitter. So that people will not unfollow you. lol. Number 10 amazed me because I didn’t know some people will answer your question. I’ll try to ask questions in twitter. 🙂
Amazing Tips 🙂 I try all the tips for my twitter account. hope i’ll get good result !
Twitter is very interesting tools for fun and many interactions to what ever your purpose is.I’ve been in twitter in past 2008 until this month of June 2012 and got only at least 84 followers but now after reading bunch of info about blogging and social media as twitter I got 400 followers in just 3 weeks..That’s because of learning and reading….Thank to Gloson!!!!!!!!
I like this blog cuz this gloson’s blog’s theme and words are so funny 🙂
Very informative post Gloson. Very interesting and ideas to follow on twitter. I will try it on my page.