Okay, so we’re all feeling a little trapped these days.  Some of us are at home in quarantine, some still get out for work and other essentials.  To some it may feel like crunch time, to others not so much.  While the world works to sort itself out what can you do to still be productive?  If not for today then plan for tomorrow.  If you own a business or do any kind of social media work it just might be the time to rethink your social strategy.  While not the premise I was hoping for, it would be ignorant of me not to mention it at the outset of this article. 

Now for your regularly scheduled programming…

This week I am going on an adventure with a bird, come along will you?  Every now and again we need to look at what we are doing to ensure that our actions are in line with our goals.  Several weeks ago I assessed my Instagram feed and realized it needed some work.  Now I am onto my second most utilized social platform: Twitter. 

While everyone has different ambitions when it comes to social accounts they need to be defined before you can come up with a plan.  At this point I am not so worried about followers and engagement.  My main focus is using social media efficiently throughout the day.  Over the past week or so I have uncovered and rediscovered several tools that have greatly improved my time management on Twitter.

Beyond the tools I will also be touching on a few standard social media practices.

Writing an article about in app tools makes me feel like there will be a list of some kind, so why not start there?

Lists:

A feature found on Twitter than I have come to appreciate over the last week or so has been Lists.  Lists allow you to segment your following.  You do not need to see the latest post on yoga or football when trying to look up a recipe for tonight’s supper.  Click into your list on food or recipes and you have a custom, targeted feed on that topic. 

The ability to go and select from a shorter list of trusted and targeted feeds makes things a lot smoother.  I am finding that I am less likely to get distracted by an interesting, but unrelated piece of content.

Bookmarks:

We all have times where we are killing time on social media.  It could be while you are waiting to meet with a client, at the office or even in the car while waiting for a friend or colleague.  When it is time to go, it’s time to go.  Even though you just saw an interesting post linking to an article that you know would be worth reading. 

When you come back to Twitter later that evening you scroll through trying to find it.  How long will you give yourself to relocate a lost tweet?  If you are anything like me you might be willing to give it a minute or two.  Then accepting that the tweet has been lost in the bottomless pit of old tweets.  Had you taken a second to bookmark the tweet it would be easily accessible with two clicks.  If a tweet is worth coming back to, it’s worth bookmarking.

Tweetdeck:

For a number of years now we have known the value of being able to schedule your social media posts.  While there are a variety of options out there for scheduling posts I still prefer to act on one application at a time.  Tweetdeck for Twitter is still my number one scheduling software. 

Beyond being able to schedule your posts, Tweetdeck allows you to once again sort through the clutter and find exactly what you are looking for.  This could be in the form of a search term, an individual account, your mentions, trends, direct messages and several other options.  Being able to see all of this, in real time and on one screen can be quite a time saver.

Hashtags:

The use of hashtags seems fairly universal.  I cannot think of a platform that does not use them in one form or another.  When is the last time you have really looked into the hashtags you use?  Simply said, a hashtag on one platform is not always the same as it is on another.  Know where your hashtags are taking you.  I will not go into too much detail here, as I have written an article on hashtags previously.  Click the link if you feel so inclined.

Do You Know Exactly Where That Hashtag Is Taking You?

Content:

Be it a texty tweet, a photo, an infographic, the kinds of tweets you retweet or any other kind of content, the content you put out there is saying something about your brand.  Is your content on brand and on message? 

I use Twitter as a bit of a catch-all.  Sometimes it is news I am looking for, other times it is reactions to certain events.  In terms of my content, it tends to be all over the place.  One minute I am tweeting about an article I wrote, next I could be sending out a PSA on something timely, and still five minutes later I could be retweeting a funny or captivating quote. 

I have even started to cross platforms and occasionally have some fun with my #coffeeandhousecoatselfie.  Don’t ask, just a random Instagram post gone out of control.  

My view at this point is although if you were to look at my account it would be seemingly random, I am doing my best to develop a pattern of behaviour.  We all have had times for a side story or a quick joke at the water cooler, inevitably we all end up back at our desks doing what we came to do.  Call it personality, call it sociability, I try to break up my content.  Entertain while informing and communicating your message.

Where am I planning to take my content?

My social accounts as a whole are very multi-faceted. I use them to learn about the various platforms, communicate with the community at large, promote what work I am doing and also as a marketing tool when looking for new employment.  Remember earlier when I was calling it a catch-all? 

In terms of the types of content, I want to get into more multimedia posts; photos, more graphics, perhaps even a video or two.  For the most part Twitter, for me, has been very text heavy. 

Through appropriate hashtags I will continue to take my content down different routes.  Some posts will be geared towards “good morning”, others more in the “social media” and “marketing” realm.  I may even set some up to go down the path of “recruiters” or “hiring managers” if I really decide to up my job search efforts. 

  The use of hashtags on your Twitter feed can help to direct your communications.  If there are messages you want to share exclusively with your current followers, there is no need for any hashtags.  If you are trying to grow a following however hashtags are essential.

When it comes to your Twitter account, or any social media account really, the number one question you need to ask is what are you trying to get out of it?  For some it may be part of your marketing and sales funnel, a communication method with family and friends, a news source, an entertainment source or anything else you want it to be.  Once you have established that, the rest becomes easy.  Nothing is a “must-do”, but reverse engineering for the desired outcome is always a good idea.

Until next time,

C. P.