Time and Twitter – How to Manage Your Business and Twitter

Posted by Michael Duvall in Twitter, Twitter Business Tips on Oct 21st, 2009 | one response

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You know you need to use Twitter to develop your business but it is so easy to find your time being eaten away with twittering. It is important to stay organized and to make sure the time you do use with Twitter is as effective as possible.

A word about Automation:

Many new, and not so new, Twitter users make the mistake of over automating their tweets and other Twitter activities. While it certainly makes sense to use some of the many Twitter Tools available using nothing but automated systems is just false time saving. Twitter is a social site, not an advertising bill board. If you automate everything, people will notice and then ignore you.

Use any automation tools sparingly. They may save time but they may not be productive either. Here is a short list of some of the most popular Twitter tools that you many or may not find useful. There are of course many other tools available too.
- TweetDeck
- MrTweet
- Twitter Search
- WP to Twitter
- Social Oomph

Schedule your Twitter Time

If you really enjoy social networking, you may find yourself spending hours tweeting, especially if you have alerts set to let you know every time someone tweets you. Build a certain amount of time into your daily schedule for Twittering, and then stick to it! It is a good idea to include time not only for tweeting, but for retweeting, checking stats, answering personal tweets and researching. Researching doesn’t need to take long, but it gives you something to tweet about other than just yourself or your business.

Being effective:

Being effective means making meaningful posts and having quality followers rather than quantity. This is where the selection of the tools you choose to use is important. Choose the right ones so your precious time is spent on the business of being real. Don’t just tweet links, and certainly don’t make the mistake of posting only links to your own site/s. A good tweet that includes a link should have something to bring context and meaning to it. Why do you think it is a good link? Say so as succinctly as you can.

Take a little time to retweet other’s tweets. With practice you can quickly move to a link, take in the main points and then have something useful to add to it in your retweet. Always thank anyone who has taken the time to retweet you too. They are adding genuine value to your Twitter presence.

Take the time to be yourself. While you need to maintain a professional attitude, your posts should also reflect something of who you are as a thinking human being. Respond to other people’s tweets. If need be, set yourself a limit of how many tweets you will make a response to in a day. There is no need to go overboard.

We all know that in business time is money. Twitter can be an excellent tool for promoting and growing your business, so long as you use your Twitter time to maximum effect. In other words remember – Twitter don’t Fritter!