The Basics of using Twitter and Hootsuite

1. Twitter and Hootsuite
Barbara O’Neill
@moneytalk1

2. What Types of Social Media
Do YOU Use?
 Have you tweeted?
 Do you have a blog
 Do you use Facebook?
 Are you Linked In?
 Other (e.g., Instagram)?

3. 3
Why Social Media?
IF FACEBOOK were a country, it would be
the largest country in the world. There are
more Facebook users than there are people
in any country.
2.5 Billion active monthly FB users (vs. ~1.4b
residents of China and ~1.35b residents of India
and ~326 million U.S. residents )
The world’s second most popular search engine
is YOUTUBE
YouTube is owned by #1 search engine GOOGLE
There are 330 million monthly active users
and 145 million daily active users on TWITTER
in 2020.
https://www.oberlo.com/blog/twitter-statistics

4. My Street Cred
 Twitter user since 2009
 Former professor at Rutgers University
 Currently a full-time entrepreneur
 Use Twitter for business 95%+ of the time
 In top 1.5% of Twitter users worldwide (~3,500 followers)
Only 0.06% of Twitter users have more than 20,000 followers, and
only 2.12% have more than 1,000 followers. Meanwhile, 95.9% have
less than 500 followers. Users with up to five followers has
decreased from 46% to 32%, while users with more than
100 followers has more than doubled to 16% from 7%.
https://sysomos.com/inside-twitter/twitter-statistics/

5. My Tweeting: Business Use Only

6. Twitter Benefits for Me
 FREE way to build my brand and promote my business
 Source of daily news (no need to buy a newspaper)
 Source of research-based information (search a hash tag)
 Stay connected with colleagues and friends
 View a variety of opinions
 Great for conference summaries

7. Why Do YOU Want to Use
Twitter?
 To see what all the fuss is about
 Promote your brand and/or business
 Stay connected with friends and family
 Get daily news for free
 Learn new things
 Follow people who you respect
 Share your opinions
 Other reasons?

8. Develop a Twitter “Game
Plan”
 Professional use only?
 Personal use only?
 Personal and professional use? (one account or two?)
 “Off Limits” content (e.g., politics)
 Having a “game plan” will help you determine what
(and what not) to tweet about

9. My Twitter Mission Statement
“To provide useful, research-based personal
finance information (and occasional, non-
controversial personal anecdotes) to an
increasing number of followers”
Dr. Barbara O’Neill, CFP®

10. Write Your Twitter Mission
Statement
To…. https://giphy.com/categories.

11. Twitter 101
Log on to www.twitter.com
Determine your username and
password
Let your mission statement
drive your user name
Examples:
 Business name
 Favorite hobby/passion
 Name or nick name
Also determine a graphic image
Examples:
 Personal or family photo
 Logo
 Graphic image

12. You Have 280 Characters to
Say Something
The circle fills in blue as the number of characters
increases; turns gold when you exceed the limit

13. Tweet Length
 Typical tweet length is less than 50 characters even
with 2018 increase from 140 characters to 280:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/8/16990308/twitt
er-280-character-tweet-length
 If you “run long,” substitute and smush to save
characters
4 for “for” and 2 for “to” or “too”
#creditcards

14. Try to Engage Your Followers
 Avoid pure “broadcasting”
 Ask questions
 Show interest in others
 Incorporate seasonal events or current events
 Provide useful information and links
 Retweet useful information from others

15. Visuals Increase Twitter
Engagement Three Times
https://www.joe.org/joe/2019april/pdf/JOE_v57_2tt7.pdf
Canva graphics
Paint graphics
Grayed out images
Hand drawn sketches
Stock images
Personal photos
GIFs (https://giphy.com/categories)

16. Hashtags Are a Data Magnet
 Choose hashtags mindfully
 People search hashtags for content (like a key word)
 See #Explore for searches and to see trending hashtags
 Frequently used hashtags pop up automatically (just click)
 Hashtag words are frequently smushed together (e.g.,
#financialeducation, #creditcards, and #AshWednesday)
 Don’t overuse hashtags in a tweet (e.g., every other word)

17. Notifications
Likes, Retweets, New Followers, Mentions, Direct Messages

18. Messages (DMs)

19. Twitter Profile

20. Twitter Profile Tips
 Use your real name
 Use a high-quality photo
 Use a high-quality header image (1,500 px x 1,500 px)
 Include credentials
 Tell prospective followers who you are and what you do in
160 characters or less
 Include a URL to your blog or website
 Tweak and update as needed

21. Other Twitter Tips and Tools
 Create short customized links to content with Bit.ly
https://bitly.com/ or TinyURL https://tinyurl.com/
 Track your Twitter influence with Kred
https://www.home.kred/

22. Key Twitter “Influence”
Factors
 Number and power of followers
 Engagement of followers
 Number and frequency of tweets
 Follower/Following ratio
 Number of likes
 Number of retweets

23. Monitor and Schedule
Tweets With Hootsuite

24. Hootsuite Publisher

25. Final Thoughts
 Know why you are tweeting: have a “game plan”
 Start small (10-15 minutes per day)
 “Lurk” for as long as you want
 Tweet when you are ready
 Build your skills, confidence, and network

26. More Final Thoughts
 Recognize people with shout outs to their Twitter name
 Like and/or retweet useful content
 Consider following people who follow you
 Unfollow bad actors (e.g., trolls) and block their tweets
 Report questionable content to Twitter
 Periodically review lists of suggested followers
 Check out Twitter chats (e.g., #creditchat)

27. Welcome to the
“Twittterverse”
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/
29186/twitterverse

28. Questions? Comments?
Experiences?
You can follow me on Twitter @moneytalk1