Daily Habits That Lead to Twitter Success

Shweiki Media has teamed up with Kevin Knebl—international speaker, author, trainer, coach and an authority on social media and marketing—to present a webinar on the simple and quick daily habits that lead to Twitter success.

Many people have mixed ideas about what Twitter actually is, because they think it’s a bunch of 13-year-old kids talking about Spongebob and Kim Kardashian. However, Knebl likes to remind people that those 13-year-old kids are only one aspect of Twitter. At the end of the day, Twitter is still a communication platform and a communication platform is really only as good as the communication skills of the person that is using the communication tool. With over 300 million users worldwide, Twitter is a phenomenal tool businesses can use in many different ways.

If you have not watched Knebl’s first webinar, “Optimizing Twitter Accounts” from Shweiki Media then I would suggest you go back and watch it. It talks about how to set up a Twitter account.  Therefore, everything that is to follow is built from the framework established in that webinar.

1. Say Good Morning: Be Motivational or Inspirational

The first thing that Knebl likes to do is post a “good morning” tweet. It can be anything really.  Creating pictures and inserting inspirational or motivational quotes is a great way to generate engagement on Twitter. If one doesn’t want to create their own pictures, then all they have to do is go to Google and search “motivational quotes.” (There is enough material to last  ten lifetimes.)  Developing the habit of posting something every morning is a good one to have because it shows people that one isan active participant on Twitter by engaging and providing value to the platform.

Normally, it is a good idea to post again in the afternoon, perhaps with something educational.

Screenshot (10)

2. The 80/20 Rule

A good rule of thumb is to follow the 80/20 rule when it comes to posting content.  The 80/20 rule basically means that 80% of the content being posted on social media should NOT be about the person posting or their product or service.  The mentality behind this is very simple: When people are watching a football game, sooner or later they will see a beer commercial.  They did not turn on the television to watch the beer commercial; they want to watch the football game.  One has to take the same kind of approach to social media.  If all one talk about is their product or service or themselves, then it becomes a turn-off because no one wants to hear that 24/7.

However, if one is  delivering value 80% of the time in the form of educational, inspirational and motivational content, then they have earned the right to talk about theirr product or service or self the other 20% of the time. It’s important to remember that most people have enough stress in their lives and they do not need to hear about somebody complaining on Twitter all the time.

3. Internet Etiquette: Saying Thank You

The next thing Knebl does is something very different from what most other people do. He’s a big believer that one receives a compliment, they should say thank you.  So why not do the same thing on social media? The challenge is when people are on social media, they forget social etiquette, but Internet etiquette is just as important.

After posting a “good morning” tweet, one can click on notifications to get a real time, chronological idea of who is engaging with them on Twitter (engaging being defined as someone who favorites retweets, shares or comments on something that one has posted.) Knebl looks over the past 24 hours, finds anyone that is engaging with his content, and then publicly thanks them using their Twitter handle.  By publicly thanking these people using their Twitter handles, he will appear in their notifications folder, and it could possibly open up a conversation.

Screenshot (11)

4. Following People Back and Starting A Conversation

The third habit Knebl has developed and does every day is follow back people who have recently started following him. To do this, one woudl go to where it says “Followers” and it will show all the people who started following one on Twitter in chronological order. Knebl looks at the profiles of people who recently started following him and if he’s not following them, he will click on their name to look at their profile to get a better understanding of who they are. If he can see that they are actual people and not spam bots or some gambling site, then he has no reason not to follow them back.

Now, what he does next is send the people he just followed a direct message. He copies his standard message and change the name to reflect whomever he’s sending it to. He claims to be a little weird, so here’s the message he sends:

“Hi Stephanie, you’re cooler than a 64 color box of crayons. The one with the built in sharpener. P.S. this isn’t an auto responder.”

One might think this is a very stupid message, but this has actually opened up millions of dollars of revenue in his business.  Notice he did not type:

“Hi Stephanie, please hire me to speak at your next convention.” OR

“Do you need a motivational speaking coach?” OR

“I can help you deliver some type of social media strategy to your business.”

That is what he calls kissing on the first date which is a really good way to get slapped.  Most people do not even open up a conversation on social media and for the rare few that do, they are usually pitching their product, service or themselves in a thinly veiled sales pitch. The worst way to start off a conversation is a bad sales pitch that says “buy my product.” What he likes to do is inject some humor into the message because no one else is sending a message like that to Stephanie. Therefore, mthe advice is to make the standard direct message unique and do not make it a sales pitch.

The main goal behind these direct messages is to get a response. If one gets a response then, according to Webster’s, we are now having a conversation. The core to any type of success anyone has ever had in his or her life was rooted in a conversation. If one can open up enough conversations, they will never have to worry about business for the rest of their life.

The last thing Knebl does in his daily Twitter routine is ask himself, “Is this someone I would want to put in one of my lists?” If it is, then it is a very simple matter to add them to a list. (If one is unsure of how to do that, he explains it here.

Review:

So that is the standard 15-minute twitter routine that has lead to Knebl’s success.

  1. Post a good morning tweet, say thanks for another day, motivational photo, etc.
  2. Click notifications to see who is engaging with the content, then publicly thank those people on the Twitter feed.
  3. Figure out who is following and then determine who to follow back. Send the people a direct message to possible open up a conversation. Determine if they should be put in a list.
  4. Post something in the afternoon that is either educational or inspirational.

TWEETABLE FACTS:

Like this Article? Subscribe to Our Feed!

Kevin Knebl

Kevin Knebl, Knebl Communications, LLC
Kevin is an author, coach, and an in-demand speaker on Online and Offline Networking, Relationship Building, LinkedIn and Twitter. To get more information about Kevin Knebl, visit his website at www.kevinknebl.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.