I recently recognized that I need heed the advice that I give to my business clients on the use of Twitter for business.
Yes, I was guilty of “Do as I say, and not as I do”
Problem: My account was out of control. I was following too many people for a one man business and I had not adequately organized my contacts.
Goal: Take my Twitter account back.
SOLUTION
Step 1:
Delete as many accounts that I follow as possible leaving only those that I definitely wanted to keep.
Twitter does not make it easy to remove followers, so I used two tools…
UnTweeps – which permits you to identify all inactive accounts and then delete them (Twitter’s terms and conditions does not permit 3rd parties to bulk delete so you must check off each individual account)
ManageFlitter – which analyzes a whole bunch of Twitter criteria providing enough information as to whether an account should stay or go
I deleted over 1500, it was a pain to do but I feel very relieved.
Step 2:
Organize the remaining accounts into a Twitter list – every one that I follow must be on a list – my goal was for the number of Lists not to exceed 10. I have found, working with my clients that 6 to 10 active lists is a manageable number.
I have lists named News, Politics, Photography, Marketing etc and with every account in a list I simply have to look at each list to monitor the Twitter feed that interests me.
Step 3:
Rebuild the accounts that I follows and then categorize them per 2, above. I have a very effective “Twitter Stalking” strategy as a means to targeting accounts to follow and I will discuss that at a later date.
Step 4:
Set up Your Twitter client to show your organized lists (I use Tweetdeck – see the screen shot below)
I have now listened to myself and organized my Twitter account in the same way I advise my clients and I feel very excited at having a usable Twitter feed.
Step 6:
Rebuild
Twitter is a great business marketing tool but it must be strategically organized to do so.
If you would like to be one of the new accounts that I follow I am @georgebross
