By Guest Contributor
By Adrienne Erin
If you already have a Twitter account, no doubt you already know the great value of this social media platform. But did you know that you can turn your twitter into a valuable resource for your industry? It’s true; you can, and there are plenty of reasons why you should want to do this. Creating an industry resource with your Twitter builds your reputation and helps you gain influence. Here are the steps to follow to make this happen.
1. Make a list of influencers
Carefully construct Twitter lists of the people you’d like to emulate. These can be leaders in your industry or field, people unanimously respected in the industry, or new up-and-comers who are rapidly gaining popularity in your field. Also, you can look at other influencer’s lists, such as Robert Scoble, to find ideas of people who should be on yours. You can even subscribe to public lists of other people on Twitter.
2. Start curating
Great industry leaders such as Maxwell Systems collect or ‘curate’ resources that will be useful for their followers. Maxwell has become well-known in the construction technology sector for being so good at finding great resources to share with their followers. So how do you find this great stuff to share? You can start by sharing the best snippets of content from the blogs that you’re already reading. In addition, you can frequently find good material from your Twitter lists.
It’s also a good idea to keep a close eye on news headlines. Watch for any breaking stories with relevance to your field or industry, and share them on your Twitter. Subscribe to newsletters that you find informative and like pages on Facebook that post interesting content. Be a student of your industry or field and make a conscious effort to always be learning.
Read books and magazine or journal articles written by experts in the field, and listen to podcasts by experts. Attend webinars and conferences, and always have a pen and paper ready to take notes. You never know when you’ll come across some inspiration for great content.
While you’re curating this content, there are two important things to consider. First, always give credit where credit’s due. If you’re using content created by someone else, be sure to acknowledge them for it. Also, try not to just pass along this information. If you’re really serious about using your Twitter to become a valuable industry resource, you should make your own contributions to the wealth of material that’s already out there.
This means that you should expound upon the material that you’re curating. Why is it so good? What makes it valuable? What are some important points that the original creator might have failed to mention? Think about and explain these things to your audience.
Another important tip to keep in mind: you should be using a tool to schedule your tweets. Buffer and HootSuite are two good ones worth checking out.
3. Build a following
Once you’ve found great influencers and have started to accrue some great content, the next step is to build your own following. One of the brilliant minds behind Tweet Smarter, Dave Larson, says that the answer to building a following on Twitter is finding a ‘Super Advocate.’ And you find this, Larson explains, by becoming a ‘super advocate’ for someone else.
This means that you do everything you can to support that person, from retweeting their tweets to commenting on their tweets and giving shout outs that praise them on your own Twitter. Why is this strategy so effective? It all goes back to the golden rule: do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. Endorsing someone else on Twitter makes it much more likely that you will be endorsed on Twitter. Remember, what goes around comes around. It pays to be nice.
Becoming an industry resource on Twitter is an essential part of establishing yourself as a leader in your industry. With the right influencers, a curation of great content and a good following, there’s no limit to what you can do!
By Adrienne Erin
If you already have a Twitter account, no doubt you already know the great value of this social media platform. But did you know that you can turn your twitter into a valuable resource for your industry? It’s true; you can, and there are plenty of reasons why you should want to do this. Creating an industry resource with your Twitter builds your reputation and helps you gain influence. Here are the steps to follow to make this happen.
1. Make a list of influencers
Carefully construct Twitter lists of the people you’d like to emulate. These can be leaders in your industry or field, people unanimously respected in the industry, or new up-and-comers who are rapidly gaining popularity in your field. Also, you can look at other influencer’s lists, such as Robert Scoble, to find ideas of people who should be on yours. You can even subscribe to public lists of other people on Twitter.
2. Start curating
Great industry leaders such as Maxwell Systems collect or ‘curate’ resources that will be useful for their followers. Maxwell has become well-known in the construction technology sector for being so good at finding great resources to share with their followers. So how do you find this great stuff to share? You can start by sharing the best snippets of content from the blogs that you’re already reading. In addition, you can frequently find good material from your Twitter lists.
It’s also a good idea to keep a close eye on news headlines. Watch for any breaking stories with relevance to your field or industry, and share them on your Twitter. Subscribe to newsletters that you find informative and like pages on Facebook that post interesting content. Be a student of your industry or field and make a conscious effort to always be learning.
Read books and magazine or journal articles written by experts in the field, and listen to podcasts by experts. Attend webinars and conferences, and always have a pen and paper ready to take notes. You never know when you’ll come across some inspiration for great content.
While you’re curating this content, there are two important things to consider. First, always give credit where credit’s due. If you’re using content created by someone else, be sure to acknowledge them for it. Also, try not to just pass along this information. If you’re really serious about using your Twitter to become a valuable industry resource, you should make your own contributions to the wealth of material that’s already out there.
This means that you should expound upon the material that you’re curating. Why is it so good? What makes it valuable? What are some important points that the original creator might have failed to mention? Think about and explain these things to your audience.
Another important tip to keep in mind: you should be using a tool to schedule your tweets. Buffer and HootSuite are two good ones worth checking out.
3. Build a following
Once you’ve found great influencers and have started to accrue some great content, the next step is to build your own following. One of the brilliant minds behind Tweet Smarter, Dave Larson, says that the answer to building a following on Twitter is finding a ‘Super Advocate.’ And you find this, Larson explains, by becoming a ‘super advocate’ for someone else.
This means that you do everything you can to support that person, from retweeting their tweets to commenting on their tweets and giving shout outs that praise them on your own Twitter. Why is this strategy so effective? It all goes back to the golden rule: do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. Endorsing someone else on Twitter makes it much more likely that you will be endorsed on Twitter. Remember, what goes around comes around. It pays to be nice.
Becoming an industry resource on Twitter is an essential part of establishing yourself as a leader in your industry. With the right influencers, a curation of great content and a good following, there’s no limit to what you can do!