If you want to learn how to make pottery, you don’t grab the nearest clay and start spinning it without any direction or know-how. Instead, you’d take a beginner’s class where they’d teach you different techniques and the basic knowledge you’d need for moving forward. The same goes for using a social media platform like Twitter. If you’ve never used it before, it’s important to learn the basics and lay the foundation for creating a good social media strategy in the future. Here’s a breakdown of the key action buttons you can utilize on Twitter:
Reply
When you see someone’s tweet, there will be a speech bubble icon in the bottom left-hand corner. This will allow you to directly reply to their tweet. Keep in mind that this is very different than a direct message. When you reply to someone’s tweet, it’s open to the public whereas a direct message is private. Retweeted content won’t show up in your personal timeline, but it will show up under the person’s tweet so that other people can see the conversation you had. The ‘reply’ feature is great for networking and increasing brand awareness. You can talk to other people/companies, interact with potential customers, help people with customer service issues, and the list goes on and on. It’s also a great way to get in front of a different audience. Since your tweet shows up under that person’s tweet, their followers will see your comment and might end up following you or checking out your business.
Retweet
The retweet button is the icon that has two arrows in the shape of a square. Retweeting someone’s tweet is a quick and easy way to share information with your audience. This simple action also enables you to catch the attention of the person you’re retweeting since they’ll get a notification about it. It’s a good way to get on someone’ s radar and can strengthen the bond between you and your community by showing that you like to support other people’s work/knowledge.
Quote Tweet
This action is under the same button as retweet but has one minor difference. When you quote tweet, you’re able to write your thoughts about the tweet that you’re sharing. This allows you to incorporate your brand’s voice into the tweet that you’re creating. For example, if you’re a photographer and you see an article about how to utilize drone photography in your business, you’d want to quote tweet that to add your two cents.
Favorite
To favorite, or “like,” a tweet you simply hit the heart-shaped button. This notifies the person that you enjoyed their content and is a really simple way to interact with other users on Twitter.
While you’re mastering these basics, learn how to fully utilize the 280 characters Twitter gives you to write with!
