Let’s face it Twitter can be a total minefield. The fast pace of the news and the sheer number of opportunities can make your head spin. Even though Twitter is exhausting…it’s REAL! So, in an attempt to preserve my own sanity, I’ve decided to formalize my research on Twitter… Since sharing is important, I’ll provide this in the form of 5 Awesome Twitter Tips for Bloggers!

Let’s face the minefield, optimize our schedules and raise our Twitter efficiency levels to 11!

5 Awesome Twitter Tips for Bloggers

Twitter Hours

I use and recommend Twitter Hours to my clients ALL the time. I was thinking about this recently in relation to blogging. SHOULD there be some set Twitter hours that could be useful for bloggers to use to reach a new audience?

Twitter hours work similar to Twitter chats. They are established hashtags that go “live” at specific times on specific days. There is a complete list compiled by design that fits. But for the purpose of this post, I’m singing a few for each day of the week that I think might be appropriate for bloggers.

A quick aside: If you check out the full list in the layout that fits, there are plenty of local Twitter hours that are helpful. You can choose the ones that are relevant to your location. My favorite is #YorkshireHour because I’m a Yorkshire girl!

monday

12:00 – 13:00 #UKBizLunch
2-3pm #BizHour
7-8pm #WineOClock (weeeeeey)
8-9pm #CreativeBizHour

Tuesday

2-3pm #BizHour
7-8pm #LaHoraDeLaModa
8-9pm #BespokeHour
8-9pm #LunchTime

Wednesday

1-2pm #LocalLunch
7.30 – 9.30pm #HandmadeHour
20:30 – 21:30 #GossipGirls
9-10pm #EventHour

Thursday

11am-12noon #ElevensesHour
7-8pm #PromotingWomen
7-8pm #LadiesCoffeeHour
8-9pm #PinHitsHour

friday

10-11am #ConnectFriday
12-1pm #SkillWillHour
3-4pm #CakeClubHour
9-10pm #SciFiHour

Saturday

8-9.15am #SatChatUK
11-12 noon #WeekendHour

Sunday

11-12 noon #WeekendHour
7-8pm #PromotingWomen

Hashtags established specifically for bloggers

There are numerous Twitter hashtags available specifically for bloggers. They connect us to each other and to the Blog Retweet accounts that work so hard on our behalf.

You may already be familiar with many of these hashtags, but I know it will be helpful for me to be all together in one place to check them out. So once again, sharing is caring! Maybe you can find some use for this activity too 🙂

#newblog #newblogger #blog #blogger #blogging #CreatorsClan #InfluencerRT #followfriday #bloggerclan #bloggerloveshare #BloggingBridgesChat #BloggingBridges #lbloggers #30plusblogs #bloggershare #bloglove2018 #goldenblogsrt

The following are my favorite hashtags. But I hope to start using variations of the above to reach new people.
#bloggingtips #Bloggerstribe #ukblogger #BloggerLoveShare #bloggerssparkle #bloggerswanted

Established Twitter chats and communities

As bloggers, we are very lucky to be surrounded by such well-established Twitter communities and Twitter chats. The people who run these Twitter communities are EXTREMELY generous with their time. They coordinate the threads of Twitter interactions that bring each and every one of us closer to our goals.

If you’re not already familiar with these Twitter communities, you should REALLY get involved. For those of you who already know, let’s keep engaging and growing together.

As for Twitter chats, they are pre-arranged conversations that cover a certain topic. They tend to be curated by one account, following an established hashtag. Twitter users engage in the chat response and include the set hashtag in their responses. Twitter chats are great for boosting not only your own visibility, but everyone else who gets involved.

Understanding your Twitter analytics

When you understand your Twitter Analytics. You understand your audience. We would be lying to ourselves as bloggers if we didn’t acknowledge the fact that the main goal is to reach new people while retaining our valuable existing audience. There’s no point breaking your balls over Twitter activity if no one responds!

You need to figure out what works and what doesn’t for your blogging goals. By getting the legwork going, you can free up your time for more productive areas of Blogging.

I’m going to start with the basics so as not to highlight anyone. For those who already know, sorry! Let’s start with where to find your Twitter Analytics. I assume that you are already connected at this moment 🙂

On your home page, go to your little circle of profile (technical name). Click on it and then click on “Analysis”.

This will upload a 28-day summary of your activity on Twitter. separates into

tweets
Tweet impressions
profile visits
mentions
followers
percentages

But what does all that mean??

tweets
This is the total number of tweets throughout this 28-day rollup. This is a good area to watch. For example, if there is a month where you have fewer Tweets BUT you see a sharp increase in engagement… You did something right! Take a closer look at your individual Tweet analytics. This will help up your Twitter game in the future.

impressions of tweets
The total number of times users viewed your Tweets on Twitter. This includes:

views of your Tweets that have been retweeted by others
views from people who already follow you
organic search views via Twitter

The more impressions you get, the broader your audience will be.

profile visits
The total number of profile views you received during this period.

mentions
Every time your username is tagged on Twitter with the @ symbol, this represents a mention.

followers
The number of followers you have gained/retained in this specific period. If the number of Twitter followers you have increases significantly in a month… Examine your Tweets individually to find out what has worked for you!

percentages
If you want to dig deeper, you can see how each of your individual Tweets performed over the same 28-day period.

In the “Tweets” section of your analytics, include engagements.

Engagements are actual interactions with your Tweets by others, including:

all clicks on any part of the Tweet (eg hashtags, username, avatars and Tweet expansions).
Retweets
answers
go on
Pleasures

The impressions are amazing, but the commitments mean that people have cared enough to “act”. By paying attention to your commits, you can get a true picture of what your audience wants and respond accordingly!

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by analysis! The best thing you can do is set a goal that is measurable. For example, if you want to get more engagements in a month, you can focus on that aspect within your analytics to inform your posting options.
Optimize your post schedule with Tweetdeck

If you’re new to Tweetdeck, it’s a free scheduling tool specifically for Twitter. IMHO it’s worth exploring. Although Tweetdeck is available on mobile, I personally find it easier to navigate via a desktop or laptop computer.

I have to admit that, from a visual point of view, I think Tweetdeck is less over the top than Twitter’s newsfeed. Does it somehow feel less noisy? You can choose how to arrange the columns within Tweetdeck depending on what you need from it. I have a column reserved for each of the following:

Keyword or search term: to monitor industry conversations in real time.
News feed: to see what is happening in the world of Twitter
Notifications – to keep up with the interaction happening on the business page
Private messages – to answer questions
Pre-Scheduled Content: To review scheduled Tweets

You can keep up with all of the above simultaneously without ever leaving Tweetdeck. This makes it very easy to have an overview of all aspects of your Twitter game in one place!

If you’ve never used Tweetdeck before, follow these steps:

Log in to your Twitter account through your chosen browser.
Open a separate tab to access Tweetdeck – it will automatically link to your Twitter.
The scheduling section is on the left hand side when you first log in

The scheduler is really easy to use and it can seem quite therapeutic to know that you can schedule massive tweets in one place. The reward is having free time and energy to interact with what’s happening on Twitter in real time!