Twitter may have not been my first choice as a Social Networking tool but over the course of three months I’ve begun to see the true value in it. There’s more to Twitter than meets the eye. However, like any tool, learning to effectively use it is a process.
This is why I decided to create my Tweet Plan. A Tweet Plan is basically planning how you are going to utilize Twitter for your marketing efforts and how to best leverage your time on it.
Here are a few steps to consider when creating your Tweet Plan:
- Decide what you are going to tweet
- What day and time is best to tweet
- How often you plan to tweet
Decide what you are going to tweet
There are going to be several things to consider when determining what you are going to tweet. Make a list of what you currently tweet and add to that list. Here are a few update ideas:
Promotional Tweets - Tweets about your service, products, affiliates, etc.
Lead Generation Tweets – Tweets generated with the intention to target potential leads/prospects.
Linkluv Tweets – Retweets from fellow site owners.
Relationship Building Tweets – Tweets intended to create and nurture relationships with other users.
Blog Post Updates – Let your users know you have new content to share.
Application/Software Tweets – Suggesting applications to your followers they may find useful.
Inspirational – Share quotes, personal experiences and points of view to touch, move and inspire others.
I’m sure there’s more, but this will get you started on generating some ideas on what to tweet.
What day(s) and time(s) are you going to tweet
After some lengthy research, Fast Company determined that the best time to tweet is on Friday, 4pm EST. It’s a very interesting report and I recommend you take a look at it. However, I also think you should consider what works best for your company in particular.
Try tweeting on the same days at the same time for a week and see where you get the best response. If may take you several weeks before you can see a pattern if one should exist.
Determine how often you are going to tweet
Lets say you decide you would like to tweet out information 5 times a day, 7 days per week.
5 x 7 = 35 tweets per week
You have two options at this point – schedule your tweets daily or create and schedule all tweets for the week.
I know creating 35 tweets at once seems a lot but it actually isn’t all that bad. The 30-45 minutes spent setting it up your tweets for the week may save you more time in the long run; especially since many of these tweets will be weekly repeats. The only things that will vary are the days and times depending on your evaluations.
Once you have your tweets scheduled using your favorite social dashboard than all you have to be concerned about is relationship building and retweets.
I currently use TweetDeck which I really enjoy although I have been considering moving to Social Oomph which seems to give you more options. I will be posting a tutorial in the near future comparing the two applications.
The one definite advantage of applications such as Social Oomph and even HootSuite is that they are web-based applications as oppose to software-based ones such as TweetDeck.
So what made me decide to create a TweetPlan? As with many things in life, it generated from a simple conversation; and here it is.
There you have it ladies and gentlemen! From the mouth of the Social Media Guru himself; build relationships!
Now I’m not saying this method will work for everyone. But the lesson I took from this is this:
So the best way to deal with this is automate all the “business” stuff as much as you can and focus on the relationships. I know as an online business owner who dealt with physical products that this may be a difficult task. But if you can just begin with baby steps than maybe soon you’ll be off and running.
What do you think? Ready to create your TweetPlan?
Hi Michelle,
I like your detailed breakdown. A super strategy to set up your tweets.
I’ve found constantly experimenting with my tweet style builds the most relationships, which is the point of tweeting. Interesting about Friday at 4 PM tweets….I will keep it in mind.
Thanks for sharing!
Ryan
Thanks Ryan! I agree experimenting is the key here. There’s no set formula just what works or doesn’t work.
Thanks for stopping in! Always great to hear from you.
It’s funny that you mention this, but about 2 weeks ago I started putting together somewhat of a Tweet Plan. Never really gave it the name or took the time to post about it (nice work), but needless to say it’s paid off in a big way. Traffic up, comments up, connections up. Great post.
That’s awesome John! I’ve just recently started my plan so it’s good to hear that others already doing it have had positive results.
It’s amazing what a little planning can do! The great thing I find is that it just get’s easier over time.
it will continue to just get easier and at some point you might even find yourself wondering why you have extra time and extra traffic.
Oops hit ‘post reply’ too soon. =) Anyway, thanks as always for stopping in. Great to hear from you.
Michele, I do have an overall Twitter plan that’s similar to this, but a bit looser. I use Hootsuite to schedule some tweets, and I do try to be more active M-F when more people are paying attention. I also do a bit of it by the seat of my pants, when I feel like it, and when I find a good post or article that I want to share.
Hey John,
I definitely think some seat by your pants are in order…lol. I’m pretty much like that currently but hoping this plan will not only keep me more organized but allow me to use my time more effectively and get my message across.
Thanks for the comment!
Like it and am going to plan on it
Quite frankly never did though about making a plan as I just slam tweets whenever I feel like. Actually I have noticed that in certain occasions, specially promotional in nature, I saw that the response was not as good as I expected it to be. This for sure had to do with timing and sometimes what I do is set “send later” for a specific time and I sleep on it.
None of the above are cool at all. Makes me look like a total disorganized businessman
Time to plan..
Some how I don’t think you have much to worry about DiTesco…LOL. You seem to be doing something right.
Although I wonder if creating a plan will take you to another level??? Let me know how it works out for you.
Thanks for coming by!
Haha, thanks for the compliment. I do plan certain things (not all), but maybe you are right about if I did plan, it would take me somewhere else. Something to think about.
Anyway, I did plan on something some couple of days ago and I would like to have your thoughts about my next article (will post today). Has something to do with planning and complements well with your guest post
There I go again with the “deep” linking thing. Just can’t get enough of it, lol…
Absolutely! Can’t wait to read it! I’ll be looking out for it.
Hi Michele,
Just left a comment on your guest post at IBlogZone and decided to check how your blog’s going.
It’s a nice article you have presented here. Having a plan on how to do things is always good and it does a nice job not only with Twitter. However when it comes to tweeting, I let things go rather naturally. I’m retweeting after reading something that is worth retweeting for example. The story is similar when it comes to updates from my own blog. I tweet articles from it once or twice a day without any planning whatsoever. This is going to change in the next days though, as I’m sure that the results can be far better than what I’m getting. Using schedule services is great, especially when you don’t have the time to regularly update your status. Twuffer is the service I’m using at the moment and I’m happy with it.
Hi Daniel,
I’ve played with Twuffer for a bit in the past. I really like the simplicity of it although it didn’t have all the bells and whistles TweetDeck did. I think I just like the shiny things…lol.
Would love to hear what kind of results you get, so be sure to check back and share.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by…it’s truly appreciated! Ciao!
Build Relationships > Defo what I have been trying to do with Twitter on my own and the businesses twitter feeds.
Hi David,
Yup! That’s all that it boils down to isn’t it? Simple, yet effective.
Thanks for stopping in. Hope to see you again soon.
Hi Michelle,
I’ve just finished my Twitter page and was thinking about how to logically and strategically approach Twitter. This post is exactly what I needed to wrap my brain around the subject at hand. I love the Decide What You’re Going To Tweet categories. This is awesome and thank you.
You are so welcome Rodney! I’m happy to hear that you found it useful. It’s so much easier to plan when you have a checklist in front of you.
Thanks for stopping by. Have a beautiful day!
Great post. I have the plan for my twitter activities, and it is very simple – I tweet good blog post from all of the top blogs in my niche. I do it every day, between 7am to 2PM EST. I usually do no more then 10 tweets per day, as if people are tweeting all day long and 24/7, it is clear that it is automated, so nobody pays attention to those kinds of tweets.
This is what works for me.
Hi Peter,
The sad things some people are on it all day for real! LOL
I like the idea of doing both, automating some stuff and spontaneous tweeting for others. But I always say whatever works for you!
Looks to me you have a handle on it.
Thanks for stopping by!
Nice detailed post, Michele.
This is a first for me, I’ve never seen anyone else post a Twitter marketing plan but having a plan is always a winner. Twitter has a lot of value to offer when used properly.
Your conversation with Scott Stratten is a prime example of how easy it is to simply reach out and start one. I met Scott at BWE10 this year and he is a great guy.
Keep rockin!
Hi Jimi,
So nice of you to stop by! I’m a planner.
Well, at least I try to be. 
But if I can manage to automate some stuff in order to use may time effectively, than the better. Of course, I don’t rule out pure social engagement and interaction! But automating the ‘business’ stuff leaves me more time for that!
Haven’t met Scott yet, although I have no doubt he’s a fantastic guy in person.
Thanks again for stopping by! Talk soon.
It’s very generous of you to share this wealth of information Michele. For the last months I have been figuring out the best time to tweet as well as the proper wordings to be used. You have answered it all here. Thanks a lot.
My pleasure Walter! Good luck with your tweet plan and thanks for stopping in!
When I find someone on Twitter that has expertise in a micro niche, I want to Follow who THAT person is Following (and) in some cases, I want to Follow the people who are Following him or her.
I like to follow that person who are active and who do tweet everyday. One more thing is if your tweet profile is active, then definitely you can maintain the relationship with other.
My plan is not so powerful like your plane, but i will try to make my plan according to your plan.
Hi Jenny,
The key is to create a plan that works for you. Just being you and present when you are on Twitter or any social networking medium is going to make a big difference.
Good luck and let me know how it goes.