With the onslaught of social media marketing, we need better ways to manage or Twitter activities; hence, using TweetDeck as a solution.

TweetDeck is in an organized desktop form that would make the lives of social media mangers and casual tweeters easier. It has different organizational tools like customizable columns, multiple accounts toggling and scheduling. The simplicity of using TweetDeck starts in setting it up.

First, download the TweetDeck app and create a separate TweetDeck account. From there, you’ll be able to access Twitter. You have the option of choosing the Chrome web app or installing either the Windows or Mac desktop apps.

You can connect to as many Twitter accounts as you want through the Settings. Just be mindful of which account you will use as your default to prevent accidentally tweeting from your other accounts.

TweetDeck can automatically update your feed by simply checking the “Stream tweets in real time” option under the General setting. You can even change the appearance of your deck with several options of: light and dark color schemes, larger or smaller font sizes, and wider or thinner columns.

Utilize the Columns feature by creating columns for your DM inbox, timeline, interactions, and more. All you have to do is “Add Column.” You can manage and easily read through your lists you’re subscribed on or to by using Columns. Easily organize your lists depending on your interests, events or things that would usually be hidden on your main feed. If you notice, the columns have numbers on the top left of the header bar. When you type those numbers you can go from column to column.

The search function is really handy when you want to follow several hashtags during events.

Recent updates let you preview added images, get auto-fill suggestions for hashtags and handles, and easily shorten links on the left sidebar.

Replying to tweets is easy too. If you want to reply to multiple users not in the same conversation, just click the reply arrow on the tweets you want to reply to and the handles will appear in the original compose field you opened.

Meanwhile, scheduling tweets is made easier by a quick calendar view with timestamps.

Managing tweets can be made easier. Try TweetDeck and see if it would work well with you!

The post Tweetdeck For Beginners appeared first on Ben Francia.

Twitter’s been a very helpful tool in an Internet marketer’s arsenal. Its relatively simple interface and the various tools that abound in the Interwebs to automate the way you engage with your following makes Twitter something you MUST have.

Of course, Twitter’s so much more than a chatting interface that helps you connect with your prospects. It’s a way for you to provide the value that your audience needs and wants in 140 characters or less. If used properly, you can nourish your relationship with your audience and get a laser focused audience that hangs on to your every word.

Of course, all these perks come at a price, namely: Time and Value. You won’t build a valuable Twitter following overnight, neither will it trust you in a matter of days. Here are a few things you should do to be able to provide them the value they need and keep them wanting more.

• Define your target audience – You need to know for sure who it is that you want to follow you in accordance to the needs of your business. A lot of Internet marketers make that mistake of publicly telling the people to follow them or following any random stranger. The result?

Nothing significant.

Even in you have a relatively large following, if you don’t have a target audience, you’re bound to fail in terms of getting people to sign up for your list or purchase whatever it is you’re selling. So list down what your target needs or wants, how they talk to each other, what their perceptions are of your business and you’ll be off to a good start in defining a target audience.

• Create a list of 50 topics – Remember how I told you to define your audience? This is how you’re supposed to start. List down at least 50 topics about your business or niche that appeal to your audience. It could be a little burdensome, but it’s actually going to take a load off your back soon enough.

These 50 topics will be the search terms you use to find the best blogs that publish your kind of content. Why is this of great use to you? Consider this: You are a marketer who’s trying to get people to buy your stuff. To be able to do successfully so, you need to earn their trust first and become a figure of authority. The key to being an authority is letting them know that you know your stuff by providing content from related blogs and from your blog as well.

• Schedule tweets every hour – It’s important that you schedule your tweets every hour so they frequently appear in your followers’ respective news feeds. Tweeting with an interval of 2 hours may not guarantee your post being seen by your audience and tweeting in mere minutes might flood their feeds which could be considered an annoyance. An hourly tweet or so is a safe bet.

As for automation, there’s TweetDeck, MarketMeSuite and Hootsuite that stand as three of the most popular tools that posts for you in given time intervals.

• Engage only when necessary – Talk with your audience publicly under only two conditions:

1. They thank you in such a way that a response is needed and;

2. They ask you a question that demands a response.

Under any other circumstances, it’s best that you send a DM or acknowledge the tweet some other time in the future instead. Replying takes time and you don’t have all the time in the world to read the stuff they tell you. Just remain focus on your goal to provide value to them and that’s the thanks they’ll get.

• Schedule chat ups with branded hashtags– Chat-ups are essentially tweets that allow users to respond or retweet your tweets. You don’t have to reply to their tweets, as mentioned earlier, but you may need to reply as per mentioned conditions. Chat ups allow you to make users interact among themselves and in the same time use your hashtag as a reference.

What this does is increase your presence in Twitter’s trends which makes you influential in many ways. Make sure you use a hashtag that has the name of your brand in it to increase your brand awareness efforts.

These are a few things you might want to consider when you’re starting out with your Twitter campaign.

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