Twitter looks so easy, doesn't it?
You don't have to plan and research like you do when you're writing a blog post. You can write whatever's on your mind and hit the Update button. Random thoughts make for perfectly good tweets.
You don't have to think about search engine optimization. Tweets do turn up on Google but links in tweets don't count towards page rank and there's no way - or reason -- to optimize a tweet for search engines.
So you certainly don't have to worry about keywords, do you? All of that playing around with metatags and keyword phrases are a problem for bloggers, not twitterers.
Well, no. It's true that you don't have to play with keywords on Twitter if you don't want to, but doing so can generate some pretty interesting results.
A good timeline should really focus on one main topic. That's the information that most of your followers will be looking for. But when you go off-topic - as you should, to talk about other aspects of your life and keep your timeline personal - you'll find that those tweets bring in a different kind of user.
Mention, for example, that you happened to have gone horse-riding this weekend, and you shouldn't be surprised to find that you're now being followed by a riding stable. Say that you're eating pizza, and you could find yourself being followed by a pizza restaurant keen to attract your attention.
For those companies, it's a good strategy. Businesses are scouring Twitter for keywords relevant to their businesses and following anyone who mentions them. That means that if you're looking to attract the attention of businesses in your field, try writing a series of tweets that contain the most relevant terms. The most Twitter-savvy businesses will be watching for them - and for people like you.
Of course, attracting attention of those businesses and followers is only the beginning. You still have to build a relationship with them. To do that, you need to use a very different key word: "hello."
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September 3, 2009 01:20 PM
Finally an insightful post on Joel's blog! Thank you Joel keep up with this line of innovative topics. :)
September 3, 2009 08:34 PM
I seem to be able to relate better from the point of view of a business looking out for keywords from the general public's tweets than from a business trying to tweet out keywords. But it's certainly an interesting concept to work on, besides just consciously using keywords in the tweets.
September 6, 2009 12:55 PM
People are looking also searching for real-time update on certain news. If you can tweet on that, there is a higher chance that they might find you?
September 7, 2009 04:16 PM
Very timely advice on a very much misunderstood topic. Thanks for shedding light on the mechanics of appropriate tweeting techniques. I've had an account for awhile but never used it- now I will!
September 8, 2009 02:17 AM
Absolutely, keywords do tend to bring in followers that are in sync with the keyword.
September 28, 2009 01:44 AM
I liked the amazing simplicity & power of making sense to a lot more people by just keeping it doable & attractive at a same time. Really smooth work!
Wouldn't people like you rather talk about the significant aspect like relationship building than tricks to attract. What would you say Joel?
September 28, 2009 03:03 AM
Hi!
Very good acknowledgment. Keyword research is waste of time when dealing with Twitter. On the other hand...some research might be handy. If you are interested (or marketing) on some subject, it's not a bad idea to seek out followers with same kind of mind set. If you make a search with Google with search phrase site:twitter.com horseback riding you find users with tweets containing words horseback riding starting with the most relevant user. Normally, if you start to follow people they will follow back, so this way you get like-minded people to follow you.
October 2, 2009 03:18 AM
WOW... What a post. I never come across such a lovely post which is very well written.Thanks for all.It's my first visit.And it's help me a lot.Keep blogging.
October 13, 2009 03:29 AM
It is my new experience on Twitter keyword. I just tweet the blog post when I update my blog. Thank you for share this great information.