How much meaning do you gain from your personal network?
By: Jim Katzaman - Get Out Of Debt
Tags: Networking, Marketing, Twitter, Digital Marketing, Social Media

At its core, a network is a collection of people. However, is your network meaningful? Does it go beyond saying Hi and Have a nice day?

For Amit Panchal this is no small consideration. The independent digital marketing consultant has invested more than a dozen years of toil and sweat in social media marketing, search engine optimization, content marketing and reputation management. He knows he needs to have a strong network.

During an Africa Tweet Chat, Panchal looked at the finer points of how to create meaningful networks on Twitter.

Among the first steps is to offer helpful information and engage with others whenever possible. A great shortcut is to be active in Twitter chats.

“Build a meaningful network by finding influencers who are already following you on Twitter,” Panchal said. “Use Followerwonk to do the process more effectively.

“Check the followers of your competitor’s Twitter profile, and follow the relevant people,” he said. “You can also give them shoutouts after following on Twitter. Find influencers and thought leaders from your industry. Then follow and engage with them.”

Panchal suggests going to Twitter and searching for topics around the globe for a particular day.

“That makes it easy to follow specific topics rather than users,” he said. “Topic suggestions will appear in your timeline and in searches based on what you tend to look for and already follow.

“You can also use Twitter advanced search to find the latest news and world events faster,” Panchal said. “Locate popular people, hashtags and photos for any topic you can imagine.”

Fresh insights from chatting

Twitter chats help you shape your brand and messages. Things you might not have thought of before can come up in chats and let you devise new ways to address subjects.

“By joining a Twitter chat you can spread the awareness of your expertise among others,” Panchal said. “With that comes knowledge sharing and learning. You’ll see an increase in relevant followers.”

TweetReports lists upcoming chats from which you can select topics related to your niche. Knowing that, Panchal recommends these steps:

Respond to as many tweets as possible.

Retweet other users’ tweets to build personal relationships with them.

“Build relationships first, then have transactions on social media platforms,” Panchal said. “Hashtags are basically a way to make your posts searchable.”

According to a study by TrackMaven, tweets with one hashtag receive 12.6 percent more engagement than tweets with no hashtags.

“If you’re not using hashtags in your tweets, maybe this is the right time to start to gain more visibility and get your tweets in front of more people,” Panchal said. “Explore RiteTag to find the right hashtags to use.”

As with other social media platforms, Twitter can add to brand building.

“Twitter undoubtedly improves brand recognition and expands your business’ online reach,” Panchal said. “If you want to improve brand awareness, you’ve got to make sure your content resonates with your target audience.”

His blog post has Twitter marketing tips for small businesses to boost conversions, improve brand awareness and increase online reach.

Be there, and be aware

The first step in branding is consistency. If you’re all over the place in what you say and do, people won’t know what services you provide and what you stand for.

Panchal has these personal branding tips:

Update your Twitter biography.

Add your website or blog URL.

Share your own content.

Update old posts regularly.

Use two to three hashtags for better engagement.

Join Twitter chats.

Tweet what you’re doing or eating.

He recommends these must-follow Twitter users in the digital marketing sphere:

About The Author

Jim Katzaman is a manager at Largo Financial Services and worked in public affairs for the Air Force and federal government. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.