When I first started thinking of how I would begin with my new position as a Technology Coach, I had no idea where to begin. So I started reading whatever I could find.
The common theme that ran through all the blog posts, Tweets, videos, and articles was how being a coach was all about the relationships coaches develop with coachees. This made and makes sense.
This goes for the student-teacher relationship, teacher-mentor relationship, teacher-administrator relationship ... all the relationships I can think of. Relationships will act as the foundation on which trust will be built.
Then I started thinking, and before relationships can be started, one must be grounded with themselves.
Social media used to be a place where people simply socialized. People still do that, but social media websites have also become excellent marketing tools. Read on to learn how you can use social media to promote just about anything.
Make frequent updates to your content. Most social network users expect updates as often as possible, and if you do not provide them with it, you could give yourself a bad name and lose many customers. Attempt updates at least three or four times a week.
It takes time and research to put together an effective plan for using social media as a marketing tool. It is not likely that you will wake up tomorrow morning with a few thousand new followers. Some profiles on the social media sites will go viral quickly, but this should not be expected as it is not the norm. If you exercise patience, your audience will gradually grow to be the size you want.
The typical image on social media expertly captures your attention. Many are photoshopped so they are more intriguing. Using this kind of imagery in your own ads is a great way to make them more notable and draw potential customers’ attention. Once you lure them in, they will be more likely to click through to your site and buy one of your products or services.
An engaging social media profile will entice users to visit your online storefront and explore your product offering. Keep followers informed about both your online and your live endeavors from special sales to new store locations. Provide printable coupons or limited offers only available to Facebook followers. Customers are unlikely to connect with your brand on Facebook if you do not offer anything of value.
Change the way you think about social media. There are more uses for these sites than just playing games or posting something clever in 140 characters. This is the opportunity for you to find new customers. Since you just went over this article, you should be ready to use social media to its full potential. Get on your favorite website as soon as possible to get started.
Back on October 17 of 2011, I posted a bit of a guide for my tweeps and colleagues on building your PLN. In that guide, I shared Jeff Dunn's post from earlier in the month, The A-Z Dictionary of Educational Twitter Hashtags, that shared some general points about hash tags that I've applied myself and shared with most of my friends and colleagues over the years. Some of that information is no longer true. Mainly, I want to look at this quote from Dunn's post:
The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keyword or topic in a Tweet. Any Twitter user can categorize or follow topics with hashtags.Those hashtags (usually) mean something and are a great way to get a tweet to appear in search results or discussion monitoring. (Dunn 2011, emphasis mine)
In order to follow a hashtag, users must complete a search, then save it (typically using a thrird party app, like Hootsuite). This used to provide users with a running timeline of everything anyone posted with that hashtag. This was a good system for consumers and creators because it allowed a way for Jo Schmo teacher to share resources from his classroom with anyone, even if he wasn't a famous published author and speaker. This helped build a Personal Learning Network. This is no longer the case.
We've built an algorithm that finds the Tweets that have caught the attention of other users. Top Tweets will refresh automatically and are surfaced for popularly-retweeted subjects based on this algorithm... If Tweets you love aren't showing up as Top Tweets, it means those Tweets may not be part of the widespread conversation. Toggle to "All" results to see more Tweets matching your query.
In other words, all searches you conduct manually or automatically (via your twitter app), including hashtag searches no longer show you all of the results. Further, according to the same FAQ, "Some older results may be highlighted at the top because they have been determined to be of high value for your query."
So how do you become popular on Twitter if you're not already popular? After all, you should still have a fighting chance, right? Twitter says that all you have to do is, Toggle to “All” to view the rest of your search results in real-time order. This means that some of my readers, who bother to hit "all" will see my results, right? Yes, if they're doing the search right now on the twitter web site on an actual computer. If, on the other hand,
they will never see your tweet ever, unless you have a boatload of followers or you call / email everyone you know to go re-tweet it. I found this information on the Twitter FAQ, "Why am I missing from search?". Here is an exact quote from that page:
Are you using Twitter on your mobile device? Twitter on mobile does not include the option to display All Tweets in search results. Mobile search results will only show top Tweets and Tweets from people you follow. However, once the results load, you can refresh the timeline to get real time results.
In my experience the extreme minority of twitter users I know use the actual web site on the computer. Those people only do so rarely. In other words, don't bother unless you're already one of the cool kids. No one will ever see your content. Twitter has relegated you back to obscurity. Sorry. Thanks for playing.
I hope Twitter reconsiders this move. Meanwhile, do what you can. Beg your friends to retweet you, like I do. Get hooked up with aggregators and other services to increase your traffic and retweet everything you're even remotely interested in. Let's help each other out there. Good luck. I'm rooting for you. DFTBA.