Twitter Newbie Tip: How to change your notifications on Twitter

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Nicky Kriel

Is your email box getting filled up with messages from Twitter? Are you are getting annoyed about being notified about yet another follower on Twitter? Well, there is a very easy way to change email notifications on Twitter so that you only get the notifications that are useful to you.

1. Choose Settings (from the cog symbol on the bar on the top)

2. Choose Email Notifications

3. Tick the boxes you want

Tips for which notifications you want to receive

If you are brand new to Twitter you will probably want to notified when people start following you. It is exciting at first, but as soon as the novelty wears off, switch off the notification.
If you are using Twitter on a daily basis, you will see who has followed you, favorited your tweet and replied to you from the @Connect section of Twitter. I have these unchecked because my email box is full enough!
If you like responding immediately when people chat to you on Twitter, keep “My Tweets get a reply or I am mentioned” ticked.
Twitter is not very good about indicating when you have a direct message (or private message) so I find it helpful to get email notifications when I receive a message. There is a lot of spam in direct messages, but I have found this function useful. You would be amazed how much business starts with a direct message.
Your life will not fall apart if you don’t get any Twitter news via email. I am in the Social Media business so it is useful for me to know some updates.

Don’t let your Twitter email notifications annoy you, just change them to suit you. Let me know if you found this post useful by leaving a comment, thank you.

Nicky Kriel

Nicky Kriel is a Social Media Coach & Trainer inspiring, educating and empowering Business Owners to use Social Media more strategically. She is also the author of How to Twitter for Business Success. For more information visit http://www.nickykriel.com or to find out about her courses that she runs in Guildford visit http://www.nickykriel.com/courses

Twitter tip: Is your Twitter Bio attracting customers?

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Nicky Kriel

When you set up your Twitter Profile, how much thought did you put into your bio? Maybe you filled in a few words and thought you would come back to it later? When was the last time you looked at what your Twitter profile says about you and your business?

Here’s why you need to put a bit of thought when you write your Twitter bio:

Your Twitter bio is Searchable

Did you know that your bio appears in Google searches? Search Engines will search for keywords within your bio. How many of your keywords (or keyword phrases) for your business are in your bio at the moment?

People search on Twitter

People use keywords when they are looking for people to follow on Twitter. Twitter will suggest tweets and people that are relevant to the search. Are you likely to found in Twitter for your keywords?

Remember: Use words that people are likely to use when they are searching for your service or product rather than industry jargon.

Twitter suggests people to follow

Twitter recommends people to followed based not only on who you follow and are following, but also by the words used in your bio. How will Twitter know unless you use the right words.

Your bio may be stopping people from following you

Unless you are a celebrity or a household name, people will not follow people without a bio. You need to give people a reason to follow you and what you say in your bio will make the difference whether people follow you back or not.

Here’s some other things that may be stopping people

You don’t give enough information about who you are and what you do:- Don’t make make people guess that you are worth following.
Your bio is a sales pitch:- Most people do not like being sold at. They may think that you are going to spam them.
Your bio is very kittens and rainbows:- Okay, if you are just tweeting for fun, it is alright. But, if you are using Twitter to grow your business, you need to tell people about your business and what you will be tweeting about.
Your bio lacks any personality:- people want to feel that they are talking to a real life person, not a company logo.
Your bio is full of corporate mumbo jumbo:- Have you ever been at a networking meeting and heard someone deliver their sixty second pitch and still been in the dark when they sat down? Avoid language that appears to be generated by a committee. Speak in the language your customer uses.
Spelling mistakes – you may not feel it’s important, but it may be putting off your potential customers.

Your Twitter bio should encourage the right people to follow you and also include your keywords.

What type of bio encourages you to follow someone on Twitter?

Nicky Kriel

What is #ff?

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Nicky Kriel

One of the most confusing things for people who are new to Twitter is:

What is the “#” followed by strange words or letters and, in particular, what is “#ff”?

I have even met people who have been on Twitter some time and still don’t know! If you are starting out on Twitter or see your friends’ Twitterstreams fed into Facebook, it looks like everyone is speaking in code!

Very simply, the # symbol followed by something is called a hashtag. It is a simple way of grouping or uniting topics that people are talking about. Hashtags were created by the Twitter community as a way of categorising topics into fields by tagging them. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol.

Each hashtag becomes a hyperlink which means by simply clicking on the hashtag you can follow the conversation of everyone using that hashtag.

And what is #ff? Well, it is called “Follow Friday” which has been abbreviated over time to just the letters. In theory, on Friday people recommend people that they think are good to follow. In practice, it has lost a lot of its meaning.

This is what you what you will see many people people do.

This person has used the hashtag #ff and followed it by a string of Twitter names. There is no indication whatsoever of why anyone should follow any one of these people.

If you want to recommend someone to follow, do it! Give a reason for people to follow them.

When I started out on Twitter, I used to diligently follow the people who were mentioned in an #ff with me, but now only follow people if I am given a good reason. Follow Friday is a nice idea, but at the moment it seems to be an excuse for people just to string a list of their followers. If you follow someone who is interesting, why not send out Twitter love by giving them a #ff, but put some thought behind it.

Hashtags are fun once you get used to them and they can be very useful too. If you would like to find out more about hashtags, this post explains How to use Hashtags, click here to read it.

If you are new to Twitter and would like my Understanding Twitter Jargon Guide, just leave a comment below and I will email one to you.

Nicky Kriel | Social Media Coach & Trainer | Social Media for Business

Inspiring you to grow your business through Social Media

Tag Archives: Twitter tip