Managing the Noise on Twitter 

When Twitter first hit the social media scene, it seemed implausible or even inconceivable to many that 140 characters could provide any real value to social media marketing efforts, yet this application has emerged as one of the giants in the field. So popular, in fact, that it’s a daunting task to keep track of all of the activity on Twitter. There’s almost too much information. Some organizations get lost in the noise and fall victim to fear of missing out (FOMO), spending far too much time trying to pay attention to everything.

At Strategic Communications, our top tip for getting the most out of Twitter and avoiding FOMO is to be very strategic in terms of how you are using your account and, most importantly, how you are consuming information. For our accounts, that generally means three things:

1) We maintain a list of thought leaders who we include in a Hootsuite stream so that we can easily see what this select group of individuals/organizations is talking about. A Forbes article based on an interview with “The Tao of Twitter” author Mark Schaefer touches on the same concept. “The concept of ‘social listening’ is now in vogue. But for Schaefer, that simply means it’s worth making the time to connect with your ideal audience. One of his favorite ways to find them is by ‘mining lists.’ He explains, ‘People organize descriptive lists of their favorite people, customers, leads, competitors, etc. Most of these lists are public. In essence, individuals and businesses are curating groups of potential leads for you if you can find the right lists.’”

2) We maintain keyword streams in Hootsuite as well and use them in much the same way to track topics we’re most interested in.

3) For specific needs or trending topics we follow hashtags. This is a great way to focus what you’re paying attention to. You don’t need to follow every single tweet, so pick a handful of the most salient items of interest to you, and start tracking the relevant hashtags.

There’s so much information out there these days, not only on Twitter, but virtually everywhere. You can’t possibly consume it all. As with any other communication issue, it starts with strategy. Know, specifically, what you hope to get out of your participation on Twitter, identify the types of accounts that are most relevant for you to follow, and think strategically about how you can efficiently manage the noise, using technology tools, wherever possible, to help you automate these processes.

Recommended Reading:

The Everything Guide to Customer Engagement

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