The 7 habits of highly effective Twitter users

Habit No. 1: Make each tweet count

Mark sure each tweet or update you send is relevant. There is an increasing amount of noise on Twitter, so you need to make sure each tweet you send grabs the attention of your followers. With limited time and lower attention spans, compelling tweets are a must. Hint: Try to follow the nine simple formulas to creating killer headlines.

Habit No. 2: Know yourself

Discover and clarify your values and goals. What are you trying to accomplish from Twitter? Think Guy Kawasaki and his Twitter strategy.

Habit No. 3: Plan ahead

Plan and execute your tweets for the week ahead. Schedule some tweets using a third-party platform like HootSuite or TweetDeck (which is now part of Twitter).

Habit No. 4: Know your following

Know your Twitter followers and what they like about your tweets. The third-party platforms mentioned above show you which tweets are the most popular and which topics your followers like or dislike.

Habit No. 5: Listen

Listen well. Follow trending topics on Twitter and popular hashtags, and take advantage that Twitter usually reports news before traditional media. Create a reasonably large amount of Twitter lists to better segment your followers so you can better understand your different types of followers.

Habit No. 6: Grow your influence slowly

Your following won’t dramatically increase overnight. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Follow these tips on how to grow your Twitter influence.

Habit No. 7: Develop a sustainable strategy

Twitter takes a lot of time and effort to be successful. You are only as good as your latest tweet. You have to continually to produce retweetable content. Know how to get more retweets by taking advantage of research by social media scientist Dan Zarrella.

What habits would you add to this list?

Matthew Royse is a marketing communications manager. He blogs at Knowledge Enthusiast, where a version of this story was published.

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