Tailoring Twitter: Does Your Twitter Profile Attract the Right People?

Beginner’s Guide to Twitter – Profile

Is Twitter Working for You?

Imagine.

You are sent or invited to a huge conference or the world’s largest networking event. What a opportunity! People from every industry all over the world are gathered talking and sharing what they do and how they do it. But there’s thousands maybe millions of them who all seem to do know what to do. The opportunity is overwhelmingly huge.

You stop to look around yourself and realize that you’re only one you.

How do you get from being a one to being part of the group? How do you find that part of the group that is the best fit for you? That huge opportunity requires the ability to sort and navigate what looks like an almost infinite group. How will you find or gather the group that will make the easiest, fastest most meaningful?

How Do You Tailor Twitter to You

This guide to Twitter is for people who are new. It’s also meant for “Tweeps” who know that their Twitter isn’t doing as much as it might do. If you got on Twitter without a strategy. If you’re are feeling like no one sees or hears you. Start from the ground up to tailor Twitter to you and people who would value what you do.

Let’s visit your Twitter account with a look toward attracting and reaching out to the people you’d want to make relationships with in the World’s Largest Networking Room.

Networking is all about connecting. It’s natural for people to feel more comfortable connecting to other folks who

who know the kind of people they like to talk to
who share something about who they are.
who offer value that’s easy to see
who show generosity and start a conversation to learn more about other people rather than to “sell” themselves.

On Twitter it helps to know why we’re there – what kind of people you want to meet and talk with. It’s easier to find and attract those people in the world’s largest networking room if we think about them in how we put together everything they see, read, and know about us.

The Profile

Just as you decide to what to wear to a gathering at Joe’s Pizza and BrewPub might be different than what you wear to the Ritz Charity Gala, your profile is what you wear into the Twittersphere. What you say in your profile reveals what you value and respect. It’s not about you, it’s about the people you want to connect with.

Click on anyone’s twitter name and you’ll land on their profile page. If I click on your name, what does your profile page say about you?

The avatar: Everyone wants to know who we’re talking to. Does your avatar look like you? Does it show as you might look while talking to the people you want to connect with?
The Bio: We’re all broader and deeper than the 160 characters that fit in a Twitter bio.

Did you think about the people you want to form relationships with while you were assembling it? If you want to connect with other moms and dads, mention your family and your kids. If you want to talk to CEOs, mention your business and what makes your business worth getting to know.
The link: We’re all interested in more about the people we know. Do you link to something that tells more about you — your blog, your LinkedIn profile, your about.me page? Is what you’re linking to the same place that the people you want to form relationships with would choose?
The timeline of your Tweets: What we tweet and retweet reveals a lot about who and what we value. 0 tweets makes me wonder why you’re silent at a networking event.
What % of your timeline is only about you? What % is @mentions in which you raise other up? Do you curate and offer content from sources other than your own? If we want people to listen to and participate in our conversation, it helps to think about them and make our messages relate to them deeply.
The Following / Follower Ratio: Newbies and spammers follow thousands more people than the number of people who follow them back.
The ratio of Following to Followers offer insight into whether you are listening or talking. If your ratio is 2/1 or higher (following 2, you’re likely to be broadcasting — talking but not listening. You might also be listening, but you’re not responding. If your ratio is 1.5 you or less, you are likely to be listening as well as talking. If your ratio is less that 1.5, your followers are likely to be listening to you. Find new people to follow knowing that others will look at the ratio as a way of determining whether you’re a broadcaster or a communicator.
The Background: The default background is like inviting someone home to a free hotel room. Nothing about it shares anything about you.
Changing to one of the offered backgrounds is easy. Go to Settings > Design and find one you like that might be attractive to people you’d like to talk with. Uploading a favorite photo or simply changing the color takes little time but shows that you’ve invested even a few minutes in making the space your own.

All together a Twitter profile can offer a picture of someone worth trusting and getting to know. What you put there and what you tweet can lead me to connect with you, learn more about you, explore your expertise. It can be what leads to a relationship in which we swap stories, strategies, and knowledge gathered. A great profile draws the interest of people who value what you do and disinterest people who don’t. Here’s what mine says about me.

Or it can make me wonder whether you’re a spammer.

Visit your own profile page to consider these questions. If it belonged to a stranger, how much confidence would you have in making a relationship? Would you trust that the person behind the page is real? Would you risk a conversation with him or her? Would trust his or her recommendations? Does your Twitter Profile page attract people you want it to meet — people who value what you do?

More tomorrow on Tailoring Twitter to Build the Network to Support You.

Be Irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!