Best Twitter Tips from Claire Diaz-Ortiz

Yesterday, I chatted with Claire Diaz-Ortiz is the Head of Corporate Social Innovation and Philanthropy at Twitter, Inc. Her book, "Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time," uses T.W.E.E.T. to explain her approach to twitter.


TARGET: Determine the type of account most suitable to you. The three most common types of accounts are personal, informational, and fundraising. Once you determine your account type carefully establish goals. What do you want to accomplish?


WRITE: Don't over edit your tweets, especially at the beginning.


ENGAGE: Don't wait for people to come to you, go to them. Follow and engage influencers in your space. 


EXPLORE: Use searches and make lists to keep track of trends and successful tweeps.


TRACK: Use your goals to establish metrics that evaluate your success.


What are your best twitter tips and strategies?


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If you'd like to learn more about Claire, read more of my interview on Leadership Freak: "Standing Out Means You Don't Fit."

Twitter Power Tips

I use twitter less to share personal information and more to share content that lifts leaders. That’s my value proposition.
Usually, individual conversations are done through direct messages.

With my value proposition in mind, great tweets are:

1.  Positive and actionable. Explaining things people can do is more useful than telling them what not to do.
2. Turn negatives into positives. Last night I tweeted, “Change starts when blaming stops.” It’s been retweeted multiple times. How many times do you think, “Stop blaming,” would have been retweeted?
3. Touch a need.
4. Short rather than long. Shooting for 120 characters or less makes it easy for others to retweet you. Here’s another example from last night that caught on: “Great leaders break barriers, poor leaders create them.”

Wrap links to your blog in candy:

Spend less time asking people to visit your blog and more time sharing great content.

Make your tweets a piece of rich useful content. 


While writing posts, craft a few readymade tweets that capture key thoughts and tweet them with a link to your blog.

Tweets with links are never retweeted as frequently as those without.

Examples of tweets with links to my blog that were retweeted multiple times:

1. Empower don't overpower. "Take Mentoring to the Next Level" http://tiny.ly/f5yX #leadership
2. Arrogance creates emptiness. Humility creates connection. http://bit.ly/lGHpDX #leadership
3. Leaders who aren't influenced by others can't influence others. http://bit.ly/m4PTwZ #leadership
4. Managers roadblock productivity by focusing on projects rather than people. http://bit.ly/g2qz0D

Secret tweet tip:


Keep a document with your great tweets. I save any tweet that is retweeted over 20 times and reuse it. Currently, my tweet-document is over 30 pages long. “Great leaders break barriers, poor leaders create them,” is a recycled tweet that’s worth tweeting again.

Do you have a twitter strategy and value proposition?

What twitter power tips can you offer?

Anger Starts Great Blogs

Start mad:
Get in touch with your dark side when you write. What angers you? Write about it. My most read blogs almost always begin with a frustration.

Don’t stay mad:

Rants are fun, occasionally. It’s easy to say what you don’t like. Effective writers, on the other hand, move through anger to solutions.

Recent Leadership Freak posts that started with anger:

1. Anger about arrogance: 15 Ways to Tell if Someone is Arrogant or Humble
2. Frustration that I don’t listen better: You Lose if They Can’t Disagree
3. Remembering the disappointment of working for an insecure boss: 15 Techniques that Create Upward Mobility

I find passion born in frustration or anger a rich source of content that readers connect with if I move through anger to positive solutions.

How do you infuse emotion into your writing?

Writing Blog Posts that Get Read

Some writers write for themselves and don't worry about readers.

I write to be read. I want to be read. I worry about being read. I feel good when I'm read.

Structure matters - suit yourself

Write for yourself. I have a short attention span. Give me the point quickly; if you don't, I'll leave quickly.

Short is always better than long.

1. Short sentences
2. Short paragraphs
3. Short posts
4. Short page widths
5. Short distance between headers

Use bold headers

No one reads from start to finish. Everyone makes a decision to read before they read. They scan the page. Headers help readers make the decision to read.

Solve a problem

Begin with the problem. Problems make readers care. No problem - no one cares. The more relevant the problem the more engaged the reader.

Don't say everything

Saying all you know is the dumbest thing you can do. Leave room for comments by leaving things out. What you don't say is as useful as what you do say.

When you're too smart people admire you from a distance.

The reality is, there's always more to learn. Invite people to teach you. It's fun and engaging.

What blog writing tips can you offer?