1 Key Technical Skill for Building Relationships Through Twitter

In a previous blog post, I wrote about tweets that build your business. In this one, I would like to share 1 key technical skill for building relationships through twitter.

The skill is:

The ability to segment your twitter stream.

What does this mean? Twitter moves fast, and the more people you follow, the faster it moves. That amount of information can be overwhelming. In order to deepen your relationships on twitter, you have to be able to segment the people you follow, and/or those that follow you.

Here are 3 ideas for segmenting your twitter stream:

• Mentions.
  
  It is absolutely essential that you have a way to quickly see who mentions you on twitter, so that you can respond. Not acknowledging when someone retweets your tweet or mentions you on twitter is the equivalent of turning your back on someone who is speaking to you (and I know you do not want to do that!). I have my hootsuite application set up so that as soon as I login, the first thing I see are any mentions of twitter ids (mine or my clients').
  
  
  

• Prospects.
  
  Using hootsuite or any other social media management app, you can enter keyword searches for people who might be in the market for your services. "Cluttered office," for example, might be a keyword search to use if you are a productivity expert. Set up the search for everyone on twitter, not just your followers. Once you've set up such a search, all of the people tweeting the term will show up in one column. You can then build relationships with these people by answering their questions on twitter, or connecting off-line.
  
  
  

• Interactions.
  
  To strengthen your social media connections, consider setting up a separate segment of people you've interacted with in one way or another.
  
  This segment could include:
  • Your LinkedIn connections.
  • People you've had conversations with on twitter.
  • Your clients.
  • Your friends.

Like you, I do not have a lot of time to spend on social media, so when I check twitter through my hootsuite app, I check this column to keep up with the people I know.

How to create a stream in Hootsuite.

Creating a stream in Hootsuite is very simple.

• Click the Add Stream button.
  
  
  
• A box pops up allowing you to set up a particular stream, by mentions, keyword searches, lists, etc.
  
  
• Make your choices.
  
  
• Click Create Stream to save your stream.
  
  

Do you have any other ideas for segmenting twitter? Feel free to comment below.