Chapter 18

The ‘Green’ Giant of Twitter

“Every day of my life is now magic because of Twitter. I am discovering amazing people and feel increasingly empowered.”

@mqtodd

Michael Q. Todd (@mqtodd) is one of those rare individuals who has taken to social media like a duck to water. He juggles all his platforms (actually, he admits to being a juggling addict!) with what appears to be the greatest of ease and yet he readily engages and provides value to his ever-growing flock of Twitter followers.

Michael’s a true giant in leadership and expertise, and this chapter tells his inspirational personal branding story through his own experiences of using Twitter.

In Search of a Meaningful Life

Michael has worked as a lawyer in various locations around the world, but he always felt that something was missing.

“I woke up a couple of years ago and realized that I was born to do something meaningful with my life. I first found Facebook then Twitter as places where you can find like-minded and passionate people who are also determined to make a difference.

“I joined Twitter in late February 2009 but never really knew what it was about until May of that year, when I started delving deeper into the whole nature of the platform and sought out some mentors. I never considered giving up on it, as I could see it growing. I just couldn’t crack the code at the time and felt that I wasn’t making progress. Then I got involved with a movement called #IranRevolution. I tweeted like crazy, turned my hair green in sympathy [green is a color associated with the revolution] with the oppressed tweeters in Iran [see Figure 18-1], and have never looked back.”

Hang in There!

Michael finds it sad that 97 to 98 percent of people give up on Twitter in the first few months. “It’s a different kind of place compared to any other social networking or marketing platform and, because of this, some unlearning of traditional marketing and communicating practices needs to be done. Unlearning is often much harder than learning!

“One of the real beauties of Twitter is that everyone can and does have their own way of doing things. There is no right or wrong way! Heaven help that everyone copies my way of doing things exactly.

“During June 2009 in Tokyo, I was lucky enough to hear Evan Williams, one of the founders of Twitter, explain what a platform is. He said, ‘It’s a place for an open exchange of ideas and information.’ ”

A Constantly Evolving Platform

Michael often compares the early days of Twitter with the early days of the Internet. “Twitter is being built like the Internet was built. The Internet started around 1990 as a very basic platform for an individual to have a presence through a single-page website. Soon, companies got involved too and one page for each website grew to become two and more.

“Twitter is continually adding features itself but, even more excitingly, it welcomes others to develop features by way of applications that make Twitter a more interesting and useful place to spend time on, and so it is a constantly developing space.

“It has been amazing watching the rapid take-up of Twitter in Japan in the past few months. I have heard that use has tripled in the past year in Japan, and the country is now responsible for 12 percent of tweets worldwide, making it rank third in the countries with the most Twitter accounts [see Figure 18-2].

“It is clear that Twitter is set for massive worldwide expansion, as more and more ‘get’ what it is about and experience the power and fun of using it.”

Michael Todd’s Golden Rules for Personal Branding Success

Michael has ten best practices for successful personal branding.

1. The name has it!

“Your Twitter username can be anything up to 15 characters but, as you will find, most of the good ones are gone. The best way to search for names is to go to Twitter itself and then play around with names from there. You can use underscore or numbers as well as the letters of the alphabet when making your Twitter name but I recommend using your own name with no underscores or numbers.

“Also avoid doing such things as using a 5 instead of an S. Make it as easy as possible for people to remember your name. The shorter the better is also good. If you have a shorter name it makes it easier for people to fit your name into tweets. I had a difficult time balancing this, as @michaelqtodd was very long and many people found it difficult to spell Michael. So I changed my Twitter handle to @mqtodd. As a result, I found myself being added to more lists as well as having more people conversing with me.”

2. That all-important bio

“As well as your name, your location is also important in your bio, as many people search for and add people to lists based on this information. Recently, I have divided my time between Tokyo, Japan, and Brisbane, Australia, so for location I have put Tokyo and Brisbane. If you live in, say, Shanghai, it may be good to put ‘Shanghai, China’ as it may attract more searches.

“Then you have the chance to nominate a website and most people use their blog, business website, or link to their Facebook page. Next, you’ll need to write about yourself in 160 characters. Check out what others in your niche are saying about themselves, but if you can be funny and authentic, that is best. Remember to use searchable keywords in your bio.”

3. Say cheese!

“Next is an important thing: your photo. Show your face and present yourself as a friendly and approachable member of the social community. It’s as simple as that. People like people like themselves. You have only a second or so to attract them, so smile and work your charm on the camera lens. If you can make your photo more memorable, that is a plus. Some of us even adorn ourselves with hats or even Photoshopped wigs.”

4. Keep it public wherever possible

“In its most basic form, Twitter is a way to send out short messages, both privately (like an text message) and more especially publicly. It is also a search engine for those public messages. Some people also choose to protect their tweets so they can be seen only by friends, but if you want to brand yourself, please do not do this.

“The next time you send an e-mail, a text message, or a Facebook update, think about sending it out as a tweet instead.”

5. Retweets are your Twitter gems

“Retweeting is a vital and often underused part of Twitter, and research shows that only about 3 percent of tweets are retweets. I suggest that to get Twitter really humming when you start that at least 30 to 40 percent of your tweets are retweets.

“If your tweet is not merely conversation and you want it shared to the world as much as possible, you should keep it to 115 to 120 characters so that it can be retweeted once or twice — or maybe even three times. Make it easy for people to retweet you and even make a comment.

It’s this ability for tweets and links to be shared outside your own followers or circle of influence that contributes to making Twitter so magical.”

6. Review how others perceive you

“By looking at your last 20 tweets, you should be able to easily see what three things your account is mainly about. You will also quickly see how others perceive you by the subjects of the lists that have added you. Pay lots of attention to this and adjust accordingly.

“Tweet five to eight times a day about things in your niche. Make about half of these retweets. If you can, make a short relevant comment when you retweet. Make another 20 to 30 percent of your tweets about blog posts or articles that you have found and liked.

“To shorten your links, get an account at Bit.ly or use a Twitter client such as HootSuite or TweetDeck to shorten them for you.

“Another 5 percent of so of your tweets can be about you, and another 20 percent or so can be made up of conversations just as you would when sending a text message.”

7. Find the right people to follow

“To find the key people to follow and to retweet, I recommend using Twitter directories such as Twellow and TweetFind. You can also find people by using the Find People function in the Twitter search function. You can search for people both by their Twitter name and their real-life name.

“Follow the people who you find are talking to and retweeting your key people — those who are most influential in your particular areas of interest. If you are visibly intelligent and communicative in your particular niche, these people will also naturally be interested in you and will check you out and probably follow you back.”

8. Take part in Follow Fridays (#FF)

“I also recommend doing a Follow Friday (#FF) each week of the 10 to 15 key people you are interested in. This is a way of acknowledging that you like and recommend them. Also, it’s useful to follow in terms of finding out who others are recommending. Use tools like FollowFriday Helper [shown in Figure 18-3] to find out who else has been tweeting about you and worth an #FF mention each week.”

9. Tweet regularly

“Like a lot of things in life, being regular, giving value, and being fun will attract people to you. Tweeting 40 minutes a day every day is much better than, say, 10 hours all on a Sunday.”

10. Visualize your success

“Make your own style, and do not give up. Focus on staying true to your personal brand and visualize where you want it to take you. Huge success awaits!”

Michael Todd’s Favorite Twitter Tools

Michael uses multiple tools to help him tweet. Here are a few that he especially recommends.

Chirpaloo

Chirpaloo enables you to manage your followers in a searchable database where their profile, tweets, website, social graph, and demographic data are instantly accessible. Users can now identify and categorize influencers, analyze, and engage in relevant conversations with groups and individuals in a way that has never been possible.

Twylah

Twylah (see Figure 18-4) allows users to create a website full of their recent and most popular tweets. Set out in topics of their choice pictorially. Users can also create power Tweets that get their own web page and can be commented on.

Ifttt

This great Twitter tool creates recipes of sharing actions to and from Twitter and several other social platforms. It also has an outstanding Twitter list-creation feature.

HashTracking

This tool shows how many times a hashtag has been used in the last 24 hours and provides an archive of every tweet with that hashtag. It also shows the ten most-followed people who have used the hashtag, along with a list of who has tweeted the hashtag the most.

Michael’s personal branding success story is testimony to the value he provides to others on the platform on a daily basis. His popularity continues to grow, and rightly so.