HOW TO GROW YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT

ByTedJanusz

ot really sure about TWitter? You are certainly not alone. According to a2OO9
Linkedln Harris poll, 69 percent of participants who answered the question
"Thinking about TWitter, what is your closest opinioni' chose "I don't know
enough about TWitter to have an opinion" as their answer.
Even five years ago, Twitter had made its mark on the
world. One of the most memorable occasions occurred in
April 2008, when James Buck, a University of Califomia
at Berkeley graduate student, was arrested while photographing an anti-government protest in Egypt. Buck
managed to send a quick tweet from his Twitter account

that consisted of

a single word: "arrested."

His followers contacted the university, the American
Embassy, and media organizations, who together put
pressure on Egyptian authorities. The next day Buck
sent yet another one-word tweet: "freed."

Best Practices
The tweets you send about your parking facility may not
be as dramatic as those from Buck, but with help from
Heather Mansfield, author of S ocial Mediafor Social Good,
here are six TWitter best practices to fo1lou.:
1.

Find Your Voice-Have Personality and Build Community. Sure, it's fine and helpful to your followers to
push out content about yoursell such as information
about road closures, detours, and the current number
ofavailable parking spaces, but the best Tkitter voices
have character and are friendly. These voices share

TED JANUSZ is
a professional
speaker on the topic
of "social media

for baby boomers,"

author, and marketing
consultant" He is the
author of the Socral

Media Marketing

opinions and contribute to discussions. Send out a

wide variety ofcontent, including photos and videos.
Resist the temptation to automate your tweets or direct
messages. Inspirational quotes and powerful statistics
have high rweet (and rerv\reet) appeal.
2. Track Your Links. Use a third-party app, such as
Bit.ly or Owl.ly, to trackyour 1inks. Not only do these flee
tools shrink long links and offer you more characters
for tweeting, but they also provide useful statistics on
how many people click on your links. TVritterers who

Guide for Parking

do not track their links are simply tweetingblind. Your

Professionals,which
is a free publication
for lPl members and

number-one job in the successful use of social media is

to find out what kind of content your followers want
and provide more of it to them.

can be downloaded
from parking.org/
socialmediaguide.
He can be

reached at ied@
nuspres*ntatinns.
con: or 614.440.7487.
j

14

3.

Don't Tweet Only Your Content. Mix it up! Tweet

articles or blog posts from your favorite newspapers,
bloggers, and partner organizations. An insurance
agent I know will congratulate a local sports team or
ask followers where they will be going on vacation or
if they will attend the county fair. With social media,

lNTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE I NOVTVETN ZOIA

engagement (not one-way communication) is key.

4. Retweet and Reply Often. Follow the Golden Rule. The
more your parking facility promotes others through
retweets and replies, the more your parking facility
will get retweeted and mentioned. This is one of the
fastest ways to grow your follower base.
5.

ratio. If you har.e I,OOO followers you

should be following 1,000 Twitters in return. Why?

Follow

a 1:1

Four reasons:
a. You're 1ikely to get more followers if people see that

you follow in return.

direct message you ifyou are not

followingthem.

b. People cannot

c. People are less likely to mention or retweet you if

they think you'11 never retweet or mention them.
d. People will get an email saying that your parking
6.

facility is now following them.

a Good Timeframe. How often should you
tweet? The lifespan of a tweet is about 90 minutes.
Most people only browse their tweets in real time.
TWeet four to six times a day, and space your tweets
throughout the day. Twitter is most active from 9

Follow

a.m. to noon.
To learn more about how to use TWitter to promote

your parking facility, visit business.twitter.com. O

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