Here’s how to improve your Twitter efficiency

Savvy marketers know that Twitter activity is basically made up of three functions: listening, communicating, and broadcasting. Replies and two-way conversations obviously require personal involvement… but you can develop and use systems for monitoring and broadcasting.

Although it’s possible to setup RSS news alerts for keywords at search.twitter.com – I use HootSuite to automate searches and track everything in one place. If you prefer software to install on your computer, TweetDeck is another powerful tool with many of the same functions.

Broadcasting on Twitter is one-way messaging that you use to share information and communicate special offers. Many of these can be written and prepared in advance.

This may include things such as:

• Local information
• Hotel and property information
• Answers to common questions
• Special promotions planned in advance

A good way to save time on Twitter is to routinely write a big list of tweets on these topics in advance. This could be every week or every month — depending on your schedule. Then, using a scheduling tool like HootSuite, schedule these updates to be sent “live” at predetermined intervals in the future. Usually, a few each day works best.

If you intend to fully automate your Twitter presence, SocialOomph is one of the most powerful tools I’m aware of. Among other things, you can:

• Send direct messages to new followers
• Automate the process of following other people (based on criteria you select)
• Find “power followers” – ones with most social influence
• Weed out spam tweets and DMs
• Auto-forward tweets and DMs
• Schedule recurring updates

Automatically following back people that follow me on Twitter is something I experimented with for a while, and ultimately decided against. However, you may find it useful for your own goals. Using tools like SocialOomph.com, you can auto-follow people who follow you…and unfollow people who unfollow you.

Again, I have personally decided to manually follow people on Twitter to keep my network quality high. But if you’re going for sheer volume of fans, an auto-follow strategy may work for you.

When planning your Twitter strategy, make sure to make your followers’ experience takes highest priority. If that requires a little extra time on your part, so be it. You can’t skimp on delivering lower quality just because it saves you a little time. But by automating a couple routine functions, you can focus more time on creating valuable content.

How do you improve your Twitter efficiency?

[This is an excerpt from How to Automate Your Marketing]