Madalyn Sklar

How to Augment Twitter and LinkedIn

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How to augment Twitter and LinkedIn - #TwitterSmarter chat with Judi Hays - October 3, 2019

As avid Twitter users, our #TwitterSmarter community members are always up to date on best practices, recent changes, and news about getting the most out of the platform. However, a successful business is one that uses multiple social media channels cohesively and effectively. And we realized that LinkedIn, as a medium of conversation, has long been rather a mystery to many business owners. So we decided to talk about it on our chat last week.

We invited Judi Hays, LinkedIn strategist and consultant, to share some information about leveraging LinkedIn and Twitter together to expand reach.

Here’s a summary of our chat.

Topic: How to augment Twitter and LinkedIn
Guest: Judi Hays
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.

Q1: What are some of the benefits of connecting LinkedIn and Twitter?

According to Judi, connecting LinkedIn and Twitter refers to having the same people in your network on both social channels.

This means not only do you get more interactions with these connections, but it’s also interesting to see how your followers and friends from one channel use the other. You can even learn a few tricks from them on how to get the most out of either platform.

Being connected on both also helps you expand your network. Since LinkedIn is largely identified as a professional forum, you’ll have a lot of opportunity to find and converse with second and third-level connections. After all, the more people you know, the better you’re off.

As our friends from GrowVisibility pointed out, connecting on both platforms lets you cross-promote your content as well. That way, your network can still benefit from your knowledge even if they miss it on one.

That said, be careful not to re-share your posts verbatim. Both LinkedIn and Twitter are fundamentally different and you will have to tailor your content accordingly to get the most benefit.

Q2: Should you conduct yourself differently on Twitter versus LinkedIn? If so, how?

The general consensus is, yes, you should conduct yourself differently in Twitter and LinkedIn.

As our guest mentioned, both platforms are so different from one another that how you behave depends on your audience, what they need, and your business strategy.

For instance, Twitter is a more light-hearted network and you have a lot more leeway to engage in contrasting even controversial conversations. However, with LinkedIn being a more professional platform, you wouldn’t want to say something that might affect your reputation. LinkedIn can also be less forgiving since it’s often a gateway to new jobs.

Our guest also shared some advice and best practices about using LinkedIn. Always send a personal message to new connections, thanking them, and opening up conversations. And if you’re making a post, remember that three hashtags is more than enough.

All that said, you also don’t want to project completely different personalities on these platforms. As Tamara pointed out, that might work in the negative. Even though your tone and content should vary, who you are as a person shouldn’t.

A good rule of thumb is to remind yourself that you’re representing your company and adopt an appropriate tone.

Q3: What is your daily regimen for these platforms?

Our guest’s advice is to check and respond to notifications on both platforms every day. She also suggested sending a friendly (non-creepy) direct message on whichever platform your audience is most active on. Oh, and if you’re not sure which platform they use, just ask.

Aside from responding to notifications, Judi also gave us something of a ritual for continued engagement:

  • Daily: Find your ideal audience and connect with them through a direct message.
  • Weekly: Track your analytics to identify what works and what doesn’t.
  • Monthly: Download your connection database and track progress in a spreadsheet view.

Most of our community members agreed with Judy about following up on notifications daily. Although, for many of our folks, Twitter feels more natural and easy to engage on than LinkedIn. Some, like Lance and John, said they make a LinkedIn post once every week or so and check industry news, and yet are almost always on Twitter.

Q4: How can you grow your business using the combined power of LinkedIn and Twitter?

Ah, the million dollar question. The short answer, as Joe said, is to focus your strategy on building quality relationships with your audience.

Find users who share a common goal and value—they are your target audience. Connect with them, understand their requirements, and consistently offer valuable content.

Judi also offered a bunch of great advice.

  • Prioritize the quality of your connections. If you have a spreadsheet or list view of all your connections, add their Twitter and LinkedIn profiles to your sheet. Then track and analyze their follower count, reach, and growth. This helps you identify the top influencers in your network.
  • Include your LinkedIn profile on Twitter using a short link. Similarly, include your Twitter handle in your LinkedIn profile. This helps people find you on either platform easily.
  • If you don’t already, follow your LinkedIn connections on Twitter, and use advanced search to filter and find your target audience.
  • Create Twitter lists of your LinkedIn connections by specific events, locations, or industry. This will make it easy for you to keep up with various conversations.
  • Publish long-form articles on LinkedIn and tweet them out in snippets, linking back to the article.
  • Use integration tools like Zapier and IFTTT (If This Then That) to connect various apps and to create workflows.

Q5: What are some things to be aware of when connecting both platforms?

The first, and most important, thing to remember is that everything about them is different—the needs and mentality of audience, as well as the algorithm of the platforms themselves. That’s why it’s essential to tailor your message for each.

Here’re a few nuggets of wisdom from Julie:

  • The volume and frequency of both platforms differ. For instance, on LinkedIn, the first hour after you make a post is crucial. Whatever engagement you receive in that first hour tells the algorithm your overall reach and impact. And as you get more likes and comments, your posts will resurface on he feed.
  • On Twitter, because of their short lifespan, you might need to tweet more frequently than post on LinkedIn. It’s also worth remembering that tweets require far fewer characters than LinkedIn posts—choose what you want to say on each platform before you post.
  • Double check your hashtags and mentions. On Twitter, in particular, it’s only too easy to tag the wrong person.
  • If you’re posting updates to both platforms simultaneously, make sure that your message isn’t too long that Twitter will cut it out.
  • Understand that LinkedIn is more professional than Twitter. Your content should reflect your audience’s tone.
  • If your audience is scattered across the world, you may never have an ideal time to post.

And of course, as Bernie reminded us, no matter what you do, however often you tweet, don’t ever spam. Social media is about being social—don’t make it all about you. Share the space and have fun.

Q6: How do you generate impact from Twitter and LinkedIn?

Get the basics right first. Add your Twitter handle to your LinkedIn profile and vice versa. Make sure all of your online material—website, newsletters, email signatures—contain your Twitter handle.

If you’re sharing a post in LinkedIn, consider auto-sharing it on Twitter at the same time. When you automate it, you don’t have to remember and manually share each post.

If you’re at an event, live tweet. Share quotes, pictures, and anecdotes, along with the official event hashtag.

Save your notes and put them up on LinkedIn Slide Share. If you speak at conferences, share your presentations as well. You can then tweet a link to them.

Consider joining relevant LinkedIn groups. That’ll help you get in touch with industry experts and build a strong rapport with influential people in your niche.

Our community members also insisted on authenticity. Don’t be afraid to be who you are. Be genuinely interested in people and focus on developing your relationships. And to do that, you need to be consistently present. Be available to your audience, and as Christine suggested, share your expertise in the form of thought leadership. Offer value to your network.

Q7: What’s been your most successful strategy on these platforms?

Judi’s success came from knowing what she wanted to get from each platform. Having a clear goal and target audience is essential. You save a lot of time and effort when you know who you’re talking to and why.

Our #TwitterSmarter members spoke about their successful strategies too. The most common one is the most straightforward—being sincere. When you genuinely take an interest in your audience, share value, and engage consistently, you will become a go-to problem solver.

Rachel from Express Writers pointed out how their monthly Twitter chat, #ContentWritingChat (great for marketers!) has helped them boost their Twitter presence and build a community of engaged audience. And just like chats, lists can also be a great way to build conversations.

Our friend Ganesh emphasized the importance of making sense. We all like a good laugh, but unless done well, witty pranks can easily turn into offensive content that might even affect your brand.

Janice brought up the value of community and how you should learn from your analytics.

And finally, our own expert Madalyn left us with thought provoking advice. Listen to your audience. Don’t talk just for the sake of talking.

Q8: What are your favorite tools? What’s not out there that you’d like to see?

Judi vouched for Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer for sharing and scheduling social media content. She also likes Canva for images, Google Sheets for tracking, and text expander apps on Chrome.

As for what he’d like to see, Matt hoped to have time limits for pinned tweets. It’s a great idea too—how often do you pin a tweet (about an event, a webinar, or a promotion) and forget that it’s even there?

Our chat regular and LinkedIn consultant Chaim told us how LinkedIn should bring back some of their old, super nifty, features like email syncing, tags, BCC emails, and keyword search.

What about you? Do you have any specific LinkedIn or Twitter features in your wish list? Tweet them out to Madalyn or myself.

And if you have some time to spare on Thursday, join us at 1 pm ET for our next #TwitterSmarter chat.

About me, Narmadhaa:

I’m a writer of all things—technical and marketing copy to fill the pocket; haiku and short stories to fill the soul. A social media enthusiast, I’m a member of the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and always happy to take on writing gigs.

Say hello: Personal blog | LinkedIn | Twitter

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