#67: Simple Tips and Tools You Need to Dominate Twitter Video with Dan Willis

#TwitterSmarter Podcast #67: Simple Tips and Tools You Need to Dominate Twitter Video with Dan Willis

In this episode, Dan Willis shares simple tips and tools to help you master – and dominate – Twitter video. He also describes the amazing success he has had from using 30-second video replies as part of his Twitter marketing strategy.

Listen in Apple PodcastsGoogle Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, iHeartRadio and Spotify.

This podcast episode is brought to you by the #TwitterSmarter Twitter chat. Each week, I host this chat and bring together hundreds of people in an active one-hour discussion revolving around Twitter marketing. It’s every Thursday at 1pm ET. Hope to see you there!

Guest Biography

Dan Willis is an international digital marketer with over fifteen years of experience on three continents in multiple languages. The advice he shares comes from real, practical experience consulting with major brands like FOX TV, Toyota, and H&M (France, the U.K., Switzerland, Canada, and the U.S.).

Episode Highlights

Dan Willis’ Twitter Video Tips

Create and post short videos on Twitter:

Use Twitter video replies during:

  • Twitter chats
  • Conferences (whether you attend live or join Twitter conversations by following the conference hashtag)
  • Social media “listening”/scrolling

Set up a simple, low-tech home video studio using:

  • Natural light from a window (No fluorescent lights)
  • A quiet location
  • A webcam on top of your desktop computer monitor (at eye level)
  • A good microphone

Showcase your personality and brand in your decor.

My Favorite Quotes

“Twitter is actually the best video platform out there for social media.” – Dan WillisClick To Tweet
“Twitter video replies are quick, easy, and simple. Just make a quick camera recording. Bang. Off and running. Get it out there.” – Dan WillisClick To Tweet

Tools, Links, and Apps Mentioned:

Twitter Video and Audio Tools

Social Media Marketing Monitoring Tools

  • Hootsuite – tool for scheduling all of your social media content, monitoring important conversations, and tracking analytics.
  • Agorapulse – social media management and scheduling tool
  • Talkwalker – listening and analytics products for communications, marketing, and research

Other Mentions:

How to Reach Dan

You can connect with Dan Willis on Twitter and through his website.

Call to Action

Your call to action for this episode is to record a short video on your phone and tweet it out to Dan (@MLLNNLmotivator) and me (@MadalynSklar). We’ll send you video replies back to it. We can’t wait to hear from you!

#TwitterSmarter Courses

FREE #TwitterSmarter Secret Sauce course

Need some simple Twitter marketing guidance? Check out my FREE #TwitterSmarter Secret Sauce course. It’s a mini-class I put together at madalynsklar.com/secretsauce. It includes articles and videos that share my strategies on how to boost your presence on Twitter so you get better results.

#TwitterSmarter Master Class

Ready to go all-in for Twitter marketing training? Then you’re ready for my #TwitterSmarter Master Class. This online course is ideal for beginners and intermediate Twitter users. You’ll get step-by-step instructions that will help you enhance your profile and learn strategies that work! You’ll learn how to maximize your presence and monetize your efforts.

Sponsors

#TwitterSmarter Twitter Chat

My weekly #TwitterSmarter Twitter chat on all things Twitter marketing featuring a different social media marketing expert each Thursday at 1 pm ET.

Contact me to learn how YOU can become a #TwitterSmarter podcast sponsor.

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Transcript

Madalyn Sklar: Hey Dan, Thank you so much for joining the #TwitterSmarter podcast. I am so happy to have you here as my very special guest. My question for you is what are your best Twitter tips?

Dan Willis: All right guys. I know that this is a secret, and Madalyn, I like to keep it on the down-low. But Twitter is actually the best video platform out there for social media and …

Madalyn Sklar: Oooh. You’re going hog video. ‘Cause that’s always been my dilemma, Dan. People are like “Twitter and video? I don’t think so.” They just don’t have that connection. I can’t wait for you to share more. This is exciting.

Dan Willis: Yeah, I absolutely love to throw the gauntlet down on this because there’s so many different video platforms out there now and even ones that never were considered video before like LinkedIn, and Facebook’s playing around a little bit.

But the reality is the big things with video that everybody wants – and this is every social platform out there, every business, everybody – they want it to be mobile friendly; they want it to be real time; they want it to be easy to use; and they want it to be conversational.

And every video platform out there is struggling to make those happen in one way or the other with the exception of Twitter. Twitter is the only platform that delivers on every single one of those things in a relatively seamless way.

Madalyn Sklar: Yeah, that’s so true. I mean, I, I’m so glad that you’re sharing this and getting people excited about using video on Twitter. And you always stand out to me because you’re always tweeting videos on Twitter.

And, and not too many people do that and you really stand out from everyone. And you come on to the weekly #TwitterSmarter chat that I host, and you’re always sharing answers as a short video. And I, I think that is so awesome. And are you starting to notice that people are really paying attention to you because you’re like one of the only people I know that does that.

Dan Willis: Yeah, the spike is actually monumental. And what’s amazing about it is we always talk about attention. When it comes to creating great content for social feeds, it’s about being able to grab attention. And one of the big, uh, I would say, criticisms of Twitter is the feed moves so quickly because there’s so much stuff.

And my answer to that is I never find that. I find that regardless of how many posts are going into the feed, for some reason mine’s still get engagement. And often that’ll create the conversation back and forth.

And ultimately what comes out is, oh, well, every single post you put out has very little copy. And there’s almost always a video. Is that the key? And it’s almost one of those rhetorical questions where it goes, well, you take the time to reply directly to a person or a community with a 30-second, 40-second clip.

You’re going to get a lot more content in there than you would with copy. It comes with tonality; it comes with character; it comes with … It has everything you would want it to have. And it’s a conversation in the digital space in real time.

So of course that’s going to help you pop from the feed in such a massive way. So is it intentional? Absolutely. Is it enjoyable? Absolutely. Have I seen a massive spike in, in who I can connect with and how and why through those videos? For sure.

I mean, uh, the Gary Vee Audio Experience: I was able to open his podcast for him simply because his team couldn’t get past the fact every single post they put out had a video reply from me on it, every single one.

Madalyn Sklar: That’s awesome. How did you get inspired to do video on Twitter? I mean, was there anybody out there doing it and you thought, “I could do that too, or I could do it better?” Or is it just because you’re just the video guy, and it’s just your nature to do this?

Dan Willis: I saw, I saw #VideoReplyDay with, uh, Chris Strub, and I think you were part of that as well. And that was kind of cool, but it was only for a day. And then I didn’t really think about it again. And then I actually did see Gary Vee reply to somebody via video and go, “OK, well, here’s my thoughts on that.” And that was it.

And I went, “You know, one of my biggest struggles with Twitter is I’m not a great wordsmith. I wish I was better at it, and I just am not. Voice and video is really where I, where I excel.”

And I thought, man, doesn’t that simplify everything that instead of my having to be a great wordsmith, I can just put a teaser to what I want to say and get it all out there with a quick 30, 40-second video, no restrictions.

I don’t have to worry about does my text have enough room? I can say what I want to say. The time limit has never been an issue for me, and I feel like I get a better conversation going with it.

Madalyn Sklar: That is so great. I’m so glad you mentioned Gary Vee because, OK, this sounds very geeky but I remember the day Twitter made video available like where you could tweet a video.

And I was so excited, and I remember thinking to myself, “Oh wait a minute, I don’t have any makeup on, and my hair is not … shiny like,” you know. That’s the problem with women. We’re always so concerned like how do we look? And I was like, screw it. I’m going to do one anyway. I’m going to post a video real quick and put it up on Twitter ’cause this is so cool that we can now do this.

And Gary Vee was all over that. I mean he was … He would … What he would do every day is like when he was sitting in a car going somewhere, somebody is driving him somewhere, he would just get his phone out on Twitter and just do these little 3- to 5-second replies to everyone. And he did to me a couple of times.

I got a couple of, of these little short little Gary Vaynerchuk snippet videos. And I was like, man, we gotta get more people doing this. Like we need to start this trend. And it wasn’t really catching on. And I was trying to get Gary to kind of like, I mean he was doing it, and, really, I think because he was doing it, other people saw the coolness of it. But it just wasn’t becoming mainstream.

Uh, so I tried off and on, you know, for awhile. And then I started the whole Video Reply Day thing two years ago. Uh, Chris Strub started, I think it was Video Reply Tuesday was his hashtag?

Dan Willis: Yeah.

Madalyn Sklar: And I didn’t know he was doing that. Um, and I was trying to get … I was really trying to revitalize the whole video reply thing and getting people into it. And so I started a Video Reply Day and said, “Hey, Let’s just every week all come together, a whole bunch of us, and just do these video replies and connect with each other.”

Dan Willis: Yeah.

Madalyn Sklar: I like turned into a movement. It was amazing, and it went on for like a good year, year and a half, where people were actually doing it every day. Um, I just had committed to doing it like, OK, every week, every Tuesday I’m going to come on and do this Video Reply Day, and let’s all chat.

And it was really amazing to watch people connect on a different level through video. And I feel like that’s what you do, Dan, because you’re so active on the #TwitterSmarter chat with these videos.

It’s such a great way to really get to know someone. You really get to know like and trust someone, which are the three important things when it comes to marketing and sales by just watching somebody talk on video. And I’m with you. It’s like I would much rather just talk than write.

Dan Willis: Yeah.

Madalyn Sklar: And so I think that video is a lot easier.

Dan Willis: I think people feel a lot more valued too. So I, I’m not putting down people that write great copy and people that send great images or GIFs. Even GIFs can be a lot of fun. I’ve got my own set of GIFs.

But the reality is when I take the time and I’m listening constantly on social media for conversations that are relevant and I take the time to give somebody a direct 30-second video reply of here’s what you’re struggling with; here’s some advice; here’s a tip that I can give you, that means so much more when you’ve taken just 30 seconds of your day to make that engagement.

A lot of people struggle with, well, how do you build a community online? How can you build a genuine community? It’s not possible to build real relationships through social media. It’s just not done. And I, I just, I, I despise that mindset because all it takes is 30 seconds.

When you reach directly into people’s lives amidst an ocean of tweets and say “You: For 30 seconds I’m going to give you not only undivided attention, I’m going to get on camera and get face to face with you. It just, it blows people’s minds that, oh, we can actually have real conversations with real people in real time and be social on social media. That’s crazy.

Madalyn Sklar: I love that. So have you seen like the, has your business benefited from, from being Mr. Video on Twitter and just always communicating by video? Like is that really helping? ‘Cause I’ve noticed that people remember you. That’s for sure.

Like you’ve really … Like I was interviewing, um, Christine Gritman for this same podcast, for the #TwitterSmarter podcast, and uh, you know, you get brought up a lot. People talk about you because you’re so memorable utilizing video on Twitter. So are you starting to see benefits from doing this?

Dan Willis: Yeah, so I mean, I, I’ve been doing my digital marketing consultancy for a decade now, and that’s great. But I’m at that point where I’m transitioning to: OK, well let’s do some events. Let’s do some conferences. Let’s podcast a little, see what’s going on.

And in January when I started to really do Twitter video, um, I’d never spoken at an official event or conference before. I’ve done six, well seven, in the past eight months.

Madalyn Sklar: Wow.

Dan Willis: in three different countries.

Madalyn Sklar: That’s amazing.

Dan Willis: Um, podcasts. I’m on a podcast once a week – at least once a week now as a result of this. And the really cool thing with podcasts and events is I will go now, and people at the events will be like, “Dan, it’s you! You’re … Hey, how’s it going?” And I mean, you guys don’t do video back. So I’m going, “Hi. Who are …? Oh, you’re, you’re that person. Now I know who you are and that’s great.”

But I really love that, um, at Social Media Marketing World, I was able to … You gave me a great shout out there, and that was awesome. But I was also able to hit the leaderboard for the event just by the video posts. And I’ve done that again with Inbound, this uh, this past week, at SCM world, this past week.

Madalyn Sklar: I saw that. I’m like, I thought you were there. And then I realized through one of your tweets, Oh, he’s just doing … That’s right. Of course. Dan is the one that … I just thought, I don’t know. I guess I thought you were going to be there and you were speaking, but that shows the power.

And that’s exactly what Christine Gritman and I talked about when I had her on the podcast. Um, she talked about utilizing events, you know, through Twitter and that you don’t necessarily have to be there.

And so you got brought up because of how at Social Media Marketing World you had this amazing presence just by watching the hashtag and participating in conversations. And you were on that leaderboard, which was amazing and that it’s OK to do this if you’re not there, that you can be a relevant part of the conversation.

Dan Willis: I think it’s more than even OK. I think it’s encouraged. I find that not one of that has really gone, “Hey listen, you’re not here. Could you stop pretending like you’re here.” Instead, I think what this shows is that events are really evolving in a big way where there’s so many amazing events now, and not everybody make every event.

But that doesn’t mean that you don’t want that community still engaged with what’s happening. And some events do a really amazing job of providing content, interviews, floor shows, live stuff on Twitch so that the digital community can consume it.

So, of course they’re looking for some feedback from the other side of, well, “Are you guys genuinely feeling like you’re a part of what’s happening here?” And for me it’s absolutely. At any one talk or workshop or keynote, I see a thousand posts fly through the feed, and I can choose to offer my insights as I will to any of those comments.

If anything, I feel like I can actually experience events in a very, uh, in a much more critical, and critical in a good way, than somebody who’s actually there at the event ’cause one of the … when you’re at the event, you’re just trying to absorb the surroundings, the environment, the people.

But you’re so plugged in that afterwards, I think, most people when you come home from an event, you need two or three days to detox and process what’s going on.

Madalyn Sklar: Right.

Dan Willis: Whereas, here from my office at home, I’m able to process everything that’s happening as it’s happening and connect people and help people. Actually, with Inbound, uh, there were a few people that were having a hard time understanding where they’re supposed to go or what’s happening next.

And so I was actually able to hop in and do some, you know, quick, uh, event SOS work where it’s, “Oh yeah, you go here, you go do this. Somebody’s speaking here.” And I think that’s a real opportunity for events moving forward. The digital community can be engaged and should be engaged because it helps the overall community.

Madalyn Sklar: Right. For sure. Now. Twitter, unfortunately, made a big change earlier this year, back in March 2019. I remember exactly when it was cause it was literally a few days before I went to Social Media Marketing World and my presentation was on Twitter video.

And uh, they made a big change where they put a new camera into the mobile app so that when you were doing this, all of a sudden video replies didn’t work. When you’re like trying to reply to someone, you hit the little camera … it, you could post a picture or a video, but you couldn’t create one. You had to actually get out of the app, go make a video on your phone and then go back into the app and share it, which was very frustrating.

I was, I was on this crusade to get people to do video replies. I was really making a difference. And then this happens, and even I don’t want to do video replies anymore ’cause it’s so much extra work. The whole point was to do this quickly. How has that affected you?

I mean I still see you doing tons of video replies, but also you’re, you do a lot of this from your desktop. You’re not necessarily doing it mobile, cause you got this system sitting there at your desk doing videos. So has it affected you much .. be … You know, ’cause you’re not, you’re not doing much mobile with it. Right.

Dan Willis: Um, when I’m at events, I do mobile. So when I spoke in France at Web Today and when I spoken in Ohio at Social Media Week Lima, um … The two of those … I did find it a little bit challenging, actually. I won’t lie. I was more inclined to go live because that’s so easy. That’s why features there to just go live.

Madalyn Sklar: Yep.

Dan Willis: The only problem with that is it’s not great for copy. So you can’t really answer questions in a Twitter chat format that way. But for original content, I was more prone to go live than I was to record a video and, and post that way.

But I did still find there was two Twitter chats that I did from those events. And I did still find that not that big of a hassle to record the video and then select it and increase it. Yes, it’s like 10 seconds. But for me, that 10 seconds, it’s a less about me having to invest an additional 10 seconds and more about uh, what value am I bringing to the community.

Madalyn Sklar: Absolutely.

Dan Willis: Do I … Yeah.

Madalyn Sklar: And that makes perfect sense. And being that that’s your thing is doing video, I could see where it’s not that big a deal to invest those extra 10 seconds per video per reply.

Whereas, for the rest of us, I’m just trying to do was fast and easy. And it’s like I’ve noticed I’ve been transitioning more to GIFs versus making a video because I’m just trying to do something quick and easy.

But um, let’s talk about your setup because I think you have a very unique setup. You know, when I’m watching your videos on the #TwitterSmarter chat is the setup of, of you know, if anybody is watching the video version of this right now, you know, you’re sitting at your desk and you got the camera pointed at you.

It’s the same way I see you on Twitter, you know. So how do you do this? I’m sure plenty of people are looking at this going, “Wow, That’s a cool setup. How do you do that?”

Dan Willis: So, uh, one of the things not a lot of people know is that on top of being active on Twitter video, I’m also a Twitch partner and a YouTube partner. So Twitch: I broadcast live for eight hours a day for about nine months in a row. I’ve got almost a million views over on Twitch.

And so learning how to do live video was kind of core, and you guys are seeing the end of my workday here with videos so that’s why this glare is never there.

But I set up my office specifically so that I had a window behind my computer. So I’ve got great natural light that comes in. I don’t have to worry about fluorescents or anything like that. Um, I’m set off kind of separated from the house. So all the insanity that happens with my kids and family, that’s, that’s kind of off in the distance. And they frequently hear “I’m going live, and my whole house goes dead silent.” Even the dog lies down. Like they get it.

So, uh, on top of that, I always know that when I’m watching people, I love to see the background. It should kind of display who that person is. Uh, for me, I’m a bit of a comic book nut. So, um, that’s there, and that just adds some personality. So for me, uh, I really made a point of organizing the office specifically to showcase, OK, I’m a business guy. I love video. I still got a fun side, and I know that it needs to have a lighting and sound dynamic to it. So all of that definitely went into the planning of how I laid it all out.

Madalyn Sklar: I love that. That is so awesome. Yeah. My last home office: I thought the background, the way I put it together, it came out really cool. People always commented on it.

And then I moved earlier this year and felt like I had to start over. But then my office was so echo-y that I created this nice podcast studio I’m in. But this feels more like a cave right now, and I don’t know if I want to put things on the wall. It’s not really for video. I think it was just really more for audio.

But, but sometimes I want to have video when I’m in here. Like you know our little interview right now. And it’s like, should I try to put things on the wall? I mean, I don’t know how easy that’ll be. But you’re so right though. Like you can really showcase some personality so that people really get to know who you are and what you do just from the surroundings they see in your videos.

Dan Willis: Yeah, and I mean if you look at a lot of the guys that we’ve talked about that are just big players in video. Take Gary Vee. He’s got his wall of crap.

Madalyn Sklar: Yes.

Dan Willis: Everybody’s got their wall. Everybody’s got their thing. Um, and if your thing’s music, then it shouldn’t look anything like mine. Uh, for those of you watching the video, uh, you see that it’s all comic books and statues and stuff. Yours should be music and albums. And if you’re somebody that loves Twitter, it should be exactly like Madalyn’s old office with Twitter logos and your Twitter hashtag on the wall.

And it just needs to embody and reflect you in a way that people, if all they saw was the thumbnail of your video, they would go, “Oh,” again, “That, that’s you.” But this is all part of personal branding guys and why video again is so crucial.

Madalyn Sklar: Yeah, for sure. Um, and so back to, like, the way you’re doing your videos. So, so how are you recording? Like how … ’cause I don’t really do much of … Like if I’m going to post something on Twitter, I, I’m just, I just get my phone out and just make it like, I, during the #TwitterSmarter chat today, we had Ted Rubin on. He was amazing, and I wanted to make like a little something… I’m having a good hair day. I thought, let me make a little nice little intro video. We women do think like that. Trust me. It’s like, “Oh my hair looks good. Let me, let me make a video.” Um, so I made a little, little, like, introductory, like a very generic, so I can use it in the future. It’s like, you know, “Hey, welcome to the #TwitterSmarter chat. Thank you for being here.”

And uh, it’s just easy for me to just get my phone out and do it instead of like, “Oh, let me make sure I got my webcam turned on.” And you know, so like if we’re gonna do this on desktop, like in the … People are watching how you’re doing Twitter videos, and they want to do it by desktop, what’s the best way to do that?

Dan Willis: So for me, I’ve got an HD Logitech camera right here that I’m pointing at…

Madalyn Sklar: Me too.

Dan Willis: … that sits on top of my main monitor. Um, for those of you guys getting started, this is actually a great way to go because that’s usually at about eye level. So you don’t really have to play around with getting positioning right at the top of your monitor is typically eye level. So you’re banging off and ready to go.

Um, for sound, I like to use the Blue Snowball. Um, this thing is just a little mini wonder. Um, it gets great audio. It’s a USB plug in, so quick, easy. And it just sits there. That, The sound screen is like two seconds to add onto it. Um, and it just captures noise really well in a small space, and it cuts out a lot of the kind of background, clinking and noise and whatever else is there.

So, um, and then at that point, every computer, if you hit the windows key or the Apple key and type in camera, it’s going to pull up that camera. And you just hit record, and it’s that simple.

Madalyn Sklar: Wow.

Dan Willis: It’s not some big in-depth Adobe Premiere thing. It’s easy.

Madalyn Sklar: So you don’t really need like software and stuff. You don’t need the Adobe Premiere. You just literally type in “camera” and get your camera up and then just hit record.

Dan Willis: Yeah. I have my camera up pretty much all day unless I’m using Skype, or if you see me live on Twitter, that’s using OBS, which is a whole different animal.

Madalyn Sklar: That’s like a whole, yeah. It’s free. But it’s, you know, it’s a little bit of a learning curve. What about like, just like I’m on a Mac … Like I could just open up QuickTime. Right. And just record right into QuickTime.

Dan Willis: Yeah. exactly. Exact same process. Keep it as simple as possible, as well. I think that’s one of the big barriers that a lot of people set up with Twitter video is, “Oh, I don’t know Premiere. And do I use video on a stream aired or do I need Quicc … Do I need Animoto? Is that how I …”

And the reality is you’re over complicating things. It’s a reply. It’s not a tailored piece of content.

We can talk about that. There’s other creators you need to check out for that. Guys like Roberto Blake and Tim Schmoyer. They’ll teach you how to do long form content. That’s a different process.

For a video reply, it’s quick, easy and simple. So keep it that. Just make it a quick camera record. Bang. Off and running. Get it out there.

Um, guys go through that too. I’ve got bad beard days. You will always see, see me with my hat on. I almost never have it off so I don’t have to deal with “Ah, this thing.” But the reality is once you start to do it, a lot of those misconceptions about how it looks go away.

One of the massive things that I will give you guys is this: Please invest in a microphone of some kind.

Madalyn Sklar: Yeah.

Dan Willis: And I know that sounds a little weird with video of, Oh, the audio is so important. You could have the most high production, beautiful piece of video, and if the audio is crackly, distorted, echoey, nobody will watch it. Nobody ever. Invest in the audio in a big way, and you’re going to see a lot better results from it.

Madalyn Sklar: I love that tip. I mean, you can even invest – and they’re very inexpensive – is, like, the little lavalier mic, like a Rode lavalier mic and just, you know, clip it onto your shirt. And so that you have something that gives you some decent quality.

You don’t have to go like, you know, I’ve got my expensive, Heil PR-40 mic, um, cause in 2013, that’s what all the big podcasters were using. And I went all in on podcasting, so I bought the expensive, you know, $325 microphone. But I love it. It makes me sound great.

So, you know, but there are other microphones. uh, for my other office, I got the, uh, Audio Technica ATR2100, which is a phenomenal mic. Uh, my other podcast, Communities that Convert, I have a co-host, and she has the ATR2100. I have this Heil. And our audio sounds pretty much the same. And her mic is only like $75, I think, or maybe not even that much anymore. So inexpensive now these options with microphones. So I’m so glad you brought that up, Dan, ’cause that’s such a great point. Audio is important.

Dan Willis: I’m going to give you guys a life hack too. For all you parents out there because most of you are parents. Your children have an Xbox or PlayStation. Those come with these – for those of you watching the video, you’re seeing it there – just these dangly little plugins that go in their controllers.

The audio on these is actually phenomenal. It’s really, really great quality because it’s built for live communication in gaming, right? So they want it to make sure that the audio was crisp and people could hear each other really well.

So in a pinch, this is what I use at events when I want the audio to be good. It comes with the lavalier clip. And I just clip this thing to my shirt and walk around with a PlayStation mic. And that’s what I use for quality.

Madalyn Sklar: That’s great.

Dan Willis: But the other benefit to this is this microphone is only built to capture what’s directly in front of it. So when you’re recording in an event, anyway, if you’re doing video content and you’re creating a one of those curated pieces that we’re talking about, I still recommend this for video because it’s only built to pick up what’s, you know, less than a foot away from it. So you don’t get all of that conference clutter and distortion and noise off of it. You just get your voice.

Madalyn Sklar: Oh, that’s super smart. What a great tip. I’ll make sure that all this stuff’s in the show notes all these great little tips and hacks that Dan is sharing. So Dan, tell us, before we wrap this up, what are some of your favorite, like, tools and apps that you use when you’re using Twitter? Do you have like any scheduling apps or productivity apps, things that just help you with Twitter?

Dan Willis: Yeah, so I don’t just manage myself. I manage several other clients as well. And you guys will see if you’re ever in Twitter chats, I’m usually in three or four at once, and I’m hopping around everywhere and doing a whole bunch. I could not do that without social sorting tools.

Hootsuite is a fantastic one. They’re Canadians. I love giving shout outs to them.

Agorapulse is what I currently use, and I do that because it allows me to do some reporting and I can monitor my clients at the same time.

Um, Talkwalker is one that I use to discover content on Twitter. So Talkwalker allows me to actually scan for brands in video, in copy and audio, which a lot of the other social scanning tools can’t do. Um, so they don’t even need to reference the brand. It could just scan and see the Madalyn Sklar image and go, “Oh yeah, she’s in this,” which I find really cool. And that allows me to pick up branding otherwise where I wouldn’t.

Um, and I think Quicc would be the last one. For those of you that have been seeing it lately, I’m doing my own Twitter chat now, which is Vid chat on Fridays. And they do all of the closed captioning for me. And they’re a phenomenal tool. I find that my videos with closed captions are actually a lot more effective.

So many people on Twitter are watching on mobile, and they don’t want to bug people around them. So to have quick captions like Quicc offers, um, it goes a long way to people actually watching the content.

Madalyn Sklar: Oh, that’s a great tip. I’ll make sure we have a link to that in the show notes. Yeah. Capturing your videos is so important these days because not everybody has audio turned on when they’re watching, especially like Instagram stories and stuff.

So many times people say they can’t have it on, and so they, they, it’s helpful to be able to read what the video is saying. So super smart tips. This has been so great. Dan, you shared so much great valuable information here. If somebody wants to reach out to you, what’s the best way for them to do that?

Dan Willis: Reach out to me on Twitter. Tag me. I guarantee you, and I make a promise every podcast you hear me: If you tag me on the tweet, I will give you a video reply. There will be a custom video reply for you if you tag me. Otherwise, if you don’t want to do that, I understand: www.millennialmotivator.ca. You can catch my other stuff there – the blogs and the whatever else.

Madalyn Sklar: That is so great. Dan. I think the call to action for this episode is, I would love for, and I’m sure you would love this too … We would love for everyone to do a video reply. They should send a tweet. We’ll really will reply.

They should send a tweet to you and I just be sure in the tweet you have, you know, both of us tag and make a little short little video. You know, do it on your phone and then go put it into Twitter or do it on your computer, on your desktop, because Dan just shared with you how to do that.

And send us a tweet, tag us, and we will both do a video reply back to you. And this’ll just be a fun exercise in the power of video on Twitter because it really works.

Dan Willis: Yeah, it really does guys. And I look forward to that being that back and forth because that’s the real power that people haven’t realized yet.

Madalyn Sklar: Yeah.

Dan Willis: When we start to have those conversations in real time, look out. Twitter’s going to become a massive player.

Madalyn Sklar: Absolutely. Well, this has been so great, Dan. Thank you so much for coming on today.

Dan Willis: It was a blessing to be here. Have a great day, guys.