When you’re running a blog, managing your social media presence can feel like a job in and of itself. We’ve been already shared some tools to tame the social media beast (like IFTTT) and will be sharing some more this month. First up: TweetDeck.
If you haven’t heard of TweetDeck, it’s a great way to organize and manage your Twitter feed. You can keep track of all of your lists, searches and messages all in one place. You can even connect multiple accounts so if you have a blog handle and personal handle you manage them both from the same spot. The best part is that it’s free!
The Basics
TweetDeck is product put out by Twitter, so it’s really easy to integrate with your account. You actually just sign in with your Twitter account– no new login required. You also have options as to how you use it. You can download versions for Mac or Window, use a Chrome App or just use the web interface.
TweetDeck is organized by columns that you can arrange in whatever order works for you. Once you login for the first time, you’ll see columns for Home, Notifications, Messages and Activity.
Making a List
Once you have your basic account set up, the first thing I would recommend is creating some lists. Lists can be public or private– if they’re made public the person you add to the list will be notified and anybody can view them. I would recommend creating a list of all your favorite bloggers, people that you read daily and inspire you. By having these separate lists, instead of just having them in your timeline, you can more easily see what is going on and find ways to connect and interact with them (Relationship building FTW!). When creating a list, be sure to check of the “add column” box. If you forget you can always go back and add it later.
Depending on your blogging niche, I might also create lists for other notable people or news sources outside of the blogging world so you can keep your finger on the pulse.
The cool thing about TweetDeck is that you can filter columns to only include the type of content YOU want. Only want tweets containing images? It can do that. Don’t want RTs in your stream? You can cut those out. You can block tweets from a specific user or set up notification alerts.
Tracking Everything Else
You can also add columns to track specific hashtags, links and phrases. This is a great way to discover new bloggers and new opportunities.
#Hashtags
Using TweetDeck to monitor popular hashtags in your niche is really smart. Some general blogging hashtags that are good to follow are:
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#blogging
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#blog
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#bloggingtips
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#blogchat
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#bloggerrequest
But there are specific hashtags that you can track for fashion bloggers, food bloggers, craft bloggers— the sky’s the limit! You’re hopefully already using some of these, so create columns for the ones that make most sense to you.
Links and Phrases
You might want to drop some of the links to your best performing posts into TweetDeck. This way you can see who is sharing your posts. By having this at your finger tips, you can quickly reach out to people who are tweeting your content, which can open up doors for you.
Searching for and adding columns specific phrases in TweetDeck is a great way to spark content ideas, find opportunities to add to a conversation and build relationships (there’s that word again!).
If you’re a fashion blogger, you might search for and track “beauty blog products” or “kate middleton dress.” Following these things allows you to find new people and new ideas.
Once you learn the basics, Tweetdeck can be an awesome resource for managing your Twitter presence and helping you to better engage with both followers and influencers alike!
