#Why_did_Twitter_succeed_in_Saudi_Arabia or #لماذا_نجح_التويتر_في_السعودية Saudi netizens like Twitter because it allows to express themselves freely in an otherwise conservative society.
Things like internet penetration rate and mobile phone accessibility
encourage more usage of social networks but there are more to using
Twitter than just that for Saudis. Based on tweets from the hashtag
But as with everything else, Twitter is a tool that can be used
differently depending on your personal or professional objectives.
Although Twitter is considered a social network similar to Facebook,
especially by those who just don’t get it, it’s actually a news network,
one that is mainly used to share information and public messages that
can be transmitted using no more than 140 characters.
Regardless of your working field, being active on Twitter is going to
help your career a lot especially that you live in Saudi Arabia, where
the highest population of Internet users
exist. What does that mean for you? It means you have more people to
interact with online than offline probably. In addition to that, being
on Twitter or Facebook is a great way to increase your knowledge of
technology, social media, marketing and your industry as well.
In this article, we will explain Twitter for you in the simplest way possible.
Creating your account
Before you go on and create your Twitter account; decide if you want to
engage with the community and connect with professionals and colleagues
or just want to follow news and articles as well as follow the leaders
in your industry to learn from them. While your purpose might change or even be both; to connect and engage
as well as keep up-to-date it’s essential to have a plan.
After deciding on the purpose of having a Twitter account; the next
step is signing up and choosing your username. While you can change your
username (@username is called handle in Twitter terminology), it is not
recommended to do so after a while because people will most likely
remember your old handle and keep on using it without knowing you have
changed it. This will cause messages sent to you publicly (mentions) or
direct messages to be lost.
It is wise to choose a handle that is closest to your real name, this
way co-workers and past colleagues will recognize you immediately. Stay
away from nicknames and usernames that contain numbers. Another option
is to use your professional blog’s title or Website name as your Twitter
handle. Then it will help you market your Website/blog professionally
and build a brand for it. When you start working on your Twitter profile; the first and most
important part to work on should be your bio. Think of your bio as your personal brand statement
which is typically a 1-2 sentences that answer the questions: who are
you at the core? Who do you serve? And how do you do it differently?. A
personal brand statement should be memorable, punchy and solution
oriented.
Your bio should include a semi-professional picture of you; and I say
semi because you need to show your personal side as well but don’t over
do it. Technically, Twitter uses square profile pictures, so try to
scale your picture appropriately before you upload it. The maximum file
size for the profile picture is 2MB, but what will people see is a 73x73
image on your Twitter profile page and an even smaller 48x48 one in
your tweets. That said, people can still see the original picture you
uploaded in full size if they click on it. You can also upload a picture to be your profile header. This one can
be as large as 5MB in size. The recommended width and height are 1252 x
626 pixels.
Congrats, your profile is ready. Start tweeting about professional
topics and personal interests but focus more on your work; your job,
your field, the industry. This doesn’t mean that you should only talk
about the things that you do or know, Twitter is all about conversations
so participate in them by asking questions, helping others and sharing
and retweeting others’ opinions and links.
Remember this: if you don’t have tweets yet, people will not follow
you. Try to have at least 20 tweets before you follow others.
Join the conversation
There are several ways to start following people on Twitter. When you
sign up for Twitter it often suggests a list of users based on the
interests listed by you. Later on, whenever you view the profile of a
Twitter user you’ll find suggested people to follow who are similar to
that user. Twitter has a search engine
that you can use to search for tweets or people either by name, handle,
keyword or geographical location. Start by looking for former
colleagues and co-workers.
Many people choose to be notified by email when someone new follows
them on Twitter. They will receive a short description of your profile,
which will help them decide if they want to follow you as well. Another tip is to use Web services like Twellow or Wefollow to find experts from your industry. Dedicate certain day for searching and following new people. Twitter was made for daily usage so don’t abandon Twitter for more than
a day if you have to but watch out for constant tweeting as followers
will start unfollowing you if you tweet everytime you every 10 minutes
even though you don’t have anything meaningful to say. You’re cluttering
their timeline and damaging your brand. Some might not unfollow you out
of courtesy but they will definitely skip your tweets. Make sure that
you respond to mentions all the time and give thoughtful comments.
Follow trending topics and hashtags. A hashtag is a user-made category
or tag; think of it as a name for a conversation that was started by
someone on Twitter with the intention of creating a trend or classifying
a set of upcoming tweets. Hashtags are words preceded by the symbol #.
Twitter turn a hashtag into a clickable link that aggregates all tweets
using that hashtag, making it searchable. For example, if you are tweeting about using Twitter as a professional you can use any or all of the following hashtags:
#twitter
#twitter_for_professionals
#twitter4pros
Try to search for those hashtags as an exercise.
Or if you are tweeting about a financial management workshop taking
place in Jeddah, you can use any or all of the following hashtags:
#finance
#financial_management
#workshops
#jeddah
#ksa
Bear in mind that the above hashtag are only examples. Anyone on
Twitter can create a hashtag or use an existing one; sometimes not
knowing if it exists or not. Most of the well-organized events have
official hashtags that they announce online and offline. The rule is, if
there’s an official hashtag or one that is already trending, use it. It
will help your tweets reach more people and contribute to the main
conversation taking place.
Managing your Twitter feed
Just like Facebook, Twitter lets you add accounts that you’re following
to lists; except these lists can be public if you want to. This makes
it easier for you to read and respond to tweets. Go to your profile page
and click on the "Lists" section to create a list. Choose the people
you want in your list, and decide if you want other people to see it, by
making it public or private. To stay connected to your timeline; download Twitter application to
your smart phone, so that you can catch up on your tweets during your
commute or waiting times.
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