High-Quality Connections on Twitter

Twitter has some cool features that will help you find the best tweeps to follow. Following people in your target audience should lead to high-quality connections over time.
I’m a devotee of TweetDeck for reading and sending tweets – so much so that I’ve neglected taking advantage of the interface Twitter installed last fall. Here are some Twitter features I recently explored more in depth and will be using more often.

Review Who to Follow SuggestionsTwitter Who To Follow

One of the things I like most on the Twitter interface is the Who to Follow suggestions on the Home page. These can be promotions like this top suggestion to follow Vegas vacation tweets that aren’t up my alley.
More often, they’re spot on and include Twitter users that tweet about art. These are my kind of tweeps.
Just click on names to see if they’re worth a follow. Refresh to find more suggestions.

Search for People to Follow

From that same page, click on “Browse interests” at the bottom of the Who to Follow section. (You can get to this same page by going to the Who to Follow tab at the top of any page on Twitter.) Here, you can browse by Twitter categories, such as Art & Design, or you can conduct a search on this page.
Twitter Browse Interests
For example, let’s say you paint or photograph lighthouses. Just plug in the word “lighthouses” and voilà! You find all kinds of people tweeting about lighthouses. Those are your tweeps.
Twitter People to Follow
Screen views such as this one show why your Twitter bio is so important. Having a keyword or two in your bio helps other Twitter users find you and, if your bio sounds interesting, we might follow you immediately or look up your tweets.
Share your Twitter tips or questions below.

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12 thoughts on “High-Quality Connections on Twitter”

  1. Does anyone really care about twitter?? Or am I getting old?
    Seriously why would I want this in my life.

  2. Kristine Schroeder

    Twitter is so valuable to me. I can find great information by following links tweeted by people I follow.
    I would like to throw this out there: I only have one Twitter account, which I use for my sculpture art jewelry business, and for auto racing stuff, because I’m a heavy-duty auto racing nut. Should I create another account for auto racing, or does keeping it all together make me more human?
    One more thought: Set a timer before going on Twitter. No more than 15 minutes!

    1. Alyson Stanfield

      Kristine: I think you can use the same account for both unless the auto-racing stuff far outweighs the art. The racing makes you multi-dimensional.
      Having said that, I have a garden account. But I rarely use it. It’s enough just to keep up with one.

  3. I guess I really need to look into it more then. It just seems nowadays there is a need to be informed and on top of every nuance of everything right away every second of the day. If it is really that valuable then I probably shouldn’t resist and go with the flow. It will be interesting what comes next. Are realtime updates our new reality? Will my clients watch me paint as I am halfway through my 63rd brush stroke? What a world we live in.

  4. I’m so glad you brought up Twitter. I’ve been meaning to ask this question to you Alyson. For now I follow only people I am interested in but have gotten people who follow me that have nothing to do with art or birding which I have an interest. Are people following just anyone they can hoping someone might see their tweets. I feel like they are trying to get free advertising for themselves. Do you block the people you don’t want to see? Or do you let anyone follow you?
    And just when I was wondering if twitter worked I found that it does. I follow Daniel Smith Art Supplies and they in turn follow me which I had forgotten about. Well I did a blog post about their new product Watercolor Ground and they picked up on it and sent me a message asking if they could re-post to facebook. So for some yes people do read and follow links. It has made me pay a little more attention to Twitter.

    1. Alyson Stanfield

      Toni: Honestly, I don’t have time to curate my followers. But if I do notice that they tweet something I don’t like or want my name associated with, I will block them.

  5. Kathleen Mahoney

    After reading your posts about Twitter, I thought it would be a great way to market my blog, and I just tried to sign up. However, someone is already using my name. When I try to use my full name, it’s too long. I want my user name on twitter to match my website name. How important is the user name? Or does it matter?
    Thank you for such great advice.
    Best
    Kathleen

  6. I would suggest when using twitter for people to remain authentic and open. Don’t just follow Artists, go for the things that you love, follow them be it skateboarding or gardening… Do a search and connect with like minded people in more than one interest. Chances are , your work portrays these interests anyway, so why not follow them?

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