Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Social Media Marketing Workbook: Understanding the @ Sign or Handle on Twitter


Jason McDonald, in his book, "Social Media Marketing Workbook 2016"  includes a section where he focuses on Twitter and how it is utilized as a professional platform. He goes over the ins and outs of the platforms including the importance of understanding the @ sign or "Handle."

McDonald emphasizes that the @ sign specifies a Twitter account. The @ sign, often referred to as users "handle" does two things when incorporated into a tweet:

    - It becomes clickable. Any user who views the tweet can click on the @handle and see the account that is associated with the handle. 
    - It is present in the news feed and sends an alert to the user that has been mentioned using the @handle. This is called a mention and essentially means that someone has tagged you (your twitter account) in a tweet.

Along with mentions, McDonald makes a point to emphasize the importance of a retweet. Like a mention, a retweet allows a tweet to be linked to a user's account. McDonald would use the example; if Ellen DeGeneres recapped your joke on her TV show. That "retweet" of your joke would urge her followers to explore your profile, increasing your followers.

McDonald says that as Twitter users and professionals, we do not have to be famous to converse with influential people in our line of work. He recommends that professional and personal users of Twitter take advantage of the @ sign or handles to engage with these important people. Just like in the Ellen DeGeneres example, if someone important retweets your tweet, you are more likely to see the benefits of that mention.

To help you gain a better understanding of handles and the @ sign, I have embedded a YouTube video of Jason McDonald talking on the subject. Please take a moment to check it out!

3 comments:

  1. I actually wrote about the same thing on my blog! This chapter was an interesting read. It's always so cool to see what all you can do with Twitter. It wasn't something I ever really thought about before taking social media principles, but now that I have, I want to try it out myself.

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