What Am I Reading Now

Here are a handful of books I am currently reading that have helped me implement marketing initiatives for my school district. Click the title before the description for more information or to purchase the book.

1. BORN TO BLOG by Mark W. Schaefer and Standford A. Smith

Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time  

Born to Blog is filled with practical, street-smart techniques and ideas to help you create and manage a winning business blog. Learn how to attract a loyal following, promote your blog, and write powerful content that generates new business.

2. EVERYBODY WRITES by Ann Handley

Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

Finally a go-to guide to creating and publishing the kind of content that will make your business thrive. Everybody Writes is a go-to guide to attracting and retaining customers through stellar online communication, because in our content-driven world, every one of us is, in fact, a writer.

3.  THE ART OF SOCIAL MEDIA by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users

With over one hundred practical tips, tricks, and insights, Guy and Peg present a bottom-up strategy to produce a focused, thorough, and compelling presence on the most popular social-media platforms. They guide you through steps to build your foundation, amass your digital assets, optimize your profile, attract more followers, and effectively integrate social media and blogging.

4. YOUTILITY by Jay Baer

Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype

Jay Baer's Youtility offers a new business approach that cuts through the clut­ter: marketing that is truly, inherently useful. If you sell something, you make a customer today, but if you genuinely help someone, you create a customer for life.

Drawing from real examples of companies who are practicing Youtility as well as his experience helping more than seven hundred brands improve their marketing strategy, Baer provides a groundbreaking plan for using information and helpfulness to transform the relationship between companies and customers.

4 Ways Your Social Media Post Should Be Like InTouch Magazine

When you construct your next social media post, think of InTouch Magazine and how they draw the reader to their publication.

Here are four ways to construct your posts like a tabloid magazine

1. A Catchy Headline - Do you have “Kim Caught Cheating” first line to draw in your reader? Your first words of your post needs to attract your reader to your post. Tell them what your post is about in a sexy, informational way. Think of all the Tweets or Facebook posts that are in their feed… you need something to stand out.

2. An Awesome Picture - We are a visual society. You must have some sort of visual in your post. Think of all those magazines on the grocery aisle. They have vivid, sexy pictures to turn your head to the magazine rack. Find a picture that matches your subject, but make sure it is engaging enough to have your readers stop at your post as they scan their feed.

3. Sub-Headlines are Hashtags - the mini headlines under the main headline are like the hashtags in your posts.  They define your story and give it a category. Look at the InTouch cover I attached in this post. Some of the keywords in the sub-headlines are: Affair, Kinky, Phone Sex and Wedding. Those caught my eye… I know exactly what the article is about. Do the same with your hashtags.

4. Your Link is Your Table of Contents - a magazine’s table of contents tells you exactly where to go to find the main story. You need to include a link in your post to send your reader to your blog post or additional content. You must have a Call to Action. Make that link count.

The next time you construct a post, think of InTouch Magazine.

5 Reasons Why Batman is a Horrible Tweeter

Batman’s whole personality is not great for the social media world. Here are five reasons why one of the world’s most famous crime fighters is horrible at social media.

 

5 Reasons Why Batman is Horrible at Social Media

 

1. Hiding Behind a Mask - you need to be yourself on social media. Don’t make up a fake personality just to get followers. Don’t hide behind a mask (fake profile pic) or don’t take on someone else’s personality. Be the expert you can be, and show people the true you.

2. He is a Loner - Batman had very few friends growing up. He had no desire to interact with the outside world. You have to do the opposite on social media. Form relationships by following people.

Retweet the stuff you like, and send your followers stuff from your blog that you think they might like. By forming relationships, you become a trusted source of knowledge. People will then seek you out for your advice.

3. He Brings Out the Bad - Batman is like a double-edge sword. On the one hand he rids Gotham of bad people, but on the other hand he might be responsible for bringing those bad people to the City of Gotham.

Create and distribute quality posts and advice. Be an awesome resource for your followers. If you are not, you might just have spammers following you.

4. He Operates Mostly at Night - Batman’s office hours tend to be at night under the cover of darkness. That might not be a good thing to replicate. Look at your analytics. When are your customers or followers online? Create a editorial schedule to follow their social media patterns.

5. Why So Serious - Batman never, ever smiles. I have never heard him tell a joke. That’s not a good thing for social media. You need to lighten the mood a bit on social media. You can be funny. You are allowed to show your warm side. And to tell you the truth, most people prefer the people they follow to have a warm and happy personality.

Don’t be Batman on social media. Be yourself.  However, there are times you need to use your utility belt and adapt.

5 Terrific Tips to Redesign Brand You

We are 21 days into 2015. It is time to polish your personal brand.

Here are FIVE TIPS to do going into the new year:

1. Update Your LinkedIn Profile - this is your lifeline to professional engagement and contacts. Make sure all of your work information and accolades are up to date.

2. Connect with Industry Experts - this could be on LinkedIn, Twitter, or any other social network. You can pick-up great tips, and even find a mentor.

3. Take a New Picture for Your Profile - make everything fresh going into the new year. Take an updated head shot for your social media profiles. Guy Kawasaki has some great advice on profile pictures in his new book The Art of Social Media.

4. Make an Editorial Calendar - being organized is a popular new year's resolution. Become organized by creating a consistent posting schedule for your blogs and social media. This will also force you to create content when you think you are too busy.

5. Retweet at Least Once a Day - sometimes your brand is helped by helping others. Everyone loves for their Tweets to be retweeted. If you retweet them, I bet they are more likely to retweet you.

Do you have any additional tips to promote Brand You? Leave a thought in the comment section.

Top 4 Posts on my Blog… So Far

My blog is one month old. Here are the top performing posts in that one month period.

Simple Steps to Schedule Posts on Facebook

You Are Using Your Twitter Favorite Button Wrong

6 Awesome Tips to Use Vine Videos for School Messages

How to Rock Professional Development Using Social Media [Principal’s Tip]

5 Very, Very, Very Simple Tips to Build a Tweet

You only have 140 characters to make a good impression. It can be nerve racking to create the perfect tweet. Here are some very simple tips that work for our district to get the best engagement from each one of our tweets.

1. DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

As I mentioned above, you only have 140 characters for each tweet. Adding a picture, hashtags and a link can cut into your character count very quickly. It is up to you to write the most descriptive story possible using the 140 characters Twitter provides.

Certain keywords are going to get you more interaction or engagement from your audience. Words like Tips, Awesome, Tricks, Top, Follow, and Please tend to work the best for us. You will need to experiment and see what works best for your audience. (Analytics is Key)

2. ADD A LINK

A link gives your tweet a Call to Action. It adds more interactivity for your followers. Providing good text and a useful link can be key in getting people to interact with your tweet. Studies have shown tweets with links see much more engagement than ones that don’t.

3. INCLUDE HASHTAGS

The hashtag is your conversation topic. It categorizes your tweet. By including a hashtag, you are going to attract users who are interested in certain topics.

Be careful with hashtags. You don’t just want to ride the popular, trending hashtags. They are used too much. Use hashtags that you know will attract the people you want reading your tweets. The ultimate accomplishment, what you should strive for, is to own your own hashtags. That could be your districts name or a school mascot. Own it before some else does.

The ideal tweet will have no more than two hashtags. Studies show that a tweet with more than two, actually weakens engagement. You will go through your 140 characters very quickly with too many hashtags.

4. ENGAGING VISUALS 

I have said this before, but social media is a visual medium. Including a picture or a graphic in your tweet doubles engagement. You should really include a picture in 95% of your tweets. Not only will it stand out in the timeline, but you can also break the 140 character rule by including text in your picture, which is not included in your tweet character count.

5. ANALYTICS

Study your statistics. Find out what is working and do more of that, and then find out what is not working and stop doing that. It takes a little more time and resources, but you have to look at the data. The best part of analytics is that it is free from Twitter. Score!!!

Tips in Response to Andrew Watts’ Article on Teens & Social Media [YouTube]

Here is a link to Andrew’s great article in case you missed it:

A Teenager’s View on Social Media Part 1

A Teenagers View on Social Media Part 2

In this post, I want to talk about the power of video and YouTube.

Here are Andrew’s thoughts on YouTube:

...YouTube is a website that has truly changed the world. It’s a site that everyone uses, and I have plenty of friends who go on it daily. For an avid internet user it’s almost impossible to ignore YouTube. The content is not only entertaining but also extremely helpful; there have been many classes where I have needed supplementary help on YouTube to understand the material.

Teenagers have a wide array of interests so it is hard to pin down specific YouTube accounts or topics they specifically like. I know plenty of people who love watching Let’s Plays on YouTube (videos where you watch someone play a video game while they talk about what’s happening in the game as well as other topics), and others who love watching beauty tutorials and makeup guides. This is what makes YouTube so awesome — there’s something for everybody.

Personally, I religiously watch The Phillip DeFranco Show on YouTube instead of typical cable news. And instead of watching late night television I often watch highlights of sketches from Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, and more on YouTube. YouTube has been a major part in replacing the amount of time I spend watching television due to the high quality of both original content on the site and more companies agreeing to put clips of their broadcasted content on the site...

My Takeaway for School Districts and Teachers

Video is powerful. Especially quick bursts of interesting content. After reading Andrew’s comments, it should come as no surprise that YouTube is the number two search engine in the world behind Google. Millennials love video.

The interesting part of Andrew’s article is when he writes:

…there have been many classes where I have needed supplementary help on YouTube to understand the material…

…I know plenty of people who love watching Let’s Plays on YouTube (videos where you watch someone play a video game while they talk about what’s happening in the game as well as other topics), and others who love watching beauty tutorials and makeup guides. This is what makes YouTube so awesome — there’s something for everybody.

This got me thinking… supplementary help on YouTube is a great idea. How can districts and teachers harness this power and finally flip the classroom in an interesting, engaging way? If teens love getting their information, why not put it out there?

“What a 'Flipped' Classroom Looks Like” by PBS News Hour

Here are Three Tips to Engage Through YouTube:

1. After School Tutorials at the Students House - student’s lives are very busy. The traditional tutorial times are hard for certain students to attend (jobs, extra-curricular, athletics, fine arts). Why not hold one-on-one tutoring in the students home in the form of video?

Posting short videos explaining hard topics covered in class could be great. Teachers could post additional videos in response to questions asked in the YouTube comment section. Make it interactive and helpful, and your students will appreciate the effort.

2. How to Videos - I think this is a great opportunity for senior/college counselors to go over the application and financial aid process with students. Some of your students could be the first in their family to attend college. The application process is difficult. Why not help them with visual how to videos?

3. Film Your Classroom - flu season really took a toll on our district this year. We had many students miss multiple days recuperating from the illness. Think if teachers filmed their classrooms. I know there are many laws that prohibit some students from being filmed, but there are ways to avoid filming students.

Like the tutorials, you could film the more difficult techniques or main points of your classroom discussion, focusing the camera on the teacher instead of the students. Complicated and takes some time, but could be very beneficial in the future.

There are endless possibilities on video. Many of the social media platforms are putting a strong emphasis on video. Engagement is key. The more people that are engaged with your social media, the more the algorithm is could to tip in your favor.

7 Simple Steps to Boost Your Facebook Post

I have discussed this in previous posts, but we must remember that social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are a business. Most of them are now public companies trading on a stock exchange and must answer to their shareholders, and those individuals want money. This need for revenue, and monetizing social media, is making it harder and harder to reach everyone with your social media posts. This is why we as districts must start think about allocating budget monies toward boosting posts on Facebook and Twitter.

Boosting a post is an inexpensive way (compared to traditional advertising) to reach certain demographics with certain interests and hobbies.

Here are SEVEN SIMPLE STEPS to Boost Your Post on Facebook.

1. Click the BOOST POST Button on the Bottom of the Post - this button will pop-up a window that relates to steps two through six.

2. Decide Who on Facebook You Want to Target - there are three options of who to target on Facebook: People Who Like Your Page, People Who Like Your Page and Their Friends, and People You Choose Through Targeting

Targeting is the key to expand your reach and get very narrow in you campaign targeting. By choosing this option (People You Choose) you can be very selective on who you target by using Facebook’s demographic options.

3. Decide Where You Want to Promote Your Post - you can narrow your focus to COUNTRY, STATE or CITIES. Being a school district with set boundaries, we select cities in our district from the drop-down menu, and then input the cities or zip codes we want to target. You can also choose a radius in miles around the cities you choose. We select zero so we can be very narrow in our targeting.

4. Select an Age Range - this can range from 13 years of age to a selection called 65 plus years of age. Most of our campaigns focus on the 25 to 45 year old demographic.  This would be the typical age group for our parents.

Depending on our campaign, we can target our students by narrowing the range from 13 years of age to 18 years of age. We can also target the senior citizens (more likely to vote in elections) in our community that might be on Facebook by using the 65 plus selection. The age range selection tool can help narrow the target audience much easier than a radio ad, billboard or other traditional media.

5. Select a Gender - most of the time we target both male and female in our social media campaigns. However, there have been times when just targeting males or females might be the correct move when posting our campaigns. This really depends on the type of post.

6. Select Interests of Target Audience - this can be huge when you have a specific campaign geared toward a certain group in your district or community. You could target people interested in Real Estate (Realtors who bring people into your community), target people interested in Football (Athletic/Football Season Campaign), or you can target people interested in coffee (community coffee sponsored by your district).

The choices are endless. This tool can be a very valuable and can target a very specific audience much better than traditional advertising methods.

7. Select Your Budget Amount - depending on how many people you want to reach determines how much you need to spend. The more you spend, the more people you are going to reach. We typically set our campaigns at $10. This give us about 2,000 to 3,000 impressions or post views. That is a great RETURN ON INVESTMENT. Much better than most advertising methods.

**You must setup credit card information on your Main User Account.

1. Go to Settings by clicking on the small triangle on the top right corner next to the world icon
2. Select Payments link on the left side of the page
3. Select Edit Payment Methods
4. Enter Credit Card Information

***WARNING - your post picture cannot contain more than 20% text or it will be rejected by Facebook’s advertising department.

It's Okay to Give a Shout Out on Social Media

The problem with social media is that we all think we have to be clever. We kill ourselves to deliver ultra cool posts, hip visuals, Twitter Cards, we link a SlideShare, or post an awesome video to Facebook. We are constantly pushing content marketing. But let me tell you a secret… it’s ok to a give a shout out every once in a while.

Did anyone’s school announce birthdays on the intercom during the morning announcements? Do you remember anxiously awaiting your name to be called, so all of your classmates could shower you with happy birthdays? Some of us played it off, but we all loved it.

It was World War Three if they forgot to call your name on your birthday.  Some parents would march into the superintendent’s if the office forgot to announce their child’s birthday.  It was a serious deal in my school growing up.  Why is this? It’s because we all love a little shout out. We love the recognition.
We do the same thing with our district’s social media**. We randomly recognize one of our 40 schools, making sure we hit each school during each semester.  We do this because just like the birthday announcements, people (schools, teachers and students) love the recognition. Even though they won’t admit it, students love it too. Most of the time we get great stats on our impressions and awesome engagement numbers from our students.

Here are some stats from a shout out I did this morning to a high school in our district. Short, to the point, and great engagement.

We have had many positive replies and comments in the five hours it has been posted. You will get the occasional rivalry between the schools, but most often it is very civil, due to the fact that the other school know we will probably give them a shout out next.

So the next time you are pounding your head trying to craft that perfect Tweet, just give a shout out. Your students will love it, and your analytics will love it too.

** Of course we will post the accolades, we post the state championships, and we post all of the events that take place at our school. And I wouldn’t be a “Marketing Guy” if I didn’t partake in Content Marketing. I do all the stuff we are supposed to do.

Why So Serious: Add a Little Humor Into Your Social Media

“I’m funny how? I mean funny, like I’m a clown? I amuse you? Whattya you mean funny? Funny how? How am I funny?” - Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), Goodfellas

“Why so serious?” Joker (Heath Ledger), The Dark Knight

I think the Joker hit the nail on the head. Why do we have to be serious all of the time? Why do companies and school districts feel they can’t be funny on social media? Are they afraid they will give their parents and students the wrong impression? Do they think it is bad to be funny when you are in the education business?

Whatever reason, they have it all wrong. I think humor is exactly what you need to win over your audience (Sometimes). They (Parents and Students) think you’re going to be serious all of the time. Why not throw them a curve.

In fact, some of the best tweets and Facebook posts we have done in my district have had a little humor. I am not talking about ROTFL funny. That might be a little much. However, there is nothing wrong with poking fun at yourself, or putting a little humor in your posts.

We had great engagement with our “Welcome Back” Twitter and Facebook message for our students returning from their winter break. Here is our attempt at a Meme poking fun at students being unmotivated to head back to school.

The above post had an engagement rate of 28.1% on Twitter and over 130 likes on Facebook. It was a success reaching people, and a success to lighten the mood about going back to school. It worked because we didn’t post a general message about going back to school. Students don’t want to see that. They probably don't necessarily want to come back to school. Have a little fun with them.

We also found success poking fun at the “Dallas Earthquake of 2015”. A 3.5 magnitude quake is quite a big deal in Texas. We tweeted in moments of the earthquake, collecting many retweets and favorites.

Don’t try and be funny all the time. We are night stand-up comedians. We don’t have to be on all the time. But when we decide to break funny, or use a little humor, it usually works pretty well. Try it sometime. You could see great results.

It’s like they say, sometimes laughter is the best medicine:

Give Your Body a Boost -- With Laughter

How a Quick Video Racked-Up Social Media Engagement

Thirty minutes to film. Thirty minutes to edit. Many, many hours of social engagement.

Video has become a commanding force in social media and content marketing. Social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter love video. They have made this one of their top priorities when it comes to when and where your post will be seen, and how many people will see it.

We tend to forget that COMPANIES like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are businesses that want to make MONEY. They are all attempting to boost their bottom line to bring the most value for their shareholders. The way they are doing this is by putting emphasis on paid posts and promotions. However, there are a couple ways to still achieve organic reach and engagement.

 

Video and posting links are a high priority on Facebook, and can still get you impressions and engagement that make an impact. That is why video should be a high priority for your communications department in your district to put video on the top of your marketing strategy to-do list.

Video is not as complicated as many think. You can get a HD video camera for under $300 and there are many inexpensive video editing software packages that can do great things.  Spending large amounts of money is not needed anymore to create high-quality, engaging videos.

Recently our district participated in the Hour of Code. We created a video for that event that took us thirty minutes to film and about thirty minutes to edit. The video did great on both Facebook* and Twitter. It was a great way to engage our audience.

HOUR OF CODE VIDEO

Here are EIGHT TIPS on how to create the best video for social media:

FILMING

Close-Ups - the best shots that get the best engagement from your audience are ones that are close to the subject or action. You want to capture the emotion of your subject. Emotion is can be seen through the eyes and your subjects facial expressions. Close-ups are usually defined as shots that are from the neck to the top of the subjects head.

 Extreme Close-Ups - Extreme close-ups are even closer. I usually film these type of shots for cutaways during videos. In my Hour of Code video I shot extreme close-ups of hands on mice and various computer screens to show the audience what was going on.

Action Shots - Static shots are boring. This is the MTV generation… I mean YouTube generation. They are use to moving shots with quick cuts. Show your subjects doing something. It is much more interesting.

Interviews - You always want to get some thoughts from your subjects. Student interviews are golden. People always love to see their students and children. They are usually much cuter than a teacher. However, you want to interview grown-ups as well. They are your classroom experts. Interviews are great for voice overs during your film to give some added description of the scene.

EDITING

Quick Cuts - Don’t stay on one shot too long unless it is very important for your story. Remember, your audience gets bored very quickly. Always change what’s on the screen.

Music - choose music that is fast-paced, and with some beats to it. I love to cut my shots on the beat of the music. It creates some rhythm and makes the cuts look smoother. Be careful not to violate copyrights on music. A great resource for free music is on YouTube itself. They have created a Audio Library that is free to use for videos.

Titles - put some titles at the beginning and end of your video. Introduce the video with a three to five second title, and then a CALL-TO-ACTION at the end of your video. A perfect call to action would be a link to your district’s website.

Keep it Under Two Minutes - like I have said before, people bore very easily. Keep your videos short and sweet. Tell your story and get out. I would even recommend to keep most of your videos under one minute. Quick videos are much better on social media.

The more videos you produce, the better you are going to get at creating high-quality stories. You can even use your smart phone at first. Let me know how it goes. I would love to see what you create.

* Upload to YouTube, but post your video directly on Facebook (not a link to YouTube). You will see much better engagement and impressions.

7 Day Picture Challenge - Drive Twitter Engagement

The website mediabistro.com reported on SHIFT’s research showing that Tweets with pictures had users engage five times more than a tweet with no picture. That is huge!

mediabistro.com

Twitter defines engagement as clicks, retweets, replies, and favorites. That means more people are doing something with your tweets. And hopefully that "doing" is that they are following through with your Call to Action. That follow through is more important than how many followers you have. You need your followers to do something. That could include visiting your website, signing up for your newsletter, or buying your product or service.

You can see from the examples below, my district’s Twitter engagement does really well with visuals. We have double digit engagement rates when we include a picture, compared to about a 2% engagement rate on a tweet without a picture. That is a big difference.

I challenge you to make a big difference for your company or school district. I challenge you to the Seven Day Picture Challenge (#SevenDayPicChallenge). To take part in the challenge, all you have to do is include a visual with all of your tweets for a whole week. That means if you tweet five times a day, you must attach a picture to each one of the five tweets. Don’t skip a tweet, and maintain your same Twitter schedule. But remember, you have to include a picture with each Tweet you post the next seven days. I bet you see a big difference in your engagement numbers.

If you need help with the best picture choice to tell your story, check out a past story from my blog by clicking the link below.

Visual Storytelling: Part 1 - Be Engaging

Good luck, and let me know your results.

How to Rock Professional Development Using Social Media [Principal’s Tip]

Computers are Now Mobile

PC Magazine reports that web surfing on mobile devices will surpass PCs by 2015. Mobile is where I personally access about 75% of my social media including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

School principals should capitalize on this trend by tweeting professional development articles to their staff on a daily or weekly basis. It could be a great way to tweet interesting articles relating to school initiatives you or your district has put in place.

Graphic by www.searchenginewatch.com

Setup a Professional Twitter Account

All this will require is that your principal and staff setup a professional Twitter account (many will already have this setup) to access and read the tweets. Not only will this save trees, but it will allow teachers to have a professional development database to access articles at any time without using their personal hard drive or cloud account.

 

Your School's Cloud PD Database

Your school could even create a dedicated Twitter account using your school name and the letters PD at the end (eg. @ThompsonElementaryPD). This account can be used for the sole purpose to Tweet an article a day that relates to your school’s professional development initiative or your school’s problem of practice.

Teachers and staff can read the tweeted articles at their leisure on their favorite mobile device or favorite the tweet to archive for later use. (<---Read my previous post)

Bonus Tip to Increase Engagement

An extra bonus would be to hold a Twitter Chat with your staff to discuss the article. What a great way to mix social media and professional development. you can find out more about Twitter Chats by following the link below.

Twitter Chats: How to Create a Successful Tweet Chat by Social Media Examiner

Have fun and Tweet on.

*PD - Professional Development

5 Ideas to Transform Your Retweets into Superman

Most superheroes have secret identities. Superman has Clark Kent. Batman has Bruce Wayne. Spider-man has Peter Parker. Superheroes blend into the community, disguising themselves as mild mannered, regular people. They pretend to be like everyone else to be average and fit in. However, there is a time and a place to be super. Just like there is a time and place for your retweets to become something special. 

Think of your retweets as being that mild mannered, average citizen. They are great in their own right, but nothing super. They show that you are willing to share other people’s content which is very important in building relationships and friends. Sometimes the best tweets won’t be original tweets from you.

To do a simple retweet, all you have to do is click the retweet icon (two arrows) on the original Tweet.

It is very difficult to create original content four to five times a day. It is almost impossible in the long run. Sometimes you need to share what is already popular. Guy Kawasaki, in his new book The Art of Social Media, calls this "Feeding the Content Monster." It is ok to share what is already popular by retweeting, but sometimes you need to bust out your superpowers.

I am not talking about X-Ray Vision or going faster than a speeding locomotive. I’m talking about taking someone’s tweet or article, and putting a little more oomph than a simple retweet. It is not really all that difficult.

All it requires is doing these five simple steps:

1. Copy and Paste Their Headline into Your Tweet. I would copy it word for word so it does not look like you are trying to steal their idea as your own.

2. Add a Byline. All you need to do is add something like “presented by” or “via”, and then add the author’s Twitter handle or name. This gives the original author credit for the idea.

3. Copy and paste the link of the article or blog post into your Tweet. I would suggest using a link shortener like bit.ly.

4. Add two hashtags that represent or identify the article. An example would be #contentmarketing or #schoolpr. This helps your tweet find a wider audience.

5. Add a Visual. I would finish up the tweet by adding a picture so your tweet stands out. It can be as simple as a background with text repeating the title of the post. Anything that relates to your tweet.

Here is an example of making the tweet above into a SUPER RETWEET:

By creating a super tweet, you are more likely to get favorites and retweets of your own. You still give the author credit, but the information is coming directly from you.

Go forth Clark Kent… It is time for Superman. Transform your retweets into something spectacular. But remember, with great power comes great responsibility.