My Tweet Plan for 2009

I have been really trying to get my head in the game on this one, but I have not made it a priority.  Tonight, I sit down and share with you my Tweet Plan for 2009.

Before I move onto my own Tweet Plan, I encourage you to head over to TwiTip and read up on the article entitled “Make a Tweet Plan to Get the Most from Twitter.” If you have a Twitter account and have made no sense on how to truly utilize it and make it work for you, Darren Rowse (probably heard of him from over at his blog, ProBlogger Blog Tips) and Nicole Nicolay at My Tech Opinion, breaks down how to not only make Twitter work for you, but also to make it more functional and fun for networking!

According to Nicole, the Tweet Plan is broken down into six things a person should do:

1. Choose Twitter check-in times
2. Create a Daily 5
3. Make a Tweetlist
4. Schedule tweets
5. Create an auto-welcome message for new followers
6. Supplement in between posts with spontaneous, random tweets

Step One: My check-in times
Since I started teaching full-time this school year, I have neglected to tweet.  I feel horrible about this as I have met many friends and fellow educators through Twitter.  Now, my school district has placed an URL block on Twitter, but I have found ways around that.  I not only have tried to tweet throughout the day on my own personal life or teaching, but also have created a Twitter account as a teacher to place tweets on my class’ blog.

Check-in times really sounds more like I am getting onto my computer to tweet.  So, I will rephrase this for my readers.  This is when I should be planning my tweets.  I like to be ahead, so I will plan my tweets the night before, so after dinnertime should be a good time to sit and dedicate a few minutes for planning my tweets for the next day.

Step Two: Creating my Daily 5
My first here would be blog posts.  I did a little research on how to set up an auto-updater from my blog to Twitter, and am going to work with WordTwit.  I like the easy set up and it does promise to update my Twitter account with each new blog post.  I will keep you updated on how that works for me!

I have this one student who always comes up to me and shares jokes with me.  They always give me a good laugh!  So, to spread this moment of laughter, I plan to tweet at least one joke a day.  Who doesn’t like a quick 140 characters or less joke?

I am a big supporting of sharing resources, especially if they are free and can be found on the Internet.  So, I am going to stick to sharing at least one Internet resource a day that has helped me with those who follow me on Twitter.

I also want to try and highlight a website or blog of interest each day.  I know this will be a great thing to add into my list to build my network.  I could possibly switch this up with music since I am constantly listening and trying out different music and artists.

The last thing I’d like to try and do, which may be tweaked later, would be to find interesting Flickr posters!  I love looking through Flickr, mainly because it is just random.  I love the different and unique styles and interests people take pictures of.

Step Three: Making my Tweetlist
This is where I am suppose to categorize my tweets.  I want to also look at this particular step as organizing this list.  I have decided to take a spiral notebook and break up my tweet plan daily, so I have something to work with.  I’d do this on the computer, but I like having things like this on paper, so I have a place to check off and feel more accomplished.  Yes, I am an organization freak!  So, here is a picture of what my daily Tweetlist looks like!

Step Four: Schedule my Tweets
The two most used sites to schedule tweets seems to be Twuffer and TweetLater.  They both look pretty easy to use.  I decided to use TweetLater to auto-respond to new followers.  I am really bad about following up with them and thanking them for choosing to follow me.  So, this is a great option to have on hand for those who are, like me, bad at saying hello and thank you!

However, I am thinking I will stick with Twuffer for my other scheduled tweets.  While both seem pretty easy to use, I feel more at ease using Twuffer for everyday scheduling.  I will begin inputting my scheduled tweets tonight after dinner!

Step Five: Create an auto-welcome message for new followers
The set up over at TweetLater was pretty easy for this, and I do not have to do anything more to it unless I want to change it up or add to the other features they offered.  Honestly, I am all about keeping it simple for now!  Since the welcome message should be about the follower and not about me, this is what I used:

Wow! Thanks for choosing me as a Twitter friend! I look forward to getting to know you through your tweets!

Simple and short! And for those who are curious, it left me 33 characters to play with!

Step Six: Supplement with spontaneous, random posts

Yeah, this is a no brainier for me.  I can so do this without actually planning for it!  That is why I use the Twitbar and Tiny Twitter throughout the day!  Besides, life is just too boring if I do not share the daily rants!

Another step I added in for my blog, in general…..
I also decided to sign up for a free account on BudURL. This site basically tracks what people like and do not like about the links you save.  I decided that I will save the links of articles and my other important blog posts I’d like to get feedback on.  I like the idea behind this service because many stop by and read or look, but never truly take the time to leave a comment.  It also tracks what location people are coming from, so I can be more familiar with the readers who just pass by.

Let me know what you think!
Speaking of comments and readers, please let me know what you think about this blog post!  Was it helpful?  Do you feel I wasted my time?  Really, it won’t hurt my feelings if you do feel I have wasted my time.  But while I blog because I love to do it, I also want to blog about things my readers would be interested about!  I am pretty sure that my readers are not always here to read about me, as much as most bloggers would like to think that is the gist of a blog.

Comments?  Suggestions?  Questions?

Thumbnail image credit goes to Twitter.