Here are our Top 10 PR Pro Tips for this week, selected from Twitter. Remember to submit your own PR pro tip using the hashtag #PRTip or #PRTips. Your tweet could be featured here next week!

A little background: Twitter is used to share information and converse with others in the online world. I always hear the popular ‘I’ll never use twitter, I don’t feel the need to share what I’m having for breakfast’ one-liner. Reality is: not many use twitter to share their meal details. They do however share recipes, relevant articles, news, and general information. The beauty of twitter is being able to follow whomever you wish – and get a constant stream of curated content. Nowadays, news can break on twitter before you even hear it on the radio or watch it on TV.

The 3 Main Functions:
There’s 3 main ways twitter is used.

1. Replies (@) – This is when you see the @ sign in front of a username, followed by a message. My username is @coryjstewart, so whenever you put that in front of a tweet, you’re tweeting directly to me. Remember: none of this is private, so the world can see what you say.

Lisa replied you’re welcome to me after I thanked her for sharing a post that day.

2. Retweets (RT)- When a user re-posts someone else’s tweet. Often I’ll use the retweet to share an article or conversation with my commentary on it. Identify where the retweet starts with the ‘RT’ at the beginning of the message.

My favourite tech-news site, @mashable posted a link to an article, and I retweeted (RT) them with my commentary.

3. Hastags (#)- Hashtags are typically used to sort information into categories. Any time a # is placed in front of a word, it becomes a hashtag. Typically conferences, events, etc will all use the same hashtag so that all communication can be found easily if one were to search up a hashtag within twitter’s search engine. If you click on a hashtag within twitter, you’ll be able to see all information about that specific topic that is being shared on twitter.

This tweet will be sorted into the #Toronto conversations, as well as the #NYC conversations.

There’s obviously plenty more to know about twitter – but this a starting point to understanding some of the basics. I’ll try to cover a little ground each week – so y’all are up to speed! In the meantime, what’s your username on twitter? Share in the comments so I can follow you!

One of the first questions mailed in is one that I encounter more often than you’d think, so I thought it necessary to start here:

“How can I get my twitter following to engage more with my brand?”

To be honest, there’s no “right” answer to this question, but there are some suggestions I can provide you with to hopefully spark some conversation.

On the content side of things, I think the most important thing to remember here is that when representing a brand, you should not always be in “sell” mode. Tweets should be treated as a conversational tool, and if done properly can develop a more rounded personality for your brand. It’s important that when tweeting, you treat each one as though you were writing a headline on a national paper. Stay relevent, and always ask yourself if what you’re about to tweet would interest you if you saw it.

There are ways to really build out your content and make it “must-see” writing. Some of the basic guidelines around building out engagement involve sharing relevant and interesting articles, but also reaching out to your audience and participating in their conversations. It’s important to not only be a broadcaster, but additionally a fantastic listener. Some of the best twitter presences will often engage a lot based on the content their followers are sharing and really listen to what others are saying. It’s important to remember that even from behind the facade of the computer, all these tweets are coming from real people. Finally, if you’re still struggling – there’s always contesting. It’s an easy way to get the ball rolling – and everyone loves the chance to win something (no matter how big or small the prize value is). I will caution that although it can bring great success, contesting should not be your sole strategy to engage with an audience on twitter – it’s more of a complement to your everyday content.

I hope this spurs some creativity when you approach writing your tweets in the future, and thank you so much for writing in! For more insight on twitter, have a look at “Follower Count Is Wrong: 5 Steps To Measure Online Influence Properly”.

Do you have a question you’d like answered? Click here to submit one!

1. Search Their Username: Generally speaking, a truly engaged twitter user will have many mentions and retweets throughout the day. A simple and easy way to see if people are talking with them is to either search up their username in twitter’s search field – or use a simple tool like Twinitor. Remember, it’s not always the number of followers a person has, it’s WHO and HOW they’re engaging with them.

2. Look At Their Follower Count Ratio: This can be a very telling sign that someone is using a ‘bot’ to gain followers. If someone has 12,000 followers and they’re following 13,000: you can easily deduct that they simply followed a ton of tweeps to gain the ever-so-precious follow back.

3. Klout or Kred: These 2 sites are built to assist in measuring people’s online influence. Although they’re not the be-all end-all in scoring, they can (along with these other tips) gain you a more well-rounded perspective.

4. Look At Their Followers: Don’t be lazy. If you spend a few minutes going through the follower list of the person in question, you’ll get a pretty good idea as to what kind of influence they have (and what kind of people they’re influencing)

5. Fully Connect: When involving influencers and bloggers, it should be more than a couple of minutes of decision-making. In essence, these people will end up being extensions of yourself or your brand. One wrong selection could have a rather nasty effect – so make sure you’re googling, reading past blog posts, and even connecting with them personally before the moment of involvement.

Have some other tips, or want to recommend some fab bloggers or influencers? Sign off in the comments!