As you would expect you can find Rock My Style on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter, sharing images we like, news we think you might be interested in and links to our features.
It being a new year and all we want to sharpen up our social media, starting with our Twitter feed. In order to do that we’ve got a few questions about everybody’s favourite 140 character social networking messaging thingamabob. We’d love you to answer some (or all of) the following questions, in the comments section below.
Are you on Twitter? If so what do you use it for? Breaking news? Views? Inspiration? Something else? How often do you check Twitter and at what time of day? Do you have it open on your computer whilst you work or are you more likely to check it on your mobile, whilst you’re doing something else (for example whilst you’re watching a TV show, we won’t judge, we’re multi screeners too!). Who are your favourite tweeters to follow? When it comes to tweeting, how much is too much? What makes you reach for the unfollow button?
Over and above links to features what would you like to see on the Rock My Style Twitter feed? Is it the place for us to share hot new buys we’re excited about that might not make a whole post? Would you like us to keep you in the loop about what your favourite brands and people are up to? Are you interested in our thoughts on recipes we’ve tried and loved, TV shows we’re watching, movies we’ve been to see and books that are entertaining us on our commute? Do share. We’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
I did a lot of research when setting up Twitter for the company I work for (boring corporate) and one of the things it always said was that it should have a voice and not be too corporate (I guess since you’re life style blog you’re not going to be boring corporate) so I think you should tweet opinions or comments on things that are happening in the now whether it’s a tv programme, fashion, beauty, news, sport..
I love twitter (I’m @lynn_pin) – it’s my favourite form of social media closely followed by Instagram. I follow so many different types of people. Starting with local – in Edinburgh I follow lots of local bars, restaurants, shops, bloggers (food, beauty, style etc). If I’m going somewhere new I tend to search for local bloggers – I did this for Madrid and Seville and I’m off to London at the weekend so did a search on street food and started following some peeps.
I follow a few magazines; Marie Claire and Vogue have always got good links to beauty stories – the top 10 winter face creams for example. Vanity Fair always has links to some great articles and Grazia for daily fashion news.
I follow news (BBC and local newspapers) and all kinds of journalists from sports, Sunday papers and people like Polly Vernon who I love. I am a big sports and in particular F1 fan so I follow lots of F1 fans, journalists, presenters, drivers and team feeds.
I check twitter on my phone usually several times a day – it depends how busy I am. I tweet about all sorts of things – I do love tweeting whilst watching telly (Strictly was a favourite) and it’s great when you’re watching any game, match, race sports wise.
I think you should tweet about anything you think we’ll find interesting – I guess you have a good idea of what we like. I love seeing amazing pictures of cities, sunsets, beaches, places .. links to articles, posts etc.
Sorry for wanging on a bit!!
L
Thanks Lynn, that’s so useful and a great tip to find local Tweeters when you’re travelling somewhere new, I’ll often look for hashtags relating to places I’m going to visit on Instagram, but never think of doing something similar with Twitter!
I use twitter quite a lot at work (a work account, not my personal one) so have had to think about all of the above before, in a work context. We try to proactively tweet maybe 5 or 6 messages a day and respond to most questions and occasionally re-tweet something particularly useful or witty/funny. For this type of feed, more proactive tweets would be fine, but too many will make it hard for non-avid followers to keep up (difficult to say what number is too many though). I tend to use my personal account on my phone as it’s easiest. I switch between checking twitter, instagram and facebook. I suppose I use twitter as a personalised online magazine. So I follow certain news outlets, celebs I find interesting/amusing, restaurants I particularly like and 1 or 2 mags I like reading (as they often tweet links to further online content I wouldn’t have otherwise found). Quite like the idea of you guys tweeting about things other than just links to features (as I already check RMS twice a day for those!). Recipes, TV shows, movies and books all sound great!
I like the way you describe Twitter as a personalised online magazine Mrs G, not only does that help with thinking about the RMS Twitter feed, it also makes me want to find some new follows for my personal Twitter account! Thank you so much for your thoughts.
I’m on twitter but barely use it now – just when I have a few minutes to kill. When I dip into twitter I would definitely prefer to hear opinions and off the hoof comments rather than there just being links to posts on the blog. It would be great place to hear about events you may know of that are happening that RMS readers might be interested in such as pop up shops, food and wine fairs or crafts fairs. I like to follow people in fashion – how can you not be fascinated by Victoria Beckham and Cara Delevigne! Kirstie Allsopp is another favourite, and Stephen King!
I love how diverse your follows are Claire! I haven’t been using my personal Twitter very much lately, but I think it’s because I haven’t refreshed my follows to fit with what I’m currently into. Thank you so much for your thoughts!
I really like twitter although its service is limited and quite specific (but I like it that way). What I especially like (relevant to something like RMS) is when a tweet draws attention to something I might otherwise miss…e.g. a good blog article about X or a new product review Y. Maybe there’s a sale on at a shop that I didn’t know about or a 10% of offer on a popular product.
I also love 140 character tweets that are clever and pithy. Maybe little hints and tips for things like “How to clean makeup brushes” but in 140 characters – that would be amusing! Recipes you like (with links to them) would be brilliant! You could do one or two a week – I’m always looking for new things to cook. I think the movies and books ideas is great too – basically anything that’s interesting/new experience but also isn’t just a repeat of what’s already in a blog post.
I usually unfollow twitter accounts that just post their own stuff or link to their own sites too much (with nothing else); it’s much more interesting when they link to other people’s things, make funny comments or post amusing photos. Anything that makes it look like there’s a real person behind the account. 🙂
Ooh, I love the idea of us tweeting hints and tips Kate! Thank you so much for your thoughts, so helpful!
This is spot on!
I don’t use twitter…
Thanks Anja! Would be interesting to know what percentage of the RMS community are on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and so on…
I am a relatively new twitter user. I like it mostly for seeing trends and catching onto breaking news/viral stories. I also like it for the comedy side.
One thing I don’t like is links to photos on instagram – it’s so much better when people just post the photo to twitter independently to avoid needing to click through and have the whole load up time. While obviously you will want to post links to new blog posts for irregular readers, most of your followers will be checking the blog anyway so it’s just repetition. I think social media should be an extra addition to the main blog – a side note, something funny or informative. Or something people can debate about.
Interesting to hear that you don’t like links to Insta on Twitter Stacey. And good point about links to posts being repetition although, as you say, useful for occasional readers. Thank you for all your thoughts, so helpful!
I fall in and out of love with Twitter – not in terms of content, but my own activity on there. I went through a phase of tweeting everything and anything for about a year and then I just forgot about it. I tend to just use it as a way of keeping up with things I’m interested in – I agree with an earlier comment about it being a personalised magazine!
I follow a whole range of brands/people – starting with news/current affairs magazines, journalists/editors of said publications, followed by comedians/satirists, blogs/lifestyle websites (incl. RMS!), celebrities I find interesting (normally from TV shows I watch or general TV personalities), local bars/restaurants and some from the wider London area, brands such as ASOS (for promotions and their CS when I want to find out where my delivery is!) and also train companies (so I know if there’s going to be any delays and making it easier to tweet them if there’s a problem) and finally people I know who are active on Twitter.
I like tweets that link to articles I might not necessarily have discovered and also enjoy reading live tweets about TV shows and so on. From RMS in particular, I would like more tweets like this – I already check the site directly in the morning and afternoon to see the new posts – so something different to look at or read would be great!
Thanks for your thoughts Jo, so useful to hear. I’m similar to you at least in terms of my personal Twitter use, I fall in and out of love with it. Definitely need to refresh my follows I think. The Central Line is one of my most useful follows, saving me time when I spot there’s something up with the line!
Lovely post about Twitter and I am glad I finally find a couple of minutes to reply. I usually follow twitter accounts of people/companies/blogs that I follow elsewhere (Instagram, Feedly, Bloglovin etc.) and what I enjoy reading the most is additional bits of info that add a whole new layer to their website, blog, articles and ultimately personality and interests in personal life (without getting creepy!) or professional life. In other words, their Twitter accounts show a complementary aspect of who/what they are and behind the scenes tweets are the most interesting ones for me. It can be an article that complements a blog post, a picture, an interesting quote, profile or site… I do not mind at all tweets announcing new posts since they are useful reminders. Like Kate, I unfollow accounts posting only about their own world and accounts that only retweet other’s contents. I hope this will be helpful and will be looking forward to the outcome of your survey! Take care.