Bloggers, Is Your Twitter Handle Easy to Find?

I retweeted a post from Kevin O’Keefe the other day, where he talks about the importance of a lawyer having a Twitter handle so they can get mentioned for writing an article, or being on a panel, etc. I think that applies to all bloggers and online authors as well:

Lawyers Need To Be Using Twitter For When They Are Recognized https://t.co/tH24Ef0bPo – @kevinokeefe is right, and this is true of bloggers, I’d love to use your handle when tweeting out your article, but I can’t find it on your blog.

— Mike McBride (@mikemac29) June 24, 2019

I share quite a few posts on Twitter in a given week. In fact, if you look at any given Sunday, you see the full list of everything that has also been shared on Twitter during that week. I do this one multiple blogs, with multiple Twitter accounts, too. I can’t tell you how many times I end up not including their twitter handle in the tweet, because I can’t find it on their site.

Now, it’s possible that they don’t have one, and I guess that’s OK, but it also means they may have no idea how often their article gets shared there, or by whom.

But, I think more times than not, it’s just not something people think much about, so let’s talk about my own experiences in trying to locate a twitter handle when I’m sharing a post I really enjoyed.

The first thing I do is click the Tweet button on the site. If it’s setup correctly, it should tell me how the website owner wants to be recognized on Twitter. Unfortunately, many people do not set it up correctly, forgetting to add a Twitter handle to the settings. Most social sharing buttons have a place to enter  Twitter handle. I use Social Warfare, it has a setting for it. Even the default one in Jetpack for WordPress sites has one.:

What does it do? It populates information so that when people click that button on a post, it’s mentions you.

See how my twitter handle got added to the end of that Tweet? Go ahead, click the Twitter share button on this post, and tweet it. I’ll see you mentioning me.

Now, could the person tweeting your link remove your handle? Sure, but what you’re doing is making it easy for people to give you credit when they want to. Why wouldn’t you do that?

If the Tweet button doesn’t give me the information I’m looking for, I’ll go back to the site and look for a follow button. I see no reason someone writing on the web who also uses Twitter wouldn’t have one that is easy to find. Yet, many sites do not have them, or do not make them obvious. I have to assume maybe they don’t have a Twitter presence.

Of course, many times, what I’m dealing with is an article on a group site, where the Tweet button mentions the site, not the individual author. If you run one of those kinds of sites, or write on one, do us a favor and have a place for the author’s social media links. Then we can link to the site, but also mention the author. Again, too many places don’t do this well, or the authors aren’t sharing that information.

Here’s my author page on The Mighty, a site I have contributed a couple of articles to concerning mental health. It allows me to have links to my website, Twitter, Facebook page, etc. It makes it easy for people who see an article I’ve written there to then find me elsewhere. Someone sharing the article from there could choose to mention the website, my own twitter handle, or both. Too many sites, especially in the legal and tech worlds, do not provide any such information about their authors. That’s a shame, and a missed opportunity for them personally.

So blog authors, and website owners, I would love to mention you more often on Twitter when I’m sharing one of your posts, but I need you to make it easier. Deal?

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