Five Ways To Use Twitter's Favorite Button

If all you do on Twitter is send tweets and retweet, you're missing out on a significant – and very useful – aspect of the network: favoriting. The favorite button is not Twitter's most popular feature, and it doesn't get as much press as retweeting. But it's growing in popularity, as more users figure out ways to make favorites work for them. We've written before about how to use favorites, but since these little yellow stars pack quite a powerful punch, we've rounded up five more ways to use favorites, as recommended by real Twitter power users. 1. To collect testimonials @lauren_dugan Yes, I use them to collect my testimonials. — Candice Lepage (@cinn48) December 18, 2013 You might think that people only take to Twitter to complain about their morning coffee, but that's not the case: plenty of users actually take the time to be nice to each other. When someone next sends a compliment your way, why not click the little favorite button beside their tweet? That gold star can be wielded as a tool for you to collect all the great things that people say about you or you business. Testimonials are the core feature of networks like LinkedIn, but they can be just as powerful when gathered on Twitter. And, if you get enough of them, you can display them on your website, blog or instead use the favorite button to make sure you take the time to thank the kind folks who think you're the bees knees. 2. To showcase your business @lauren_dugan I favourite whenever people write nice things about my business. Then I use the widget on my website: http://t.co/GJ9Ya9S3f8 — Jennifer Baker (@JenniferBakerCo) January 7, 2014 Similar to testimonials, business accolades can be gathered up in 140-character bites using Twitter favorites. To ensure that these positive sentiments are useful to you, you could create a Twitter widget that only displays your favorites. This will essentially display a list of tweets - curated by you using favorites - that act as word-of-mouth marketing. And to get even more business-related tweets, you can actually ask for them. Why not tweet to a client, asking them what they thing about your most recent work together? Just make sure you favorite the response. 3. To save links @lauren_dugan use @IFTTT to save any tweets w/links I favourite to Evernote in case useful in future. But faves are mixture of 'liking' too — Richard Kendall (@richardkendall) December 18, 2013 The IFTTT (If This Then That) service is pretty nifty, as it allows you to create if-then statements to trigger reactions based on actions around the web. To put this to work for you when coming up with new ways to use Twitter favorites, try this: create a statement like "if I favorite a tweet with a link, then save that link to my bookmarking service of choice." Then, whenever you see a link shared on Twitter that you'd like to read later, simply favorite it and it will be ready for you when you've got some time to kill. 4. To pay it forward @lauren_dugan I use it to save tweets from sincere people. (eg: compliments) then, a 2 weeks later, i say hello to them again — Aaron Lee (@AskAaronLee) December 19, 2013 Here's another way to use favorites to keep the positive sentiments rolling on Twitter: paying it forward. When someone says something nice about you, you can favorite it to save it, or put it on your website... but why not take this one step further and reach out to these kind souls? Set aside a few minutes each week, and tweet to all the people who have said good things to you in the past. You don't have to respond directly to their complimentary tweet, just start a conversation with them - they'll probably be amenable to a chat, since they already feel positively toward you. And who knows where a new friend, opportunity or connection could come from? 5. To network @lauren_dugan I use the 'Favorite" button to 1) acknowledge, like a head nod & 2) telling the person that I'l read/check it out. — Sonny Le (@sonnylebythebay) January 7, 2014 Last but not least, you can use Twitter favorites to network. By favoriting someone's tweet, you could be indicating that you "like" it in some way - you're interested in the link they shared, or maybe you agree with what they said. Using favorites, you can mark the tweets from the people you want to network with, and make sure you follow up with them about their tweet shortly. (Gold stars image via Shutterstock)

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Five Ways To Use Twitter's Favorite Button

Lauren Dugan

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Lauren Dugan