Twitter can not only strengthen your foundation, but build your brand by reaching new customers and markets. Americans are tweeting millions of times a day, so why not put your business out there and let Twitter do some of the heavy lifting?
These tips should help optimize your efforts:
1 Organize whom you follow with lists.
Oftentimes, we follow customers, suppliers, neighboring businesses, peers and competitors. In order to ensure you see important messages, use Twitter lists to focus on the most relevant people and conversations. You can create up to 20 different Twitter lists with up to 500 accounts in each list.
2 Update your profile picture.
Your Twitter profile picture is small and your logo may not display well. You may want to consider a headshot. Twitter is about faces, and people prefer faces to logos anyway.
3 Change your visual branding.
Twitter allows you to customize the look and colors of your profile page. You can create a custom graphic and use it for your Twitter background.
4 Rewrite your Twitter bio.
Make sure to tell people what product or service you provide and show a little personality. Mark your calendar and make sure to update your bio every couple of months to keep it fresh.
5 Create a Twitter landing page.
Most businesses use their Twitter profile link to drop people off at their website homepage or blog. However, you can create a special Twitter landing page and use that page as your Twitter profile Web address. A Twitter landing page gives you more space to talk about your business and about your Twitter use.
6 Rethink your following strategy.
Don’t automatically follow back everyone who follows you. Many Twitter accounts are automated programs that can clog up your Twitter stream.
7 Publicize your Twitter account.
Make it easy for people to find your business on Twitter by adding your username to all of your business materials:
” Your website (with a link)
” Your email signature (with a link)
” Your email newsletter (with a link)
” Signs posted in your business
” Paperwork you give customers (receipts, invoices, statements, etc.)
8 Make sure you follow your customers.
Twitter is a great place to interact with your customers. It provides an opportunity for you to connect with them directly. Consider offering incentives for them if they follow you. This almost always works and may even lead to increased sales.
9 Add photos to your tweets.
Statistics show that people are more likely to read your posts online if you include pictures.
10 Let Twitter help you with your business challenges.
It takes some time on Twitter before you’ll be ready to put it to work on your business goals. However, once you have built a community and understand the way Twitter works, it’s time to take it to the next level.
” Offer Twitter-only specials. If productivity is down, offer a special deal (free product or a discount) for everyone who knows the secret code you tweet out Tuesday at 5 p.m., for instance.
” Reward people who retweet you.
” Is your blog a little lonely? Twitter is a great tool to drive traffic to your blog. Set up a contest or a reward for people who retweet your messages about your blog posts.
” You may want to consider giving away a free 30-minute consultation, service or product. Whatever business you are in, there is always something you can use to entice people to retweet or follow.
11 Expand the Twitter conversation to your blog. When you have a great conversation going on Twitter, expand the conversation to the people who read your blog. Twitter now makes it easy for you to embed a tweet into a blog post so it looks like a tweet and has the same interactive features it has on Twitter. If a topic is working for you, why not extend its shelf life? ?
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