Twitter is a great marketing tool
for small businesses – follow these simple tips to ensure you’re using it
effectively:
The Basics
1. Upload a profile pic – eggs do
not encourage followers.
2. Optimise your bio – you only have
160 characters to play, if in doubt enlist the services of copywriter.
3. Enter your real location into
your profile.
4. Add a url to your bio – when
someone checks a list of followers they can easily click your link without
having to go into your profile (which most people won’t bother to do).
Ensure you add the whole url, including http:// otherwise it won’t work. Continue...
Add a url to your bio to encourage
clicks
5. Brand your background. I use my logo and a
wordcloud with a white background – simple but effective.
6. Select to receive emails when
“I’m sent a Direct Message” and “I’m sent a reply or mention” to ensure you can
quickly react to enquiries, recommendations and customer service issues.
7. Interact – the key is to build up
relationships.
8. Take part in twitter
chats – they’re a great way to meet new people.
9. Answer questions – if someone
asks something try your best to answer it, even if it takes a bit of time to
find the info they need.
10. Add value to retweets – don’t
simply retweet a post, add a comment.
11. Keep tweets to 120 characters –
it enables people to retweet your post and add a short comment.
12. Thank people for retweeting – we
all like to receive a thank you and it will encourage them to retweet your
content again in the future.
13. Do more with your Friday Follow
(#FF) list – instead of a long list of names with the hash tag at the end,
choose one or two people and give a reason why others will want to
follow. For instance “If you’re looking for great typing and transcribing
services follow @BridiesTyping #FF”
14. Interact – yes, I know I
already said this but it’s THE most important factor.
Twitterfy your website
15. Add a tweet button to your blog
or website to allow easy sharing of your content.
16. Go one step further by adding a branded tweet box to
your blog.
17. Add twitter
testimonials to your site to showcase how fab you are.
18. Set up a twitter box which
displays your recent tweets.
19. Add the twitter follow button
– it allows people to follow you from your website with just one click!
Other Social Media Applications
20. Link your twitter profile
with your LinkedIn account BUT choose the option to only display tweets marked
#in – it cuts out a lot of unnecessary noise and ensures your LinkedIn
connections only receive the tweets that are most important.
21. Link your twitter profile
with your Facebook page, with the same proviso.
22. Use Twylah to create your very own branded twitter
page.
General bits and pieces
23. Add your twitter profile
name to your business card.
24. Include a link to your
twitter profile in your email signature.
25. Check through the list of
people you follow on a monthly basis and stop following anyone who hasn’t
tweeted in the past five weeks.
View twitter as a virtual coffee
shop
26. Stop following anyone who
constantly tweets sales and promotional messages.
27. If you’ve taken time to
help someone and they haven’t acknowledged it give them a nudge. If they
still ignore you then unfollow.
28. Don’t waste time following
people who promise to follow back – they’ll add nothing to your twitter
experience.
29. If you want to make an
@reply more public put a full stop in front of the @ sign so all your followers
will see it.
30. Don’t just broadcast to
people – use the 80/20 rule – 80% interaction, 20% advertising and promotion.
31. Take advantage of
applications like twitpic and instagram to
add images to your tweets – makes it a bit more interesting than just text
tweets all the time.
32. Make good use of hash
tags. If you’re attending a seminar or conference end your tweets with
#seminarname so people can easily follow what’s going on.
33. Take the time to tweet
several times a week – there’s no point building up a following if you can only
be bothered to tweet occasionally.
34. Don’t click on links sent
by people you don’t know.
35. Add your twitter profile
to your email marketing campaigns.
36. Make use of an application
like HootSuite or Tweetdeck – it makes keeping tabs on
your @mentions and Direct Messages far easier.
37. Use a url shortener (like bit.ly)
to condense long urls – it leaves you more characters to add value to the
tweet.
38. Better still, use Buffer – it gives easy access to your analytics
so you can see how many retweets, clicks and mentions your tweet generated.
39. Be wary when allowing third
party applications to utilise your twitter profile. If in doubt don’t do
it.
40. Regularly check the list of
applications you’ve connected with your twitter account and delete any that are
no longer relevant.
41. Avoid the use of automatic
Direct Messages – most people don’t like them and some (like me!) instantly
unfollow.
42. Don’t use an application
that has to verify twitter users before they’re allowed to follow – it
discourages followers and is unnecessary.
43. Don’t set your profile up
to protect tweets. Twitter is all about interaction – how can anyone
interact with you if they can’t read your tweets?
44. By all means set up
automatic tweeting if you’re unable to tweet at the appropriate time, but don’t
over use them. People like to follow people, not software.
45. Tweet new content four
times over a two day period at different times each day to ensure it reaches
the broadest audience possible.
46. Don’t tweet about your business
to random people – you’low level come across as spammy and may end up getting
blocked.
47. Avoid the use of automated
Direct Messages – they are a huge twitter turn off!
48. Be careful with your use of
hashtags – don’t use more than 3 in a tweet and never, ever interrupt a
twitter chat with an irrelevant hash tagged tweet.
49. Be yourself.
And finally
50. Interact.
Yes, it’s been mentioned twice
already, but if you don’t interact you’re missing the whole point. View
twitter as a virtual coffee shop, somewhere to take a break and chat.
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