Twitter is one of the fastest growing websites on the internet today, adding staggering numbers of new users each day. By now most have heard of Twitter and many have either tried it, using it or are thinking about it for business use.
Twitter is great for both b2b and b2c businesses and most all industries and types of businesses can benefit from using Twitter if done properly. If you're thinking about using Twitter for business, what are you waiting for? Wondering where to start? Read on.
Start now!
I'm not saying you have to jump right in and "tweeting" right off the bat, but if you want to use it for business use, the best place to start is to go ahead and register an account for your business, and most importantly, your business name. Just like domain names/urls, good names can go fast and the last thing you want is someone else to have an account with YOUR business name.
Once you sign-up, start filling in some of the basic, but important information such as a brief summary of you and your business in the online bio (160 characters or less) and be sure to add your website link in the website field, you would be surprised how many people actually click those links and check you out. Be sure to fill in your location as local Twitter searches have value. Then tweak the settings in the notices tab and your ready.
Before you get to active on Twitter, a recommended best practice is to upload a photo of you or perhaps your business logo and please please make an effort to customize your background with something other than what Twitter provides for you. If you are not design savvy or have a designer in house to design a custom background for you, there are tons of designers out there who specialize in Twitter backgrounds. A quick Google search is all it takes to find them. If you want a free alternative, check out Twitbacks. Backgrounds are great for branding and sharing additional information you might not be able to fit in your profile.
Talk the talk, Twitter best practice terms and functions
If you're new to Twitter, some of the terms and actions can be a little confusing. I won't go into too much detail in this post, as Twitter has done an excellent job themselves putting together a "Twitter 101" which includes a "learn the lingo" section as well as a best practices page.
Listen, Engage
A good way to begin to learn about Twitter is to find people of interest (industry leaders, competitors, etc.) to follow and listen to what they say. A few places to find targeted people to follow are Twitter directories such as Twellow, Twitter searching sites like Twitter Search and Twitter Grader to name a few.
Start following, listening and learning how they use Twitter. It won't be long until things start making sense and you'll be ready to jump-in and engage.
To get the best value from Twitter, I recommend you take a multi-pronged approach to how you use it. First and foremost, it is great at forming connections and relationships. You can learn from industry leaders, competitors, get to know your existing clients better and find new people who could someday become clients. Don't be afraid to jump-in to the conversation. Twitter is all about interacting and engaging. You can also broadcast messages that link back to some of your recent blog posts or press releases on your website as well as sharing useful and informative links to articles on other relevant sites.
Essential Twitter apps
Twitter is great, but to get the most out of Twitter I recommend finding some good apps to make thing easier, faster and more effective. There are thousands of Twitter apps and some are great and others are not. If you're unsure about using an app, just ask others or do a quick Google search to see what others are saying about the app.
| Some of my favorites are Hootsuite which enables you to manage multiple Twitter profiles in one dashboard as well as schedule tweets, shorten url's, segment groups and track some of your stats. Another great Twitter app is SocialOomph. SocialOomph is a powerful tool that helps you save time and become more productive in your Twitter efforts. It has awesome functionality that enables you to schedule tweets, track keywords, shorten and track your urls, automate DM, find new followers and unfollow those who are not following you as well as incorporate robust SPAM filter options and much, much more. Another good tool to measure how your doing on Twitter is Twitter Grader. Twitter and social media is ever-changing and evolving, so if you have more tips or know of some other great tools, please share by commenting below. If you would like to learn more about Online Marketing please visit my blog. Do you use Twitter? SocialOomph is an awesome tool! Check it out! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Zack_Hanebrink |
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