Twitter is a great place to find quality followers and follow individuals with your interests as well as individual and business owners in the same field of expertise that you possess and potential clients. Twitter is also a great place to interact with captains of an industry whom you may never get the opportunity to meet.
We offer you seven tips to use Twitter:
- Use your other social media platforms and profiles to connect with individuals on Twitter. Your Twitter profile should be linked to your other social media platforms. Cross post status updates to and from LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Make certain your Facebook page links to your Twitter account and vice versa.
- Use your email signature to its full advantage. Embed social media icons in your email signature and link to all of your social media platforms. If you don’t want to include icons, simply include the link. Issue a call to action with a “Follow me here" in the signature regardless of whether you’re sending personal or business emails.
- If you want people to follow you, and stick with you, on Twitter, offer interesting information. Re-tweet posts from people you’re following – they will love you for it and you can get more followers. Make certain your Twitter page offers content of value.
- There’s no shame in asking your followers to re-tweet what you’ve posted. If you’re posting content of value your followers should have no problem if you simply say, “could you please re-tweet me?" Make certain you return the favor if asked.
- Send direct messages to your followers. Don’t spam them! Offer a quick “hello and thanks for following" message. Try to start a conversation with your direct messages.
- You know about keywords and SEO for your blogs and website but do you use keywords judiciously in your online social media platforms? You should! You want your profile to not only describe who you are, but what you offer.
- Hashtags (#) help people – those who follow you and those who don’t – find posts that center around specific topics. For example: #dogs, #writers, #italianrestaurants If you’re looking to build a following in a particular area of expertise, drop in a hash tag to make your tweets easier to find.
These are just a few tips to get you up and running with Twitter. As with any other social media platform, you get out of it what you put into it. Make certain too, that you are following relevant people; if you have no interest in car and auto sites, don’t follow them, but if you are looking to interact with those in the auto industry, it only makes sense to search out individuals and businesses on Twitter that speak to that subject area. Customize your Twitter background whether you use one of Twitter’s templates or hire someone to design one for you. As with anything you do in business, brand yourself and your business as a way to be found, ie grab a Twitter handle that mimics your business website name if possible.
