How to Successfully Run a Twitter Account
A few months ago I did a presentation on running a successful twitter account. The 40 minute video can be seen here. If you've got a little less time on your hands, our wonderful intern, Marissa Reinert, put together a summary of the things I covered:
What is Twitter?
Twitter has become a popular staple in the social media scene. It's a site used for micro-blogging ( 140 characters or less). You can use your Twitter account to post at any time about absolutely anything, including your day, current events or business updates. Not only is Twitter extremely relevant and a great way of staying on top of current events, but it's also a fantastic tool for networking. You can find people in your local community, or half way around the world, to connect with. Despite its festive name Twitter can be difficult to learn and highly addictive once mastered. All in all, Twitter is an extremely useful and time consuming social media tool.
What Twitter is not...
Twitter is not a quick way to get rich. Although Twitter can connect you to thousands of people or "followers" in an instant, the connection is worthless unless they are actually listening to you. Developing connections with quality followers takes time and effort. Therefore, making money on Twitter also takes a lot of time and effort as it is directly connected to the type of relationships you develop.
Twitter is not a popularity contest. The amount of followers you have is not relevant to your success on Twitter. In fact, many Twitter accounts are actually "Twitter-bots". These "Twitter-bots" are simply programs created to follow users and interact with their posts in hopes users buy something from them.
Twitter is not a replacement for SEO. Although Twitter is useful, it cannot create a consistent stream of revenue for your business. With SEO you can optimize your site, achieve rankings and count on a consistent month to month income. However, Twitter can grow your community, create a large database of potential clients and help spread the word about your company.
Getting Started
The first step in creating your Twitter account is uploading a profile picture of the person actually using the account. A picture of the user will help others on Twitter recognize you are a real person and not a " Twitter-bot." When creating a company profile you can use the company logo especially if several company members are active on twitter as well.
Don't spend more than 10 minutes designing your background. Most followers will not bother to visit your actual homepage. A simple branding of the page with your company's logo will suffice.
While writing a quick blurb about your company in the "bio" section, be sure to include your company's phone number. Avoid certain words such as "guru" , "rockstar", " money" and "free." These words are associated with spam and scams, and they will drive users away.
How to Participate
Listen. Listen to your followers and those you follow. This is a great way to learn techniques for twitter as well as get a pulse on what engages your followers.
Participate. Be sure to re-tweet daily. By becoming more active and involved with others, your followers will become more interrsted and in turn listen to you as well. Make your Tweets count, talk with people, not at them.
Be Loud and Popular. Be engaging to your followers, if they find you interesting they will send more followers your way. If you want your thoughts and ideas to be heard, they have to be big and bold. They have to be heard above the noise.
Etiquette
Do not follow everyone that follows you. Look at their account and decide if they're "following the rules." If not, don't follow them.
Send a "thank you" message to new followers and include specific information from their profile or feed. This begins a genuine relationship with a potential quality follower.
No automatic DM's. These appear to be spam to other users.
Cool People to Follow
Useful Tools
Twitter has a plethora of tools to keep you connected to the community including Tweet Deck, Spaz, Search.Twitter.com, Tweetchat.com and Bud URL.