Getting Started on Twitter!

You have signed up, signed in and are ready to get digitally savvy with potential customers for your business but are faced with a very blank looking Twitter profile page.

This blog highlights the key initial steps to ensure your business? Twitter voice is as effective as possible.

Update your profile

Having signed up to Twitter you will automatically have a blank profile that looks a bit like the image below. Add the name of your business and its location. It is best to put in the town or city the business resides in so your profile really attracts locals but don’t go as exact as the street name, users will be less likely to identify and they can already find such details as the address on your website, which is the next piece of information to put in.

Now to write an effective bio, you only have 160 characters (pretty much one sentence) to sum up your business so make sure it is clear and concise in describing what you’re all about.

Get creative

Most importantly, your profile must be eye-catching and visibly appealing emphasising your company’s brand. It is unlikely your business is well represented by a picture of an egg so ensure you pick a quality profile picture. For example, this could be your logo, a photo of your business in action or your shop front or even both (see examples below). When followers see your tweets on their newsfeed the profile picture will be paired with it so it must be attention-grabbing.

Effective Twitter profile pictures

You also need a Twitter header picture this will be at the top of your profile and again should be effective at catching the user’s eye. Use a quality professional photo of a product or get creative and use Photoshop to combine a logo, photo and perhaps your company motto (correct dimensions: 1500 x 500 pixels). To ensure your profile is mobile friendly try to keep the contents towards the middle as phones tend to cut off the sides of your header and remember part of the left-hand corner will be blocked by your profile picture.

A professional and eye-catching header picture

Utilise the Design tab in Settings and pick a different theme for your profile, many company’s use the standard theme, however, simply changing the theme colour can really make your profile stand out and appeal to your user demographics. For example, a jewellery shop will be targeting woman so the use of a pink theme is likely to please users.

Find followers!

Now your profile is looking great it is time to start connecting with other businesses and both existing and potential customers. Follow people you know and businesses in the local area, even if their service or trade is nothing to do with yours they still may have an interest in what you offer. For example, it may seem pointless for a bridal shop to follow the local rugby club but perhaps one of their players is soon to be married and their other half is looking for a local shop to buy a dress from. You don’t want to miss out on any opportunities! Follow suppliers, profiles from your industry, related magazines and blog pages that your users are likely to be interested in. Remember you can only follow 50 new users a day; this is so Twitter knows you’re not a computer spamming profiles. However, as your following grows this rule will become more relaxed. So how do you create a healthy following? Hopefully, some of the profiles you follow will return the favour, be polite and begin engagement by tweeting or direct messaging them back a thank you, make each one personal rather than using the same one every time, no-one wants to talk to a robot. People love it when you retweet them and it makes them aware of your business, often leading to a follow. But more importantly, it’s time to start posting!

Perfect posts

So what is the making of an effective Twitter post? Keep it snappy, you only have 140 characters, use them wisely! Make your post to the point and improve it by adding a link, stats, a picture or a video. If you’re announcing some news just tweet the headline and link it to your website blog or your Facebook page which will have the full story. Using a quality picture with your post makes it eye-catching and will often be the first thing users see leading them into reading the post and checking out your profile. Restaurants always benefit from adding a mouth-watering picture of something from the menu.

Interact with other users by adding a @mention. This will increase engagement and is likely to lead to a retweet which can significantly increase your reach. For example, a small music venue hosting a well-known band could mention them in a post and if they retweet it could potentially reach thousands of their fans. Get trending by adding the all-important #hashtag which can effectively sum up or add humour to a post. Use a popular hashtag and your post will trend so people searching for the hashtag will see your post, again increasing your potential reach.

A successful post using a mention, hashtag and a picture – although this post was always likely to be popular!

Be engaging with your audience, it is recommended that your posts should be only 20% outright promotion of your business and 80% content that will interest users and encourage engagement. So don’t always bang on about you and what your business is doing link to general news and topics or perhaps images and blogs you think your users will enjoy. A good way of creating interaction is by asking questions in tweets prompting a reply and a conversation with potential customers. This demonstrates friendly and personal customer service ensuring your profile has a real voice behind it.

Getting more advanced

Find out about networking hours in your area this will connect you with other businesses nearby. Even if you work in different industries it is good to make friendly links as it could lead to future favours and referrals. These hours often attract thousands of users and will ensure you are maximally increasing your profile reach. Most networking times tend to be in the evening so make sure you are free to interact and connect with others. Busy and worried you might miss out? There is an alternative?

Schedule your tweets using a social media management site such as TweetDeck, Hootsuite or Sprout Social. Some are free, some require a monthly fee and vary in the features they provide but are extremely convenient at ensuring your tweets are out there at the right time. It will also save you time as you can manage multiple accounts and create your tweets for the rest of the week all at once. However, Twitter is a spontaneous, ongoing conversation if you’re not there you may miss opportunities to interact. Make sure you engage as soon as possible to any mentions or queries to maintain high levels of customer service.

Tweetdeck

So now you are ready to take on the Twitter world! Remember to be creative and interesting, ensure the tweets you post to include links and photos and will encourage users to engage and in return, you’re likely to be rewarded with a loyal following and increased interest and business for your company. Boost your online presence today with these simple steps.