Social Media Tip: Twitter tips to become a Twitter expert

Last September, Twitter's outgoing CEO announced that the microblogging platform had 15 million users in the UK. The networking site has enjoyed exponential growth since its creation in 2006. It is one of the most popular social networks, so you should be making the most of it for your business and your marketing. Twitter can aid you in all sorts of ways; content promotion, customer service or to drive traffic to your website (to name but a few). If you want to be a success on Twitter, then follow these tips to get off to a great start.

Img: startbloggingonline.com

So how do you make the most of what Twitter has to offer? With everything, it's best to start with the basics.

First things first, you need to make sure you have a good profile:

• profile picture - first impressions count for everything; and your profile pic is really important. Make sure it represents your business effectively, and don't leave the default egg picture.
• username - this should be simple and short; if you want people to retweet your content, then they may be discouraged by a long twitter handle that doesn't fit  in to the word limit well.
• bio - it's recommendable to include a bio in your profile section; this gives people a good idea of your company and what you stand for. A good call for action will most likely result in more followers.
• background - your background picture is as important as your profile picture; make sure it fits to your brand. A good way to do this is to create a custom background that represents your company and provides more information about it.
• quantity is not quality - try not to have multiple accounts for your company; this can be confusing and could result in you having less followers.

Once your profile is established, then you can start following people:

• follow - you should follow people that are useful or helpful to your business and/or industry. It's also good to follow a few people who are interesting, and tweet helpful information
• again, quantity is not quality - make sure you only follow relevant people; as Twitter has a follow limit. Twitter looks at reasonable usage on accounts, and will block accounts that appear to be 'aggressively following'. Make sure you're in the know before you get carried away with follows!
• don't reciprocate too much - you don't have to follow back everyone that follows you, just choose people that are helpful to your business.
• followers - as you start to follow people, and start talking, then you will notice that people will start to follow you. There are free tools, like WhoTweetedMe, that you can use to see who is tweeting and retweeting your content.

As soon as you've started to build up your followers/following count, then you should start tweeting to attract more attention:

• be unique - having original and interesting tweets will attract more people to your account. The more eye-catching your tweets are, the more likely they will get retweeted. It's the Twitter way to get noticed and stand out from the crowd.
• think before you tweet - don't tweet just for the sake of it, make sure you have a clear goal in mind before you start posting.
• it's not all me, me, me - Twitter is about listening; if you rabbit on too much about yourself then people may get bored and stop listening. Make your followers feel valued and make it more about them than you.
• think short - it's not a bad thing to abbreviate your tweets, most people do this so that they can say more. A handy tip: use URL shorteners like bit.ly to include short links in your tweets and save room.
• but not too short - research has shown that longer tweets, which include a link, get more clicks than those without. But make sure you leave enough room for retweets!
• be visual - Twitter have introduced various ways for businesses to attract attention; make the most of Twitter Cards and include pictures and links to grab attention.
• take your time - send your tweets out regularly, and don't just spam your followers with a ton of tweets in the space of an hour. There are various tools, like HootSuite, that can help you to set up automated scheduled updates to keep on top of this, if you don't have the time.
• be relevant - you need to make sure you keep on topic, and keep your tweets relevant to your target audience and industry. Otherwise, you risk not engaging your followers and subsequently losing followers.

Twitter is just as much about listening as it is talking, so make sure you retweet, and encourage others to do the same:

• sharing is caring - share and retweet the content of your peers and customers; it's a great way to boost your own social reach.
• think strategically - don't just retweet everything that catches your eye; really think about what benefits you can gain from retweeting others content.
• ask for help - it's not taboo to ask people to retweet your content, in fact, 'retweet' is one of the top 20 words for retweeted content!
• don't forget your manners - it's good to thank people occasionally for retweets and mentions, especially when you are first building up your account. Make sure to not go too overboard though, you don't want to bore your followers with countless thank you notes.

It's also important to follow the trends and drive more people to your Twitter account by using hashtags:

• search - there may be specific hashtags that are trending to your business; by using them you can get a wider audience for your tweets. Including hashtags like #marketing or #socialmedia in your tweets can categorise them into specific conversations.
• be human - hashtags are a great way to add some personable fun to your business, so use them to show your human side.
• be strategic - hashtags are also a great way to drive campaigns; create a hashtag for a certain product or competition and ask your followers to include it in their tweets to take part. This way, you are promoting your business and widening your reach.
• be short - if you are creating your own hashtag, make sure it's short, so that people can include it easily in their tweets.
• and again, quantity is not quality - too many hashtags can be really, really annoying, so make sure you don't go overboard!

Source: technmarketing.com

Once you're established, and happily tweeting, retweeting and building up your followers, then it is important to monitor your success on the platform:

• Twitter Analytics - this feature allows you to 'measure and boost' your impact on Twitter; you can see what works, and what doesn't, to make sure you are getting the most from the microblogging platform.
• be clever - find out when the most of your followers are online, and then tweet, to ensure the highest number of clicks.
• promote - it's important to promote your Twitter presence on your website or blog, so that you can drive traffic between the two and increase your social reach.

Most importantly, make sure you're having fun! Once you get the hang of it, Twitter is a great way to boost your marketing efforts and benefit your business.

Charlotte Callaghan

Charlotte is a trainee journalist, who loves writing about anything and everything. Currently an intern at Social Media Frontiers, you can follow her @charlotteatsmf and @CharlotteR_4

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