Aplus.net Blog

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you already know how to start playing with Twitter. Now it’s time to leave the nest and fly with confidence as your company’s representative!

Create a company profile

Once you pick a username for your company (which we discussed in the last post) and register on Twitter, the first thing to do is add a picture to your profile. If you used your company name you could use your logo, a picture of your building, or something else related to your company. If you used your name, put up a picture of yourself. Just remember that only the thumbnail of these pictures will show up next to your updates, so pick a small, simple graphic.

You’ll also need a bio right off the bat. You only get 160 characters, but they count big-time. Create a keyword-rich bio, and people will find you quickly on Twitter Search. When I started a personal Twitter account I left out a bio, and added one on a whim last week. I doubled my followers the first day, and several more followed me the next day!

Content is King

Now it’s time to start creating content, and this is the tricky part. You should tweet as often as possible as long as your content is relevant to your target audience. This may be several times a day, or it may be twice week. Once you build a following, you may not actually tweet much at all – your time might be spent replying to questions from followers! The frequency of your tweets isn’t the important thing (although you shouldn’t drop off the map for weeks at a time if you want to stay top-of-mind), it’s the content that matters.

Just remember that central tenet of social media communication: never try to sell anything on social media platforms, and only refer people to your Web site or storefront when it would be in their best interest to do so. Never forget that you’re on Twitter to build relationships.

Tips and tricks

Can you put URLs in tweets? Of course! But what if you want to send someone to a site with a URL longer than 140 characters? If you played with your personal Twitter account very long, you probably spotted the answer: shortened URLs. Several sites offer free URL shortening, the most popular two being http://tinyurl.com and http://is.gd. Just visit one of these sites, pop in your long URL, and viola – short URL.

Ok, so now you can send people to your Web site. But why not send your tweets outside the Twitter platform? Twitter thoughtfully offers several widgets, or tools, that can syndicate your tweets to sites like Facebook and MySpace, and they even have a CSS-friendly version you can stick on your Web site. Twitter also offers other applications that allow you to tweet from your computer desktop or phone which are great for tweeting (and monitoring your @ replies) on the go.

For even more tips and tricks, head to TwiTip or Twitter Tips.

Points to remember:

• Use a small, simple graphic for your user photo
• Create a keyword-rich bio so users can find you easily
• Tweet as often as you can, but only when your content is relevant to your audience
• Never try to sell anything; Twitter is for relationship-building
• Twitter has widgets and apps that help you tweet to and from other locations

What other questions do you have, and which social media platform would you like to hear about next? Tell us in the comments!