How to Get the Most From Twitter for Your Business

Twitter provides an easy, but powerful way for people to connect, giving voice to the oppressed as well as to the free. Its 140-character limitation has encouraged users to offer innovative messages or tweets, an avenue of communication that should be embraced by businesses of all sizes as a way to communicate with their customers.

Let’s take a look at how you can get the most from Twitter for your business:

1. Sign up and log on — Go to http://www.twitter.com and create an account if you do not have one. Claim your business’ name and use that as your user name if available. Fill out the “New to Twitter? Sign Up” section by giving your full name your email address and your password.

2. Activate your account — Your account is automatically activated at this point; Twitter will take you to a welcome page. Click on “next” and you’ll be taken to a “build your timeline page.” Start off by following at least five people or simply skip this step. You’ll be given the chance to follow more people or you can move on to the next step.

3. Find more people — If starting off with ample followers is important to you, then search for contacts via Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail & Messenger, and AOL. Click “search contacts” by the appropriate service and a new window will open. That window will ask for your permission to “grant access” to the site. Click the appropriate button to either grant or deny access. Your contacts will load, enabling you to follow the entire group or persons you choose individually.

4. Upload an image — Twitter allows users to upload an image. You can put in a picture of yourself, a photo of your company’s logo or anything else.

5. Fill out your bio — Twitter gives users 160 characters to fill out their biography. Write a tightly written overview of what your business does, using keywords important to your business. Both the image and the bio can be changed at any time.

6. Tweet and retweet — The easiest way to get tweeting or sharing messages is to simply retweet a message already tweeted. Click on the retweet icon beside the message and a pop-up message will appear. That message will ask, “Retweet this to your followers?” Click the “retweet” button if yes or hit “cancel” if you decide not to. You can add your own messages too by filling out the “compose new tweet…” box and clicking on the “tweet” button. Your message now appears to your followers.

7. Make use of hashtags — You’ll frequently see messages with hashtags — # — in front of a word. Hashtags are an important way for people to find related messages in a sea of tweets. For instance, if you are trying to reach small business people you can add #smallbiz after your message. This is particularly helpful if you want to reach many more people than your circle of followers.

8. Expand your presence — Continue to find and follow people that interest you. These individuals can include a person’s tweets that you like, a business associate, friends, family members and more. If you find following hundreds of thousands of people unmanageable, then carefully choose who you will follow. If someone follows you, you do not have to follow in return. Tweet on a consistent basis to announce a new product, to shout out to a customer, to share some news or what have you. Engage your followers to create an online community and to connect with potential customers. Be careful not to spam!

Concluding Thoughts

As a business operator, you’ll want to maintain control over your Twitter account. Have only trusted employees tweet on your behalf and establish ground rules to ensure that everyone speaks with one voice. That may mean telling people not to use profanity, to avoid criticizing a competitor or tweeting something personal from your Twitter account.

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