Getting the small details right can make all the difference. Its not just the 140 characters. Twenty Twitter Tips here to make sure you whole profile page is working hard for you.
If you are putting in the effort to tweet regularly make sure that any other aspects of your twitter page are also helping you engage with your audience. Compelling and and engaging tweets will get re-tweeted and bring your message to a wider audience and they will boost your followers/audience but appearance and first impressions also play a part.
Take a look at the Twitter tips below and check against your own page. So many of the businesses I talk with are not getting it right. Its easy to do and free so don’t put it off
Twenty Twitter tips to keep your business socially engaged
- Add a background image to make you page stand out. Include some company or product branding along with some key contact details. Make sure they align left and are not covered by the Twitter links and tweets.
- Check you header profile. Make sure your bio is short, snappy and relevant. Do add your website link, location and tell the viewer why they should follow you. – Give them a reason (what you tweet about) to click the follow button.
- Have a clear profile picture either person or logo – let visitors know who they are tweeting with.More on the right image sizes for social media here in a handy guide >>
- Followers and following: No need to follow everyone but make sure you do follow those that are relevant to your business and those that are active – they are probably looking for more influence and will happily follow you. Look for people in you sector who have influence (lots of followers) and engage with them. Tweet interesting thing to them and over time they might follow back.
- Make you tweets timely and topical. So people will want to read and share them. Each tweet should have a purpose, whether to inform, entertain or inspire. Consider what is happening in your industry or business.
- Share comment about your business or product but thank and mention the source.
- The most re-tweeted content contains links, images, video. Use a service such as Instagram or Vine. Anyone with a smart phone can create compelling content.
- Where possible include links back to your own site; to news, articles or your latest blog post
- Use short links and leave more space for your message Services like Bitly.com can do this for you. (If you use Bitly remember you can shorten each link further by removing the http://).
- If you want to be re-tweeted don’t use all 140 characters. Try for 70 – 100 and leave some space for others to add a comment.
- Be part of the community – its not all about you. Favourite, re-tweet, thank and give kudos to other tweeters even if its not about your own product or business.
- Use conventions like #FF (follow Friday) to thank , reward and engage followers who you have been engaged with during the week. They will probable remain engaged next week too!
- Use #hashtags but keep them consistent. Do not use to many one or two will be enough.More on #Hashtags here >>
- Ask for what you want. “Please RT”, “Share” or “click here” all helps boost your interactions.More on using calls to action in social media here >>
- Tweet at the right time. Monitor you account and tweet when most of your audience is online – It’s probably between 8am and 7pm. Don’t forget weekends. If you are busy use a service that can schedule tweets for you such as Buffer
- Use a keyword list to stay on topic for your market. Match you site keywords to get best effect. You can check you site analytics to see which tweets or topics drive the most traffic
- Don’t tweet to often once or twice a day will probably be enough. Five is probably a good upper limit. (NB This does not include replies or conversations with your followers.)
- Integrate you twitter account with all you contact points for potential followers. Add buttons on you web pages, email, brochures and any other print material. Make it easy for people to find your account.
- Display your Twitter feed on your web pages – show potential followers that you are active and that there an interesting conversation for them to join. You can get an easy to use widget from Twitter to do this. (Look under you account settings).
- Be regular and consistent never go quite for more than a few days without tweeting. No followers want to be part of a one-sided conversation. Similarly don’t use automated messages followers will be turned off chatting with a robot.
I hope you find these Twitter Tips and links helpful. Please add your comments if you have any other tips to share.
If you would like any support in getting your social media working hard for your business please get in touch. H P Consulting can offer affordable help >>