Susan Shelby
by Susan Shelby
Whether we’re willing to admit it, marketers seem to have a love-hate relationship with Twitter. Those tweets of 140 characters or less are pithy and fleeting, and we often feel pressured to come up with content to post. More, the popular micro-blogging service speaks its own language, so the savvy marketer should understand the Twitter vocabulary. Can you define a handle, follower, direct message, hashtag, retweet, or trending topic? If your company’s Twitter account isn’t getting the attention it deserves, read on.
Twitter is a useful communication tool that allows companies to interact with people around the world. The service allows users to send a short message to a group of people publicly, a specific person publicly, or a specific person privately. At its essence, Twitter is a relationship-building and relationship-maintenance tool, allowing you to promote your company’s brand, interact with clients, create buzz and dialogue, and develop relationships with bloggers and the media. An active Twitter presence will consistently keep your firm’s name in the blogosphere, which can help generate leads for new business. The Twitter basics:
- Choose a user name wisely. Your Twitter user name will be how people refer to your firm on Twitter, so think of it as a brand name. It could be a company’s full name, a variation, or a combination of company name and industry. Just make it recognizable as coming from your firm.
- Personalize your profile by adding the company logo, name, and location. Be as descriptive as possible in the “bio” section: You’re allowed only 160 characters to post your elevator pitch and convince people to follow you back. Customize your Twitter background to further promote your company’s brand.
- Review your privacy settings with Twitter’s purpose in mind. If you check the Protect my Tweets box, your Twitter stream will be private and no one will be able to see your posts without following you. That’s a tough way of growing a following, so don’t keep people from getting a peek.
Once you’re set up, learn the rules of the road. Use Twitter’s Who to Follow feature to start building your followers. Follow people your followers are following, and be sure to follow thought leaders, bloggers, media, and professional organizations. The hashtag (#) is used as a tagging system to aggregate conversations on Twitter, so remember to use hashtags when posting about industry or current events.
Now that you’re ready, what do you tweet? A tweet can be an observation or original content to inform your followers, as well as a recommendation of what you’re reading, watching, or attending by way of events. Live-tweeting (i.e., tweeting what you see or hear in real time) at an event or conference builds an online conversation around an event or topic. You can tweet someone else’s content (and tagging that person tracks the conversation and encourages them to follow you, too), or retweet someone else’s tweet with or without your own commentary.
Like other marketing tools, create a calendar to manage your content and scheduling on Twitter. Space out tweets so you’re tweeting every day, and stagger tweets that are sent on the same day. Use a third-party platform like HootSuite to manage your Twitter account, monitor your followers, and conveniently schedule tweets ahead of time. Your tweets can be a mix of industry news, company news, retweets, and something fun on, say, Fridays. Make sure your tweets are always appropriate and professional, as they are in the public domain of Twitter.
Twitter alone won’t bring in new business, but used in your social media mix, Twitter can drive people to your website or blog and promote your firm and its projects. Twitter allows you to monitor your brand and hear what people are saying about you, while providing a channel to communicate with clients, partners, and employees. Interact with your growing network of followers, and use Twitter to establish your firm as a thought leader in your industry. Just say it in 140 characters or less.
Susan Shelby, FSMPS, CPSM is president & CEO of Rhino PR in South Hamilton, Mass.
