Using Twitter for business
Tips of Using Twitter for Business
Twitter has been around for a while now and has established
itself as a major part of the lives of citizens the developed world, in
everything from communicating with each other to disseminating news to
promoting products and services.
But there are still plenty of sole traders and small
businesses who are unsure of how to use Twitter for their business, or even if
they should be on it at all. In this article, we'll try to explore some of the
issues, and give some hints and tips about how Twitter can become an asset for
your business.
Decide if you can afford it
Some people say Twitter is free, so it’s a no brainer to use
it. However, it’s only free if your time is worthless, and anybody in business
should know that that’s not the case. So decide whether you have the resources available
to dedicate some time to your Twitter profile, because if you don’t, a bad or
outdated profile could do more harm than good.
Brand your Twitter feed
You can take advantage of the customisation options on
Twitter to brand the page and add your logo. This will solidify your brand
impression with visitors.
Keep a professional tone
For individuals using Twitter for fun, they can put whatever
they like about what they ate, or the most mundane thoughts that occur to them.
As a business you need to be a bit more discerning. This means making sure any
tweets you put don’t undermine the professionalism of your business – for example,
no bitching, swearing or commenting on how ditzy you are.
Offer useful information in your tweets
If you can offer useful information in your tweets, that
gives people a reason to follow you and keep following you, and possible even
recommend you to their followers. Useful information could be tips, or links to
interesting articles, instructions or other resources.
Don't spam
Spamming is bad, whatever form it takes. Sure, you want to
promote your business and let people know if the benefits of working with you,
but if you’re flooding their feeds with promotions they’re likely to be turned
off and unfollow. Keep promotional, advertising tweets to a limited number and
make sure far more of your tweets are giving to the community, rather than
expecting to be given something.
Use a scheduling service
Constant interruptions from email, colleagues and the phone
are a huge obstacle to productivity (turning off Outlook auto-receive and only
checking your email once a day is probably the most effective single change you
can make to your working day), and Twitter just adds to the fray. However, you
can use scheduling services such as Tweetdeck to set up a bunch of tweets in
advance, and then get on with other work.
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