Set Up Twitter for Business Growth- A guide – Web2.0 Social Media Series
Using Twitter for Business part 1 setup
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com
If CNN and major radio stations and TV shows are using twitter, something must be right?!
Ok I was at a recent networking event in London for Ecademy and the question was raised – How many people are using twitter for business, and other web2.0 social media platforms?
A ripple of hands go up in a room full of around 200-300 business people. The light bulb moment hasn’t happened just yet.
So twitter in a nutshell is a micro blogging application limited to just 140 characters. It’s a way to connect and update your thoughts or status of what you’re doing to the internet world.
It’s great because anyone can ‘follow’ your ‘tweets’ i.e. your comments. It’s really exploded recently with the advent of many twitter management tools which you must have to stay on top of twitter and to make it work for you in business which I’m going to go through soon.
Also because of the smart phone revolution especially the etc its super easy to stay on top of twitter and to keep everyone updated in real time.
Follow my blog posts to get the full low down on how to get your head around twitter, how to set it up and how we can all use twitters viral power to connect with the world and create more traffic, prospect and adding a customer relationship element to exciting customers.
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Setting up twitter
Go to http://www.twitter.com
Set up your account using your preferred email. I am another advocate of Gmail it’s just is simply the best for managing large amounts of email traffic as you can filet, label and organize email like no other email system. I also like to star people that follow me with a nice direct message wanting more interaction.
Your Bio
160 characters to make yourself sound interesting and stand out so that people can connect with you. Give an informal approachable bio mention what you do your passion and maybe how you can help and some other interests- remember we want to create a connection and liking! Giving up stuff about you as a person makes people like and connect with you!
- Make sure you add a link to your business or blog or URL
- Make sure people know your location
- Make sure you have protect your updates turned OFF – if it’s on people won’t see your tweets!
- Direct messages – are private messages from other twitterer’s they enter your inbox so choose to accept or disable
- You also get inbox messages of who’s following , it’s good to scan through as you may pick up some key figures that you want to follow you etc. But certainly filter them away from your inbox and delete once you have read them
Make your twitter profile customized
I suggest you get a custom twitter background from: http://www.twitbacks.com/ or http://www.customtwitterbackground.com/ you can also get people to design them for you for around $20-$30 I have been sent a tweet on twitter to get a custom twitter background for $27 other places can charge $30-$100. . This can really be like a landing page for you with links and images for you to show off about your business or personality.
Get a good picture of you in your profile so that people can see how you are and connect.
Ok that’s the basics in terms of setting up your account. In my next post we are going to look at some important twitter tools to manage your twitter account and automate some procesess.
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