Social Media For Small Business - How to Use Twitter For
Your Business - Twitter-Traffic-Guide.Info
Following up from the last set of Social Media Marketing
webinars where we covered the basics of Twitter and other Social Media tools
and sites, I have been getting questions about using Twitter for business
purposes. In response to those questions, I wanted to write out a short list of
Twitter for Business best practices and some of the most popular tools that
make these practices possible. This list of tools, techniques, and what is
possible is changing and expanding almost daily with the explosion of Twitter
usage and discussions of Twitter merging with some other site/partner. Thus I
expect to stay current on using Twitter for business purposes we will need to
repost more on this topic from time to time.
• Be Real (don't hide) -
It is important that you completely fill in the registration
and profile information when signing up on Twitter. If you set up your Twitter
Id as a business name it is less real than using a personal name. If you still
want the business name in there, you could possibly add the company after the
persons name (like Dell computer has been known to do with names like
"PatrickAtDell"). In the profile section, post your website. I
wouldn't recommend a short URL here if you can avoid it since this is your
brand and the full link helps in your SEO rankings. Also in the profile section
you enter in relevant search terms in your profile description.
With the profile bio limited to 160 characters, you want to
get the relevant keywords included. By doing so you don't have much space to talk
about the business specifically. However you can also squeeze in more content
about your business including other websites, urls, logos, or content by
uploading a custom Twitter background. Be aware though that the search engines
and tools people are using to find you will not pick up words or content
located in the background image. That's why the keywords have to be in your
description.
Finally and possibly most important is that you need to
upload a picture. People want to see who they are communicating with, even if
you are representing a company. If Twitters don't think you are real, they are
less likely to be interested in following you and learning more about your
business (we are Twittering for Business here remember). If you try to hide
with no picture, just a logo, an incomplete profile or no description, the
cynical side of social media marketing will take over, people will assume the
worst and they won't follow you.
• Participate (be Relevant, contribute, share, respond) -
For a business or business person to be relevant in the
Twitter conversation going on, they need to participate. Ask questions and
elicit responses. Respond to other user's questions. Tweet not only your own
relevant contributions but retweet (RT) other Tweets that you find valuable.
Promote and/or attribute others where there's a reason to do so. You can build
a following faster if you appear trust worthy (easiest way to do that is by
actually being trustworthy), know your subject matter and don't look like you
are just out the get them to buy something.
The graders and ranking sites look at both your following as
well as your activity. There's a number of search tools that will help you here
to see who is talking about what and who is specifically responding to you (for
example with @replies). These tools can help you determine where you might want
to jump into a conversation and build that relevance. This is important in
being noticed by searches from other users. You build following with
contribution, relevance, and responsiveness.
The number of keywords in your tweet cloud is also
important. Are you an active Tweeter? If so, what are you tweeting about? Are
you relatively consistent in what you discuss? There's a big difference between
using Twitter like text messaging and blogging each trip to the grocery store
and using Twitter for business with a targeted, specific approach to your
online identity and the topics you take on. Again, the grading web sites will
pick up on this targeted approach and quickly move you to "elite"
status in your chosen keywords if you Tweet with some forethought.
• Automate (where possible) -
Reduce the time it takes you to research what is happening
in the Twitterdom, speed up your own Tweeting, get yourself followed
automatically, and build ranking faster and easier. There are several
automation type tools available to help build your Twitter for business
presence without having to hire a back room full of people:
--TweetBeep -Set up alerts for various keywords, people,
different attitudes, and links.
--Summize (Twitter Search) - Search for your keywords, click
a button and you have a custom RSS feed that you can read via your favorite
feed reader, or put on your Google or Yahoo home page. A synopsis available on
what's happening.
--Tweetlater - one of the more versatile tools related to
Twitter. A quick list of services include; emailing a digest of Tweets (like
TweetBeep), Pre-scheduling tweets to keep your tweet stream flowing, pre-saving
Tweets or common snippets of tweets for faster Tweeting, Automating direct
messages to people that follow you, and managing multiple Twitter Ids at the
same time.
--Twitscoop - extends what Twitter Search can do with both
real-time searches of specific keywords as well as what the overall Twitterdom
is talking about using (the Tweet Cloud). It also shows you the hot trends in
the cloud.
--Twellow - This is another research tool that extends
Twitter for business use, Twellow searches people's profiles or what they are
Tweeting about under specific, predefined categories, or a general search.
Twellow will also show you geographically where people are Tweeting from in the
US and Canada.
--Remember the Milk (RTM) - A real unique and cutting edge
use of Twitter. RTM is a Task management service (set up reminders, tasks,
things to do, etc.) for an individual or a small team or business. You can
interact with Remember the Milk through Twitter. You simply follow the Twitter
ID @rtm and then send it commands like retrieving your current tasks, adding
new tasks, setting up automated reminders, even sending tasks to other Twitter
users. This is a great adaptation of Twitter for business use.
• Re-purpose existing content-
With taking care of customers, blogging, keeping up profiles
on numerous social media sites, all while running a business, maintaining your
online presence can quickly become overwhelming. Use tools like Twitterfeed to
automatically Tweet content from an RSS feeds of your other blogs or sites, and
Alterthingy, another tool that helps you aggregate and repost your content
across the multiple sites, and profiles you need to maintain.
In addition, several blogs (Wordpress for example) are
building Twitter widgets to be able to display your tweets (and others) on your
blog, thus keeping the blog actively changing and a target for better search
engine ranking and more active visits.
There are any number of other ways you can use Twitter for
Business and this note really only scratches the surface of what is possible.
As the popularity of Twitter grows so will the unique and inventive ways of
using this innovative tool.
For More Info Plz Visit: Twitter-Traffic-Guide.Info
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