I started using Twitter last year with a little bit of trepidation. I was not that interested in what people were doing that minute, but I was intrigued by how it could be used from a business standpoint.
For those of you who have not heard of it, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that can be used by advertisers and marketers to reach out and communicate with people who are talking about your product or company in real time.
Creating a business profile on Twitter is a little different than creating a personal profile, and social marketer Michael Gray recently blogged about how to build an effective business profile on Twitter.
Secure Your Name
Your username on twitter is limited to 15 characters, if your company name is 15 characters or less, or can be reasonably abbreviated to 15 characters or less secure it as soon as possible. Avoid using hyphens or underscores if possible, they almost always cause complications down the road. Even if you aren’t planning on using it right away, secure the name, as many people have had reported twitter is less than expeditious when addressing trademark issues.
If you have a large company and are going to have multiple people representing you, decide if you will be using one account also called a role account, or using multiple accounts. If you are using multiple accounts use a naming convention like IBMJoe or DellKathy.
Good points here grabbing your name now on Twitter before someone else takes it. This is something that you should be doing on all the major social networks. Think of it as acquiring another variation of your URL.
Avatars Backgrounds and Profile Links
Most people on twitter use and prefer to see an actual picture, for a corporate profile this is less important. A role account should almost always use either the official company logo or an appropriate logo derivations. You can feature an employee in a t-shirt or baseball cap with the logo if you want to give it a personal touch as long as the logo is identifiable.
While it’s not mandatory having a custom or professional looking twitter background is a huge plus. Keeping a consistent color palette and incorporating other recognizable visual elements from your main website or blog will help contribute to the the overall impression of the brand.
Most corporate brands link their twitter profile back to the main company website or company blog. An alternative would be to create a twitter landing page. Having a contact email or a contact phone number on your twitter profile page is another way to give your profile a more professional feel.
This might seem like a lot of work, but it is all about creating that brand impression online. You probably spend a lot of time and money developing your web site. Spending a little bit of time creating professional brand pages on the social networks helps separate you from the masses.
Replies, Tracking and Automation
Using the replies tab on twitter is IMHO one of the most important things everyone on twitter should be paying attention to. Check your replies tab to see who is talking to you or asking you a question. Try to answer them in a reasonable time-frame and as honestly as possible. Sometimes twitter users will talk about your company but not to your company, to keep on top of you’ll need to monitor keywords. Knowing what people are saying about your company or your high profile executives is a key facet of life on twitter. You can use the twitter search engine summizeto search for your company name, product name, or any vanity terms. You can also subscribe to those searches via RSS. Sometimes summize isn’t up to the task,
I use two Twitter apps to keep on top of things. One is a desktop application called Twhirl that runs in the background on my computer and pops up like an Outlook email message when someone I am following sends a tweet.
The second application is EasyTweets. I like EasyTweets because one of its features is that it allows you to send a tweet at a specified day and time.
Give a Little to Get a Little
Deciding to participate on twitter is more than tweeting links to your latest blog post or press release it’s about engaging with your community or customers. You can use any of the automated search functions mentioned above to look for keywords or phrases that are related to your industry that you can answer in a non self serving way. For example a travel company could monitor for phrases and questions about passports and reply with the appropriate links to government or state websites. If the majority of your contributions aren’t self interested people will be a lot more tolerant and accepting when you do drop a link about yourself.
This is social networking 101, but is something that we often forget. If you participate in the community you will get much more out of it, than if you just keep pushing your products.
Damage Control and Knowing When to Respond
If you are monitoring your company name eventually you will encounter a negative tweet from someone else. In many cases this represents an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive by fixing a customers problem. However sometimes the best response is no response at all. Knowing when to say nothing is often more difficult part to learn. The US Air Force has a presence on twitter and in a recent interview they showed a blog assessment chart they used to decide when to respond and when not to respond, it’s worth taking a look at.
Like any social network, you come across some people who just like to complain and you will never make then happy. The Air Force chart is one of the best resources that I have come across about how to handle negative comments.
Summary
Building an effective business profile on twitter isn’t hard, but you do have to take it seriously. Here’s a quick wrap up to help keep you on track:
- Claim your company, product, and appropriate brand names.
- Keep the profile honest, and don’t resort to trickery with fake social media avatars.
- Build a synergy between your twitter profile page and website.
- Consider building a twitter landing page on your official website.
- Answer people who directly ask you questions.
- Monitor keywords related to your company and respond when appropriate.
- Try to be a helpful member of the community by answering other people’s questions.
If you are interested in following me on Twitter, you can find me at https://twitter.com/davidrwilson
Hi David,
As Twitter gets more main stream there lies more potential to take advantage of a good business and marketing plan on Twitter. Nice advice here on builing a Twitter profile.