“Strategy FIRST, Implementation SECOND!”
The first step is usually missed by most businesses, they simply want to act and get under way with social media management rather than sitting down and thinking what they are going to be offering out across the varied platforms to gain success and ROI from their efforts.
Get a good strategy in place before starting off with Twitter. The platform is incredibly responsive and interactive and business success can be gained from a well managed and active account ~ But you need to know to communicate your brand to become recognised.
Design and create a relevant Twitter profile to include branding and user name. If you can, your username should be that of your business and your profile name can either be your services / products you offer. Example: We are @MarketmeTV and our profile name is currently Social Media Experts.
Understand how to use Twitter fully, take the time to read through all that you can do on the platform such as follow, tweet, retweet, use hashtags, lists, images, videos and URLS etc.
Understand your target audience and where and when they are active. Are the clients you looking to attract using Twitter? Maybe study competitors that are already using the platform and see what success, interaction and audiences they have built. Think about when your target audience is active, or they looking for your business services / products during the evening, lunchtime at work or maybe over the weekend? Learn to communicate in a way they can relate to and in a tone that will attract engagement.
Build your target audience and maintain them. Use the Twitter search to study keywords and who is tweeting about the industry you are in, you may even find people discussing exactly what your business offers, some may be seeking a new provider to supply them. Third party sites such as Twellow.com will enable you to search profiles as well to build your target audience and you are also able to unfollow inactive profiles who do not engage with you. Remember to review the accounts that follow you and follow back the right audience for your business.
Think about your community and share / comment of other peoples tweets as this will increase engagement between your account and others.
Use hashtags, images, links and videos to compliment your tweets and increase the chances of them being found, read and shared.
Share your Twitter username across your other channels to include your website, business cards, email stationary, blogs and much more.