What is twitter?
Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows you to answer the question, “What are you doing” by sending short text messages 140 characters in length, called “tweets”, to your followers.
Find out more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
So with that brief intro onto some tips for SME’s using twitter:
- Always check the type of people who are following you on twitter. There are numerous people/organisations who set-up fake accounts that link to malicious or “unsavory” sites. Look for things like; they are following 1,000 people but only have 20 followers and just 3 updates. If they are undesirable and you do not want them following you then take the next steps:
Click on the block link in your follow alert email highlighted below by the red box:
twitter email notification.
Once you have logged-in and it’s taken you to their page, select the option “Okay, I still want to block this person” highlighted in Red below.
Block Twitter follower
- Only follow people who you are interested in, such as; competitors, clients, related businesses/services, authorities in your business field, and other’s that can provide you with a business benefit. As above do not follow someone who has started to follow you just for the sake of it. Remember its quality not quantity you need to make the most of twitter and other followers will respect this.
- Post regular updates on your twitter page (1 to 3 a day) although keep it within reason so you are not spending more time posting tweets, checking tweets etc and less on following up real leads.
- # – place a hash tag next to keywords which will allow you and other users to search on later and potentially attract people to your tweets e.g. #hairdresser, #menu. See below how we use it at Soup Digital:
Twitter # tag example
- @ – this is used to respond to another twitter user, for example see below how we use it at Soup Digital:
twitter @ example
- Remember to check your “@soupdigital” replies to check who is mentioning you in tweets, replying to you and potentially want you to reply. See below highlighted in Red:
Check @ messages
- If you have a personal message you need to send to a fellow twitter user then send them a direct message.
- Be personable, and relate to your followers for example:
- Send out offers in moderation rather than “spamming” users with your latest offers 20 times a day or letting an rss feed do the posting work for you (a sure fire way to lose followers).
- Post things that are informative/helpful and are related to your business e.g. top 3 tips for saving money when building a house (remember you only have 140 characters to work with so be creative)
- As you only have 140 Characters to play with, try shortening url’s you are posting. Simply go to http://tinyurl.com/ enter your url in to the box and click make it “tiny”. See below:
tiny url box
- Remember you might not get Twitter straight away but keep at it and the more you tweet the greater your understanding will become. For a more exhaustive guide to Twitter check out this blog here: http://www.lostartofblogging.com/twitter-guide
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