Twitter Best Practices
Sync your networks. Facebook and Twitter statuses can be linked to make updates easier. Make your
company attitude consistent in all social media networks, including company blogs. Getting a desktop
client like twhirl or tweetdeck is often helpful to organize networks. Speak with the same voice in all
networks.
Choose a consistent tone. The tone of your Twitter voice is crucial to determining who will follow you,
and in determining the perception of your company in general. Having a lighthearted Twitter page
representing a more formal organization won’t match. All social networks should have an integrated
message representing a well-thought-out USP.
Keep personal voices separate from your corporate voice. While there is generally one person manning
the Twitter for your company, make sure that their voice remains in step with your company philosophy.
For a smaller company there is a want to connect yourself to your business- however, by doing this your
message gets garbled unless you are upfront in your bio that YOU are doing the tweeting as a
representative of the brand.
Don’t just self-promote. It’s important to tweet about your industry, but on the same token, it is
important to tweet about other topics to include a diverse following. No spamming, no gimmicks. It’s
great to start contests, this way you get your followers engaged and active with your company.
Link, monitor @ replies and DMs, and RT often. Linking and ReTweeting is the best way to share what
your company is doing, what you’re interested in, and what you want your followers to see. Also, showing
interest in your followers continues the conversation. Keep up with @replies- this is the real way for
people to acknowledge you on Twitter and for you to show that you are listening.
Track your links. To understand your followers’ interests, monitor your clicks by converting the link into
a tracking device. When you know what people seem to click the most, you can tailor more messages to
fit that area. Also, keep an eye on conversations on Twitter using the “#” for specific topics.
Don’t over-tweet and become a nuisance to your followers. There is no appropriate amount of tweets,
however, make each tweet special and unique. “Filler” tweets can change your company’s reputation
from informative to overbearing very quickly.
Make tweets valuable. Take your followers behind the scenes of your company, share pictures, the
happenings around the office and what is going on with clients. Don’t be afraid to go outside the realm of
your particular industry. If you find something interesting to say, say it!
Make your username both searchable and relevant. You want people who search you to find you, and
those that are searching your industry to follow your company based solely on that.
Have an interesting and inviting bio. An option is to include your company’s mission in the short bio.
Many people will search industry bios to find new members to follow. Invite people to follow you. The
point of social networking is to immerse your company in the online discussion.
Personalize your background. Those that are already using Twitter as a means for networking
understand the value of a personalized background. The standard Twitter-supplied background shows
that your organization may not be taking it’s Twitter presence seriously. There are ways to create unique
backgrounds using Adobe Photoshop or even Microsoft Power Point.
Twitter Best Practices
Sync your networks.
Facebook and Twitter statuses can be linked to make updates easier. Make your company attitude consistent in all social media networks, including company blogs. Getting a desktop client like twhirl or tweetdeck is often helpful to organize networks.
Speak with the same voice in all networks.
Choose a consistent tone. The tone of your Twitter voice is crucial to determining who will follow you, and in determining the perception of your company in general. Having a lighthearted Twitter page representing a more formal organization won’t match. All social networks should have an integrated message representing a well-thought-out USP.
Keep personal voices separate from your corporate voice.
While there is generally one person manning the Twitter for your company, make sure that their voice remains in step with your company philosophy.
For a smaller company there is a want to connect yourself to your business- however, by doing this your message gets garbled unless you are upfront in your bio that YOU are doing the tweeting as a representative of the brand.
Don’t just self-promote.
It’s important to tweet about your industry, but on the same token, it is important to tweet about other topics to include a diverse following. No spamming, no gimmicks. It’s great to start contests, this way you get your followers engaged and active with your company.
Next week we will discuss a few more best practices of Tweeting.
– Jessica Leyh