"Tweeting" for Business: Top 5 Dos and Don'ts

A marketer can use Twitter to meet a variety of needs from offering customer service to building brand awareness to driving traffic to your company’s website if used properly. But using Twitter to make people aware of your business and engage with your brand mirrors any relationship: It requires finesse. So we at nFusion put together a few tips that will help you get the most out of using Twitter.

Do’s
1. Download a Twitter client. A Twittter client like TweetDeck will give you quick access to your tweet timeline your followers’ timelines, and search for topics that interest you. Then you can complete your profile and start gaining followers.

2. Monitor discussions on relevant subjects. Twitter conversations happen in real time and you need to be ready to jump in and respond before the conversation stops. Find these discussions using the Twitter Search feature and enter a subject.

3. Tag your tweets using a hash tag when talking about popular subject matters. A hash tag is created by using the pound symbol (#) followed by the subject name. Anyone who searches for that particular subject will then be alerted of your tweets.

4. Tweet frequently. An update to your Twitter account is referred to as a “tweet.” The more often you tweet, the more opportunities you’ll have to grow your follower base.

5. Re-post others’ tweets or links using the retweet (RT) tag. Retweeting shows you’re engaged and associates you with good content. To retweet, just use the “RT” tag, as in “RT@dave1: CNN reports meteor shower.”

Don’ts
1. Don’t only tweet about your product or service. There’s nothing wrong with discussing your company’s latest news, but if all of your Tweets are about your business others will consider you a spammer.

2. Don’t tweet 10 times in a row and be done for the day. Conversations are happening at all times of the day, so don’t limit your reach by engaging users for just a short period of time.

3. Don’t be afraid to disagree with other users. Disagreeing publicly is a great way to get attention. But always be respectful. Tweets can be indexed by search engines and referenced by the public. Make sure your response is appropriate for anyone who might read it.

4. Don’t stop finding people to follow. To increase the likelihood of users finding your profile, you need to follow them first. Use Twitter’s search function to discover people who share your interests.

5. Don’t include lengthy URLs in your posts. Because Twitter allows posts of 140 characters or under (spaces included), it is sometimes helpful to use a URL shortener such as kl.am to convert long addresses.

Twitter is a dynamic and engaging conduit for your brand’s message. It poses a bit of a learning curve and it often takes some time before users are comfortable with the technology. But it is well worth the patience.

To get your business on board with Twitter and other social media, contact nFusion at rsheriff@nfusion.com.