How to use twitter
January 2nd, 2009A rapid growth of social networking has been observed in 2008. Organizations have started taking Web 2.0 seriously for promoting themselves & exhibiting authority in their industry.
Social networking platforms like myspace, facebook, orkut, twitter, blogging etc. have become an integral part of daily lives of millions of people.
Social networking sites are offering people new and varied ways to communicate via internet, not only using the traditional desktop or laptop computers but also handheld devices and mobile phones. There are thousands of applications available on the Internet to make such communication convenient.
Of late, Twitter has been gaining popularity as a great microblogging platform.
To be very honest, initially I did not find it very interesting or engaging. I opened an account but did not update it. Few days back, I thought of giving it a try again and ever since, I’ve been more and more active on Twitter. In my opinion, it is an interesting medium to share thoughts, observations, information or viewpoints - just in 140 characters or less! Also, with the help of RSS, I can keep track of my friends, family, housemates, and influential industry players using just one feed.
In this post, I am trying to highlight some important aspects of Twitter (you can see some most useful Twitter tools in our previous post…)
The objective of today’s post is to elaborate on:
• How to use Twitter
• How can we make it more useful for business promotion
• How to make friends on Twitter
• Is it a game of quality or quantity?
So let’s start…..
Before starting, you should know your objective. You should be very clear about the purpose of creating the profile. There might be several objectives like:
- Driving traffic to your blog/ website
- Networking with people with similar interest or making friends
- Branding and business promotion
It is very important to define the objective as it will impact the profile & activities. For example, if branding is the purpose then you need to make your profile very professional & need to take care of the quality of updates, otherwise it might harm the brand’s reputation. If the objective is to use Twitter for branding, you should upgrade the profile & page looks to make it unique. It is good to tell others about your social media profiles, blogs and company websites – it indicates that that you are open, approachable and available for business.
Bluewavemedia’s Twitter profile is a good example of branding.
Once you have your Twitter objectives set you need to work towards them. You need to create your account on Twitter and enhance your profile by updating your Bio, Location, Website URL etc. This is very important as it will help others to find you on Twitter. For example, profiles with location or real names are more likely to turn up in a Twitter search..
You can also change the look & feel of your Twitter page. You can customize the background theme and make it more professional with the help of free applications like http://www.mytweetspace.com/ . You can brand your Twitter profile with a custom badge by including your Company logo, brand name, website, email ID and more.
Now, you are ready to start with Twitter! J It is fun - you can share your updates within 140 characters, make friends, learn about new and happening things, quickly and easily.
Now, you can start making friends. Don’t panic, and don’t be shy - it’s easy to make friends on Twitter. (You can find the tips within this post)
You can follow others on Twitter. Following someone simply means receiving their Twitter updates. How you receive the updates (on your phone, IM, or just on the web) is up to you. You can set your following preferences based on device, and then set notification preferences for each person you follow. Your followers are those who have chosen to receive your twitter updates.
But remember, it is not a following contest. So be selective while following others otherwise you will be overwhelmed with thousands of updates in a day. Follow peers, employees, influencers, important customers, press etc. To follow others, check the profile page of the person (you can search friends & others with Find People option) and click the follow button.
Now the next step is to get followers or make friends.
It’s really easy to make friends on twitter. I am listing out some great ways of getting followers.
If you are a BIG name in the industry then it is matter of days for you to get thousands of followers. People will search for you and start following you to get your updates. But if you are not famous and new to industry, even then you can make friends….how? Let me elaborate….
1- In Twitter, there are people whom you follow and they will start following you. It’s really very easy as I have seen many people with no updates but hundreds of followers – acquired just by following others. But I don’t like this way of getting followers because it does not add any value. You should focus more on creating value. You need to follow influencers and experts in your niche. Believe me - it will be a learning experience for you. You may start by following bloggers who showcase their Twitter profiles on their sites or blogs or use Twitter Search. This makes more sense.
2- Integrating your Twitter profile into your blog/ websites. Ask readers of your blog to follow you and your existing visitors will start following you quickly.
3- Help others. The more you help others by answering their questions or by providing them useful information, more and more people will start following you. However, this is a time consuming process of getting followers. At the same time, this the most effective way to establish relationships with followers and influencers.
4- Put your Twitter profile ID in the signature of emails.
5- Join conversations & show healthy participation. Follow the right people and join conversations to start expanding your network. I personally often help other people on Twitter by forwarding posts and links to them when they have questions and I know the answer.
6- Give valuable information rather promoting self content. There should be perfect mix of promotional updates and general informative conversation.
7- Organize contests/ polls through your Twitter profile. This is effective only if you are able to get participants.
8- Ask questions and get feedback / advice.
9- Be the first to break latest news
10- Be frequent and prompt in updates
Twitter is really a good way to communicate with others. Use it properly and it can give you more traffic, enhance brand awareness, and boost your sales. Happy twitting!!




