Updated: February 16, 2011
The idea of Twitter and its micro-blogging platform has been gaining more and more popularity lately…100 million new users alone this year have joined.
No doubt you’ve seen the use of this versatile utility on reality shows, sporting events and other venues people look to for up to the minute information. Many newsmakers use them as well as both large and small companies.
Your favorite celebrity or industry figure likely has a Twitter account and “tweets” about current events, new blog content or other noteworthy events.
In light of all you’ve heard about Twitter, you’re probably a bit confused as to how to make it work for you. It can seem intimidating to those not too familiar with social networking.
But don’t fear…micro-blogging and social networking are meant to be fun!
And that brings us to our first point…don’t make your Twitter profile and ‘tweets’ all about your business.
“Include interesting content that’s helpful and entertaining,” says our in-house Social Media Architect Matt Binnie. “People certainly lose interest fast if all you talk about is your products and yourself,” says Matt.
Content includes any new posts to your blog, company news, new products and so on.
Attitude and personality are important as well Matt explains. In order to gain a dedicated following, it’s important you become the personality of your company. If you’re boring on Twitter, people will think your company is boring.
As far as followers, only follow people who make sense for you and your company. Follow people who can benefit from your ‘tweets’…they will probably follow you back. And always remember, it’s not how many followers you have that matters but the quality of your followers. Having lots of followers who never engage with you is not beneficial in the least bit.
“Success should be measured in the quality of relationships you have with your followers, not the number of users,” explains Matt.
In addition to Matt’s insights, read a breakdown from Nick Usborne on how this really makes a difference.
Aside from these great ideas, Twitter has other uses besides a venue to spread content and engage in discussions about your industry.
“Twitter is also being successfully used as a technical support or customer service center. Many companies are using Twitter to interact with customers after the sale as well,” says Matt.
Well that certainly is an innovative way to engage a following on Twitter. Of course, you have to see what works for your particular business.
No matter how you employ Twitter though, be sure you give people a reason to follow you by providing engaging and insightful content.
And to get a steady diet of engaging, insightful content about search engine optimization, social media marketing, content development, graphic design and more, join us on Twitter @seo_advantage today.