A Beginner’s Guide To Twitter For Small Businesses (Part 1)
Article from DISRUPT Media
DISRUPT Media is a full service social media agency for social strategy and complete social media management for businesses. They help funeral professionals, worldwide; interact with today’s consumers by truly embracing the Internet and engaging in conversations about their funeral business online.
As we browse communities and read articles on social media strategy it can be easy to get caught up on the latest tools and the new tricks of the trade. So it’s not uncommon for us to forget that thousands of people on places like Twitter are completely new to the platform.
We’ve seen individuals and companies alike make the same mistakes over and over. These mistakes can result in no one talking back to you, or worse, un-following you entirely. When I perform a clear-out on Twitter accounts, the ones who fail to do the essentials (listed below) are the first to fall victim to my “un-follow” button.
So, to help the small businesses out there, I’ve decided to go over the basics with you and help you start the path to becoming a better Tweeter!
The Essentials
Choose a respectable and recognisable name – We’ve started with the obvious here but this is a beginner guide so we’re going to go through it anyway. There are two names for you to consider; the username by which people can find you instantly and then the displayed name that is more prominent.
I’m going to use the DISRUPT profile as an example:
The username is the same one that we use on most social media channels and the display name is simply the business name. Both of these can be used to find us easily on Google and that’s your aim.
So when picking a username, try to think of something suitable for your business that’s understandable, even if it’s just an acronym. If you already have a username that you’ve been using elsewhere then it might be an idea to repeat it here. Then when it comes to the display name, feel free to spell out the title of your business in full.
Add a profile image – Nothing says “Twitter bot” like a profile without a photo. In fact there are even services you can use to look through the list of people you follow to find anyone missing theirs, making the task of un-following them incredibly easy.
Like the username, if you already have an icon or logo that you use elsewhere, it’s recommended to use it again for Twitter (making it easy to identify you across different social networks). If you don’t have a logo or avatar, then choose something that is specific to you such as a shop-front or a group photo of your team.
Write a Description – If I have someone sending me a message or asking me to “follow back”, the one thing I want to know is who they are and what kind of content they might be sharing. If there’s nothing there to tell me, then the Tweeter’s immediately lost my interest because I’ll assume them to be a robot fishing for followers.
Include your website address – Ideally this should be the website to your business, but if you’re just starting out then a link to a Facebook Page will do just fine. Like the previous points it’s better to have something than nothing.
The bad example – Have a look at this example, taken from our list of Twitter followers.
There’s no image, no description, no website URL and no followers. This is exactly the type of account I would click “unfollow” or “hide” so that we never have to deal with again.
This is an extreme case of course, judging by the numbers it’s an abandoned account. But there are accounts that are active and yet fail to follow these basic points. They might lack an image, have a poor description or even just an unprofessional username. Because a social media agency has very little interest in following anyone called “sexygrrrl85″.
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If this guide was just a little too basic for you, then have no fear, because we’ll be back with part 2 of this guide. We’ll dive a little deeper in to Twitter and even get some tips from some wonderful Tweeters.
#DISRUPTtweettips
