Twitter tips – to tweet or not to tweet explained

Twitter is a social media gateway that asks the question: What are you doing now? Users can answer and hear their friends’ answer in the real-time feed.

Listening and Relationship Building is What Builds Your Brand on Twitter

Sharing important information on Twitter and other social media networks does not mean you have to give away your trade secrets. However, you can share an interesting blog article written by you or someone else, share a link to an interesting video, upcoming event or webinar to use the law of attraction. The act of giving can be very rewarding – just exert caution and discretion in not giving-away everything. Twitter can also be a resource to find out what people are saying about you or your business – including your clients/customers. Acknowledging complaints or issues is a great way to improve customer satisfaction. Twitter can inform your clients/customers that you are, indeed, listening to them.

General Guidelines for Getting Great Results from Twitter:

Quick Real-Time Answers – Ask people about anything and everything under the sun whether it is the best price on a laptop or the best restaurant to dine at while visiting Morocco or which is the best Australian casino when you visit the Kangaroo land – you will receive a stream of responses.

Conference / News Briefings – The last several major tech events were covered by Twitter. Twitter can relay the latest information faster than a blog or by surfing. Similarly, individuals can receive reports on breaking stories such as car accidents and road closures in their regional area.

Business/Personal Networking – FriendSourcing is a great way to find people to help with a business or personal dilemma.

Micro-Attention-Sharing – Using Twitter can direct people to blog posts you have written and share news items that you find worthy or entertaining on the net. Twitter has a built-in function to use tinyurl.com to shrink URLs to keep it under 140 characters.

Directing People to Charitable Causes/Events – Twitter allows people to use their friend lists to disseminate that information speedily and to try to draw more direct help or secure needed funds for the organization.

Re-Connecting and Staying in Touch – As promoted, Twitter answers the question What are you doing? It means that you can stay in touch with others without being intrusive.

Twitter Cons are Very Few and Subjective

Many users claim that Twitter can be very time-consuming and distracting – a colossal stream of conscious dribble. Others say that it is annoying and yet another way to procrastinate, making the hours in a day fly by without being productive and getting work done. As with any group activity in life, there are always going to be some bad birds in the tweet flock that battle for online status and need to be kings of their domain to boost their egos.

There is no question that Twitter has proven to be an outstanding venue for breaking news, asking questions and attaining one degree of separation from public figures you admire. No other communications conduit can equal its capacity for real-time, mono a mono broadcasting.

Getting Started When Using Twitter for Business

Twitter is an extremely simple site to use, but not everyone has figured out the most strategic ways to use Twitter to their advantage. It’s more than just signing up and posting some tweets. Companies that decide to create a presence on their need to consider how to attract enough Twitter followers (and the right ones), how to put out useful information, and which Twitter conversations to participate in – or to start.

How to Gain a Following on Twitter

Without followers, tweets fall deaf in cyberspace. But getting more Twitter followers can be extremely easy. Most Twitter users follow anyone that follows them. But how can a company be sure they are finding Twitter followers that match their target audience? One easy way is geographically. The “TwellowHood” tab on Twellow.com is an easy way to search for users by town or city.

Another way to gain a following is by topic. Recently Twitter introduced lists, which allow users to organize the accounts they follow into lists. Many Twitter users create lists based on geographic locations, or that groups similar companies or organizations together – browsing either such lists can be very useful to find followers. Companies should also check to see if their Twitter account has been added to any lists – and what other Twitter accounts are on those same lists.

How to Post Useful Tweets

While gaining a following, it’s time to get tweeting – but tweet with a purpose. Tweet with the voice of the company. When composing a tweet, think about the audience – both current followers and the ideal future followers. Engage them; don’t just talk at them.

Start a conversation, ask a question, or tease some information to pique their interest, and include a link. Never think of a tweet as just one step, think about the next step the audience should take after they read the tweet. Should they click a link within the tweet? Reply to the tweet? Retweet to their followers?

How to Effectively use Hash Tags

Twitter is simple, however one of the few things users need to know about Twitter is how to use hash tags. Hash tags “tag” or “categorize” tweets, or attach a tweet to a topic or a conversation that is happening. It is very simple to create a hash tag – insert a # in front of a word, and it is suddenly a searchable, clickable hash tag.

If a company is posting tweets related to an industry, tag all (applicable) tweets with a hash tag related to that industry. Tweets related to a hot topic should always include the hot topic as a hash tag. To save on space (tweets are limited to 140 characters, after all), turn words within the tweet into hash tags. Also, create new hash tags, and encourages others to use them.

For example, when holding an event, encourage all event attendees to use the same hash tag when tweeting about the event. Finally, many industries also have regular “discussions” via Twitter – once a regular day, time and hash tag are established, anyone can join the conversation. Consider joining these Tweeted conversations to establish the company as an expert in that field.