What a business should do starting on twitter

Recently I had to contact a work client and explain to them how to use twitter. I went through the different options for them but when I had sent the email I seen that there was some good general information in it that any business could use so I’m going to share those bits of advice here for everyone.

The first thing with twitter is don’t wait for followers to start tweeting, you need to be using twitter in order to get the followers. Get used to using the twitter website and any clients so that when your follower numbers do grow your ready to take full advantage.

If you have a website get your designer to put a twitter widget on it, this is the easiest way for your customers to find you on twitter and to see what you’re doing. The widget will link to your twitter account and display your recent tweets, this makes it a nice way to make your website look fresh and updated.

You might be inclined to link your facebook page to your twitter account so that anything you post on facebook will get posted to twitter automatically but this won’t increase the number of people that follow you by very much. People on twitter are looking for interactions so that means you need to use twitter differently from facebook.

A simple way to increase your interactions on twitter is to follow groups and individuals that work in the same area of your business. Mention these people in your tweets or retweet some of the things they’re posting.

On twitter you can setup saved searches, these are useful if you’re looking for certain things or if you’re looking for people to interact with and help. You should setup searches for things to do with your business, products and maybe even the local area. The idea is to find people that are posting messages about things you have an interest in, in the hope that you can offer them help either with a business related matter or maybe they’re just looking for somewhere to eat in the area. Make any interaction a positive one and hopefully you’ll gain a follower.

The main thing to remember is that twitter is all about what you post and how you interact with others. Portray a positive image of your business and be proactive in helping your customers.