MarCom Professional

How to Twitter for Business Development

I have been on twitter for about six months now and am beginning to feel confident about the tool and howbusinesses can use it.

This post is not about how to get yourself set up (there are plenty of videos on YouTube and blog posts to teach that) but about watching and learning from other businesses who are using it to find new customers and as a business development tool.

Assuming you have a twitter account here are several things you can do to leverage it as part of your online profile building and business development. If you don't have an account, just browse, check back to a few twitter pages of people / companies you know and use this as part of your market assessment and review.

Going through my twitter new followers I have found @Dot_Design and one of my clients is @Rowperfect and @redcatco and a mobile firm @xumii and @tomscreenwm Screen West Midlands.

[note that on Twitter your user name is ampersand+user name. I am @rebeccacaroe.  To find anyone's unique twitter webpage the URL is http://twitter.com/username.

First - what you write in your profile is important.

When people get follow requests, it's probably the first thing they read about you and what they use to decide whether you are interesting or not.

And your URL. Make sure the link goes to the page you want on your site.

Second - think carefully about what you will Tweet.

If you are representing a business, it isn't just about sales, it is also about what you are doing as a business, promoting blog posts, new products, new hires. BUT Twitter is not a PR feed. Think of it as a secondary blog, a place where the "personality" and opinions of the business can be aired

Third - who will write the updates?

It probably should be a fairly senior person so that their understanding of the new things the firm is doing can be aired without needing constant approvals from up the ladder. Set out some rules so that the role can be shared around.

Fourth - and now to actually writing something.

Consider this nice Tweet from @xumii

"Adding some mobile folks to my following list as we are interested in
hearing what excites you and wonder if one day it will be us. Ha."

So what's so nice about this. First, it describes a good social media action/activity - adding mobile folks to my following list. This means that they are actively finding people who work in the mobile media industry who are already on Twitter and following their updates.

Each time you write an update (140 characters or fewer), it goes into your twitter stream. All your followers can read it on their home page. And a summary page of your tweets is also created go to the link 'updates' on the rhs sidebar of your home page to see all your updates listed. Your most recent update is listed under the 'Currently' section on the rhs of your home page.

A visitor to your page only sees your updates. Your home page lists all the people you are following's updates [you don't usually need to read your history of updates].

If you want to conserve characters use TinyURL to shorten links that you want to post.

Fifth - how to find and follow

Start by searching for people whose twitter ids you know. Look at the bottom rhs and there's a full list of followers and people they follow. Take some time to browse these two lists. When you find one you fancy following, click on the "Follow" button at the top of the page. Their icon gets added to your list,

When someone clicks to follow you, this prompts an email (if you have the option enabled) to go to that person to say that you are following them. 

When you are just starting, politeness states that you follow back those who follow you. When your list gets long and subscriber updates fill your computer screen within minutes, then I advise being selective. Link back to their profile and website link. This is how I decide who to follow. Are they in my industry, do they write interesting stuff, have they got a load of interesting people following them or is there some other compelling reason to follow them.

On some companies' websites they have a Twitter widget installed which lists the five most recent updates. If you click this it'll take you to their twitter home page and you can follow them.

Sixth - some considerations about what to write

My view on Twitter is that it has two main purposes

1 - to show off the 'little things' about your business that aren't worth writing a full blog post about but are interesting nonetheless.

I think this shows off the personality of your organisation. Your nice things to talk about - new hires, funny jokes, little happenings.

2 - use it to 'trail' big things on your site or blog and to give some advance publicity to a different audience from your company database and RSS feed readers.

There are definitely a very differnet group of readers who find me on Twitter compared to you, the readers of Creative Agency Secrets. I love this. It has given me access to a new target market. Twitter, for me, is easier to update regularly than blogging because it is short. 

Goikng forward, I will review these business Twitter users and draw out some examples to illustrate some of the things companies are using Twitter for. You may choose to follow or mimic them or create your own.

Go forth, and Twitter!

Also posted on creativeagencysecrets.com