This is pretty much the reaction when I talk to most of my clients who are over 40 (and many who fall a little short of that age) about using Twitter as a business tool. The next sentence is usually something like, “I don’t want to hear about how dry someone’s toast was this morning!”
Twitter is somewhat of a mystery to many who haven’t looked into using it, so I’ve put this together to give some ideas about how you can start using and enjoying Twitter. No, Really!
Social media and networking is the biggest wave out there when it comes to branding and building your presence online. Twitter is one of the top three social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). It’s huge and it’s FREE! To not take advantage of a tool like this…. well, why wouldn’t you?
So how do I get started?
How do I get people to follow me? What do I “Tweet?” about? Getting started with anything can be a little awkward at first. Here are some steps to help.
1. Set up your account.
The first thing is sign up for your Twitter account. This is free and pretty easy. Then add some nice design to your account. Maybe upload a custom background graphic, or just choose from one they provide for now. Eventually you’ll want to give your page design that is unique and interesting. That will be more interesting to people when they find you and may even inspire them to follow you. Add a brief description so people will know what you’re about. Also make sure you put a link (including the http://) back to your or your business’ website.
2. Follow people who interest you.
This is one of the best way to listing to the current conversation in your field/industry.
Follow people who are interesting and talk about information of benefit to you. One thing I think is one of Twitter’s strongest assets is that it gives you the opportunity to listen to the current conversation in your industry from the fields top innovators, movers and shakers. Where else are you going to get this kind of access to the current “buzz?” Most of the people that I follow are industry leaders and just other qualified peers in web design, social media and networking and online marketing.
3. What to Tweet about
Don’t sell! I can’t stress this enough. At first, after you’ve been following the others in your industry, start to chime in. Answer questions when you can. Be helpful. Retweet things others have said which you feel is worth sharing. Agree with others. Disagree with others! Get the conversations started. Be engaging and inspiring. Again – Don’t try to sell anything!
This will be enough to get you started. My next post will go a little further and help you understand a little more about this thing we call Twitter!
