Tweet Your Way to Success!

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an employee, chances are you already know about the storm created by Twitter. You’ve heard how helpful it proves when building your business’s brand online. Twitter helps you remain virtually connected to your peers and customers 24/7X365, the Tweets and ReTweets help your company’s search engine optimization efforts, it announces your presence et al. And you’ve even created a Twitter account. Now you’re probably wondering how to make an impact in 140 characters or less. Here are a few tips that can help.

1. Managing your online reputation—the first thing you need to do is learn to manage your online reputation. Word of mouth marketing and publicity is the strongest because your brand is being referred to potential customers by one of them. So, make sure they’re saying good things about your brand. One poor comment and your brand will soon be all over the place on the web taking a beating.
2. Fix the gaps—we spoke about ensuring that the good things said about your brand stay online. But that doesn’t mean you block all negative feedback. Pay attention to what your detractors are saying. Twitter not only allows you to know the major problem areas, but you have customers telling you very clearly what they want. It doesn’t get better than this!
3. Be yourself—Okay, we are not asking you to put down all your hopes, dreams and fears. But it would help if you write something about yourself that makes your followers feel you’re a real person, not just another automated Tweeting program. You can upload pictures, talk about stuff that’s important to you—even if they are not linked to your brand.
4. Don’t oversell—talking about your brand on Twitter is just fine, but yakking about it all the time is a definite no-no. While it may be true that you created a Twitter account to connect with your prospects, remember that it’s basically a networking tool, not a sales program.
5. Be direct—Twitter allows you to send direct messages. Use this feature rather than sending Tweets directed to one person publicly. By using the direct messaging system, the message you’re sending across is ‘You Care’ and so you took the time out to talk to that particular person. But take care not to spam their inbox. Regular updates are best sent through Tweets and not as direct messages.
6. Participate—be active in the Twitter community. Being active doesn’t only mean Tweeting; it means being actually involved in discussions. ReTweet what you find to be relevant or value adding, even if it doesn’t relate to your brand.
7. Personalize—your Twitter page can convey a lot about you. Personalize the theme, look and feel to reflect your brand. Otherwise you will seem like any other uninterested user, who opened an account so that they can sell.
8. Add value—add value to the Twitter community by providing useful information. You can help people who have questions in areas related to your expertise. That way you’ll build a strong relationship with your followers that will go beyond sales and marketing.
9. Use tools—there are many Twitter friendly tools available online that make Tweeting easy. On the go? Tweet using your phone. The URL you want to Tweet is too long? Shorten it with tinyurl.com.
10. Use other Social Networking Sites to build up your followers—try to connect to your Twitter followers on other social networking sites as well. This way, if someone is more active on FaceBook and LinkedIn rather than Twitter, you can create an impression there. Do you have a blog? Add a Twitter widget there so that visitors to your blog know what you are Tweeting about.

And lastly, don’t forget that consistency is the key to success on social media. Twitter is no different. Stay involved. Stay genuine and you’ll stay successful. Happy Tweeting!