Getting started on Twitter
The first businesses to adopt social media found Twitter to be a low-cost way to communicate with a large audience, quite literally at the push of a button or two. As more and more people use Twitter daily, the effectiveness and reach of this communication channel has increased.
Twitter first started in 2006 but really exploded in popularity in early 2009. At the time of writing, there are over 200 million users, with an astonishing 460,000 new Twitter accounts created each day. It took over three years to reach a billion 'tweets', but in 2011, over one billion tweets are sent each week. In New Zealand, Twitter is approximately ranked the tenth most visited site on the Internet.
Twitter has become so much a way of life for the people who use it that they now expect businesses to have a Twitter account to deal with customer service issues and queries. It's no longer a question of whether your business should have a Twitter account, it's a question of how to make the most of your Twitter account and the time and money you invest in it. This article outlines how to start using Twitter for your business.
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What is Twitter?
Twitter is a free-to-use micro-blogging site that allows users to post updates of 140 characters or less. The original intention was for twitter users to answer the question: What are you doing? While you’ll find a lot of that sort of information from random strangers on your Twitter feed, the use of Twitter has grown to include sharing useful and relevant information and interacting with people - and that is where Twitter can play an effective role in your business.
Getting involved in Twitter can seem a little daunting; you're going to have to add a few new words to your vocabulary and learn to identify useful and interesting tweets from twits and tweeple in the twitterverse. The idea is to follow the Twitter accounts of people or companies that you find interesting, and tweeps who think you're interesting will follow you.
Getting started on Twitter
To get started on Twitter, you'll need to open a Twitter account, set up your profile and find people to follow.
- Opening an account: It's pretty painless to open an account, simply hit the "sign up" option on the twitter.com webpage and follow the instructions. You'll need to enter your name or business name and email address, and decide on a Twitter username (this can be tricky - a lot of the best ones are already taken) and password. All that’s left is to read and accept the terms and conditions and click on the "Create my account" button. You'll need to enter the online security code and respond to the email that Twitter sends to you to confirm your email address, and then you’ll be set up.
- Finding people to follow: Twitter has the option for you to browse popular Twitter accounts by subject area. Find a few that interest you and click the follow button. Tweets from the people you follow will appear on the Timeline on your Twitter home page - and your twitterverse will suddenly be a whole lot more interesting.
- Finding customers and colleagues: If you are in email contact with your customers and colleagues, you can connect with them on Twitter by using your Gmail, Yahoo! or LinkedIn address book, or by entering individual email addresses.
- Getting the lay of the land: It's a good idea to watch and read what goes on in Twitter to get a feel for how it all works. Twitter has a useful online guide, Twitter for business that will take you through the basics.
- Setting up your profile: Take a few minutes to set up your profile. Ideally, you should upload a photo, logo or image for your Twitter account, pop in your business website address, and write a short and catchy bio about you or your company. Your bio and photo should tell people what sort of things you'll be tweeting about. You don't have to get it perfect straight away. You can change and update your photo and bio as you develop your social media strategy.
- Sending your first tweet: Type your first tweet into the "What's happening" box and hit the "Tweet" button. You'll notice the number 140 below the box. This number gets smaller as you type your message to let you know how many characters you have left, in a similar way to when you send an SMS message from your mobile
- Retweets, replies and direct messages: If you see a tweet that you think is interesting and worth sharing with the people who follow you, you can retweet (often abbreviated to RT) it to broadcast it to the Timeline of the people who follow you. Alternatively, you might want to reply to a tweet. If you click on the tweet, you'll see the options to retweet or reply are shown beneath the tweet. You can also send a direct message (abbreviated to DM) to someone if they follow you. This means your message is private between the two of you and not included on the Twitter stream. To DM someone, type dm and then the person’s Twitter name with the @ symbol and hit the "Tweet" key.
Searches, lists and hashtags: The twitterverse is a pretty noisy place with hundreds of chirpy tweets flitting about cyberspace. Searches, lists, and hashtags are useful ways to filter out noise and find the conversations that interest you.
Organise the people you follow into lists. Create a list for your friends and other lists for customers, suppliers, and industry experts in your field. You can then check the Twitter feed for these lists to see what the people who you really want to watch are saying.
Hashtags, like #eqnz, have become a popular way to help people find and follow conversations or topics. The search function enables you to find tweets by particular people or that include particular words or hashtags.
Putting Twitter to work
How you use Twitter will depend on the type and size of business you run, and the role Twitter plays in your overall marketing plan. Now that your Twitter account is all set up, you'll need to identify how Twitter will work best for your business. You can use Twitter to:
- Monitor what people say about your business (using the search and list functions).
- Keep up with industry information and trends (by following thought leaders for your business sector).
- Promote your business by sharing useful links to your website or blog.
- Network with people in your industry.
- Respond to customer comments and queries.
- Answer questions – this can enhance your credibility as an expert in your field.
- Engage people by asking questions and responding to feedback.
Most businesses using Twitter admit to finding out what works best by trial and error. Watch what other businesses are doing and experiment to see if it works for your Twitter audience, but do remember that you need to engage or offer valuable information on Twitter. Twitter brings you into people's personal space and if all you Tweet about is sales, people will stop following you.
To take Twitter to the next level in your business, read Making the most of Twitter.
This information is provided by Business.govt.nz
