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How to Use Twitter

Twitter has become a key way for people and businesses to communicate. It opens new avenues of rapport between peers within your industry, while also creating an interface with a target audience.  Twitter presents a great way to both inform and be informed, 140 characters at a time.

Here are a few tips we have drawn from our experience, let us know if you have anything to add to the conversation!

Tip 1 – Ideal Introductions

Take PLENTY of time filling out your Bio! People hunting down new feeds will be more likely to hit “follow” if you have a good looking profile. Add a personal touch, a bit of industry humour, and link to your other online platforms. Integrating custom graphics can be fun and help you stand out as well. Speak to a local designer (like us!) if you want some creative design help. Personalize your Twitter page, and have it match your website and corporate branding for that “seamless” feel!

Tip 2 – Be a Fitting Followee

Developing a large number of followers will hinge drastically upon who you choose to follow yourself. Twitter has added many tools to assist in this, with their “Who to Follow” system, and the ability to import contact information from Linkedin, Gmail, Hotmail.. etc. (Still missing direct Facebook integration, but there are workarounds.)

Power tools like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite can help you better understand who is following you, allowing you to react accordingly. They are definitely worth looking into, as they also offer great features to broadcast across platforms, schedule your Tweets, and to allow multiple users access to multiple accounts.

Feel free to give us reviews, or suggest other tools!

Tip 3 – Handy #Hashtag Hints

Hashtags allow you to highlight keywords in your tweets, to allow other users to find and follow topics that are relevant to them. Placing a # before any word creates that association, but beware, do not spam hashtags!  Twitter suggests limiting yourself to 3 per post.

Sites like Hashtag.org can help you sort through trending tags. Taking the time to research the hashtag you intend on using will give you a better scope of the possible recipients.

Using what is called “Camel Casing” is also helpful when your keyword is actually more than one word; example #DigitalCreative. This ensures a complicated key-word phrase is easy to read!

#dontmakereallylonghashtagsanduseCamelCasingToMakeThemEasierToRead !! (maybe turn that into an image)

Tip 4 – T@rgetting Tweets

Engage specific users! Using “@username” (known as @mentioning) in the body of a Tweet will create a personal connection (that is tracked for you separately) when replying/commenting on relevant issues. Re-tweets will be reciprocated, creating more buzz, and therefore spreading the reach of your Tweets!

Keep your voice consistent as well. A direct and approachable tone is important to keep followers listening.

Engage your users by including actionable information such as; Time sensitive promotions, Real-time news from current events, or Contests that call on them to pass on the message.

@DiscoToastInc to engage us in a conversation!

Tip 5 – Tidy Re-Tweeting

Re-tweeting refers to the forwarding of someone else’s tweet to all of your followers. It automatically tries to add the text “RT @username” to provide a reference, which allows you to track the reach of that particular message.

140 characters is still the limit, so if you want your message to be re-tweeted with the proper @mention, make sure you leave enough characters to do so! This does mean that having a shorter user-name is an advantage! If you are setting up a new twitter account for your business or organization, keep that in mind when choosing your username.

Remind people to re-tweet. Add “RT!” to the end of particularly important messages, or make that the call to action of the tweet. It is easy for twitter to become a one-way street, so sometimes a little reminder helps!

Show your support, to your followers and to your stakeholders! Re-Tweet them!

Tip 6 – Alluring Links

Include links to multi-media, articles, and events. With the character limit you will have to use a URL shortener in many cases, but Twitter provides the service automatically. A power-user tip here is to use a 3rdparty link shortener (such as bit.ly) that provides you with useful tracking metrics!

(NOTE: Twitter is now automatically shortening even pre-shortened links, however this should not affect the information gathered by services like Bit.ly)

In Conclusion

Twitter has certainly continued it’s steady climb to the forefront, but even still we see new leaps in the application of its power. Burberry, for example, just tweeted its entire new line! The feed was done in real time with pictures showing each piece just before the model hit the actual runway. These are the types of innovative applications that we can help you implement for you and yours. Feel free to discuss your ideas and let’s Power-Up your Tweet-scape.

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