Incomes International

Home --> Marketing Twitter --> Twitter Marketing 101 – Building Your Business

Twitter Marketing 101 – Building Your Business

Thanks for visiting Incomes International. If you've enjoy what you're reading, make sure you subscribe to our feed. Also subscribe to our mailing list so that you can receive all the tips, free offers, and other products we make available to out readers.

This is the second part of the series Twitter Marketing 101. You can read the first part, “Twitter Marketing 101 – Introduction” for a brief introduction to Twitter. In this post I discuss some important aspects of creating a Twitter account and some of the first steps you should take before sending out your first tweet.

For any new twitter user, the first thing to do  is creating your profile. People visiting your profile page can then see that you’re in fact active in the twitter community and are more likely to follow you.

The first mistake that a new twitter marketer will make is to immediately start building their following list, before first having sent out tweets, created their profile or included a photo in thier profile.

It might make sense if you have already built your online presence and you’re just importing your existing contacts from an address book or your mailing  list. However if you are still working on creating your brand or attempting to grow your business, then it’s vital that you establish your twitter presence before you begin following or finding new followers.

It all starts with your profile. That’s the place every potential follower will check out before they decide to follow you.  You should make certain that you completely update your profile. Provide information about yourself that is useful so people can identify you and find out what you have to offer, what you’re involved in, or your interests are.

Some fields in your profile which should not be overlooked, include your full name and website URL. Because your username is used to form your twitter profile URL, make certain that you choose a username that’s relevant to your target market, your niche or one that can represent your business.

You can use your own name (if it’s available), your website, your business name or keywords that are relevant to the  market you targeted. I’d personally recommend, if possible, to use your full name for your twitter username. Your  profile URL would be structured like:

http://twitter.com/John-Citizen  or http://twitter.com/JohnCitizen

Something that many people are not aware of, the keywords used in your twitter profile URL are tied directly to twitters own built in search facility. This means that when someone searches for specific keywords, twitter will search profiles and usernames to find relevant results.

This simply means that where possible you should include the primary keywords you’re targeting in your profile fields. This includes your bio area. This way you’re more likely to be found in search results when someone searches a keyword related to your market.

Separate your keywords with comma’s, that way each keyword will be individually placed.

Example:
Social marketer, entrepreneur, online business, motivational speaker

It’s also very important to determine the brand you want to create on twitter. If you’re running multiple websites, blogs or even businesses, try using different names ie: pen  names, or even business names. You need to consider what is the best approach for you to take.

For example, you might want to open a single twitter account to serve as your all-in-one point of contact for your various markets, or you might decide that it’s better to use multiple twitter accounts, where each one focuses on your various businesses or markets?

Using multiple twitter accounts allows you to send multiple tweets to each of your markets, as opposed to confusing  potential buyers when using just one account that might randomly send out tweets covering multiple niches.

Twitter doesn’t have an issue with people having multiple accounts, but you need to actively use those accounts if you want to keep them.

Even with twitter’s simple interface, and the many tools that have been created to help automate your tweets and build your following, you still have to spend some time actively participating with your twitter community. That is if you expect to build your business as well as maximize your exposure.

This can become exceptionally difficult if you run and manage multiple twitter accounts. You’ll need to consider that when you begin developing your twitter account.

If your account remains dormant for a period of time, twitter may terminate the account. This opens up the  possibility that someone else may register that username. If you intend on maintaining multiple twitter accounts, be sure to log in regularly and keep each of  them active.

If you’re satisfied with the setup of your account, then it’s finally time to send your first tweet. This might make some people anxious, particularly because once you send a tweet, anyone who views your profile or follows you will see it.

If you decide that you want to delete a tweet that you have sent out, all you need to do is go to you own page, click the tweet in question, find the trash icon then click it. This will delete that message from your time line.

You can also mark a specific tweet as a favorite. This makes it easy to find that tweet later. When you have  loads messages in your time line, this feature can be very useful.

When writing tweets, don’t be too worried about being creative, witty, or interesting.  Once you are an active part of the twitter community, it will become easier to come up with entertaining or useful tweets, and you’ll be able to get involved in discussions with your followers and those who you follow.

For now, just post whatever is on your mind. If you’re working on a website,  tweet it. Maybe you’ve found an great website or news story,  tweet about it. The idea is simply to post enough that you get comfortable with twitter, and more importantly, that yourtime line shows some activity before you begin inviting others to follow you.

Now that you’ve sent your first tweet, the time has come to begin following other people. You want to build your twitter presence. You also want to encourage others to follow you as well. Just don’t sign up, start shooting out ads every 10 seconds and expect to achieve anything. All you’ll do is annoy your followers and wind up a very lonely tweeter.

Take time to talk to people by directing messages specifically to them. Post some useful information or send links to a free product or  resource that the people in your niche might appreciate. Just like in the real world, you need to build a reputation on Twitter by being a person who is interesting, and interested in helping others. You can do this while you develop your Twitter presence.

Another great feature of Twitter is the ability to easily find others that are active in your market, or industry.  For instance,  if you’re looking for people to interview who might be experienced in specific area, you will find numerous people who are available and experienced in almost every topic or subject.

Twitter is like the rolodex for the online business industry. As Twitter continues its growth, far more people are climbing on board. Expect to see Twitter evolving and changing to improve the system and to add more feature that enhance interaction and productivity, making it even easier to reach out to others.

Posting subtle updates about your projects, your websites, blogs or products is a simple way to keep people informed about what you are doing. Particularly people who might otherwise not even know who you are, let alone what you do.

The way that you present yourself through your tweets , as well as  the frequency with which you do it, is vital in staying current, building a brand that becomes memorable, and being noticed by the entire community.

You can follow me on Twitter by clicking that little blue bird at the top of the page.

Related Posts

1. Twitter Marketing 101 – Make Them Listen
2. Twitter Marketing 101 – Get Followed
3. 5 Twitter SEO Tips
4. 5 Ways to Fail with Twitter
5. Twitter Marketing 101 – Introduction

Tags: social marketing, social networking, Social Networks, tweet, Twitter