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New to Twitter? It can be hard to know where to start. These top tips drawn from BlueChip’s social media training sessions will help you get your – or your company’s – Twitter account up and running.
1. Lose the egg
Whatever you do, don’t leave the anonymous Twitter ‘egg’ icon. First impressions count – even more in social media than offline. So your profile picture on Twitter is the first thing you need to get right. This picture should be your company’s logo or, if it’s your personal account, a clear headshot. Ideal size is 81 x 81 pixels.
2. Nail your bio
Your bio is your chance to communicate (in 160 characters) the kind of information followers will find on your Twitter page. It should include: who you are; what you do; where people can find out more (i.e. a link to your website). If this is your personal page, you should also review your company’s social media policy and consider if you need to include a disclaimer clarifying that you are using the channel for personal use.
3. Be consistent
Many of the financial services professionals BlueChip works with cite time limitations as a reason they have avoided joining Twitter. However, you don’t need to commit to tweeting every 20 minutes. Consistency is more important. Aim to tweet once or twice per day, every other day. Once you are more comfortable on Twitter you can increase the frequency of tweets.
4. Tweets are reusable
If you get stuck for ideas, feel free to re–tweet old content. Or link back to last year’s blog post (so long as it’s still relevant and interesting). Or tweet an old company white paper whose themes have resurfaced in the news.
5. Say it with a picture
Tweets with photos and video see almost double the number of re-tweets as text-only tweets.
6. Hashtags
Hashtags (#) categorize your tweets by keyword; clicking on a hashtagged word in any tweet will show you all the other tweets marked with that keyword. Aim to use at least one hashtag per tweet in order to get your content exposed to those outside your circles. However, don’t #spam #your #followers with #hashtags. Best practice is a maximum of two hashtags per tweet.
7. Lists
One of Twitter’s least used and most useful features, Twitter lists are a great way to categorise the people you follow and view curated Twitter streams. For example, you can create a list of people from within your company, clients, financial services news outlets or people who are interested in running. Viewing a list timeline will show only tweets from people on that list. Lists can be public or private – you can also follow public lists created by others. (NB: Lists are for reading tweets only, you cannot send a tweet exclusively to a list.)
8. Promote your Twitter
Include a Twitter button on your company’s web page, on promotional material, on your LinkedIn or on your email signature. This will encourage your offline contacts to join you on Twitter and hopefully increase your number of followers.
This is just the tip of the Twitter iceberg. Please feel free to share your top tips for Twitter below.
