Malphurs

Twitter has grown exponentially over the last several years, and has proven to be a great tool for professionals and businesses alike.

Many small businesses are unsure of where to begin with using Twitter. Micro-blogging platforms like Twitter are alien compared to most social media platforms, and often it does not prove instantaneous results. However, with some cultivation techniques, over time it can prove a goldmine for your small business. Here are 5 tips to get you started.

1. Lurk and Learn

It is perfectly acceptable to take time to study how other small businesses use Twitter rather than diving in head first. Find the community surrounding your field and study the conversation. How many times do they post per day? Are there particular sites that they are getting most of their information from? How are they addressing and interacting with their followers?

Register your account and fill out your profile with a short bio and links to any other online presence. Be sure to add a profile picture that is either of you or your logo. Then feel free to pause and study before you submit that first post.

2. Relationship before ROI

Twitter is a community. I treat Twitter similar to something like LinkedIn, only more succinct. You are creating a profile for you and your brand, but to be effective you must interact with your followers. LinkedIn is based on degrees of separation, and while Twitter is a much more open network, you gain more trust if you treat it that way.

Start with your client base. Who is already on Twitter? Follow them closely. Follow those people who are in your field, or who might be looking for your services. If you are a WordPress developer, running searches for “WordPress Help” and responding to the many queries might prove useful. Twitter Searches are incredibly useful for finding out what the community needs that you can offer in relevant content.

Remember, never spam your followers. Do not Auto-DM (I can promise you, it takes only a few seconds to actually respond yourself). Do not use Twitter as a billboard for your services. It is occasionally fine to provide links to your work, to successful case studies, or to satisfied customers, but it should not be the norm. Focus on providing useful content that can be easily shared.

3. Focus Local

According to Twitter, as of September 2011 there are 200 million registered users, with at least 50 million being active on a daily basis (via Mashable). For a small business, this can prove overwhelming when you are trying to find relevant users and content to interact with. One of the easiest way to combat this is to start by focusing local. Twitter Advanced Search features will allow you to focus on city, state, or region. Find your competitors, and businesses that could become allies, or even clients. This narrows the scope down tremendously, allowing for a much easier transition into Twitter.

However, be sure to broaden your focus when you are comfortable. Be sure to tap into as many people globally that could be mutually beneficial.

4. Re-Tweets are Key

Twitter is a information-sharing network. Thus one of the most influential factors of Twitter to small business is the power of the Re-Tweet. Once you have a group of people and businesses you are monitoring for good content, start re-tweeting. You are improving the visibility of their content, meaning they are more likely to do so in the future. After you get comfortable being succinct in 140 characters, try to make them even smaller at around 120 characters. This generally leaves enough room for people to at “RT @username”, making them more likely to share your information with their followers.

Make sure that if you are using a desktop Twitter client or any other Twitter tool that it shortens your url. Most do, and even the original Twitter interface now does it, but there are still some tools that do not do it, or at least will not do it automatically. This is imperative to saving character space!

5. Manage your Time

Very few businesses spend more than a few minutes a day on the actual Twitter site. Rather, use the plethora of effective tools to aid your business in using Twitter as a resource, and to manage your time effectively.

Plan as much in advance as you can. Pay close attention to your content, making sure they have attention grabbing headlines and that linked material is enticing and relevant. Fitting the right amount of information into 140 characters or less is a challenge, but can prove incredibly satisfying when done correctly.

There are some great advanced search tools like Twitter Search and BackTweets that can help you build community faster. There are tools like Social Oomph that allow you to schedule your tweets. I personally use TweetDeck to create columns for a more organized search. A similar popular tool is Hootsuite. You can also use services like TwitterBar (now acquired by Hootsuite) that allow you to tweet from your search bar. Find one that is most effective for your productivity style and your level of expertise of Twitter and your user base.

Image from Flickr User Spencer E Holtaway under Creative Commons License