Twitter Tips For Marketing

There are 15 pieces to every Twitter account that you must take care to optimize if you want your Twitter account to be a successful marketing or communication tool. Optimizing a social media tool like Twitter isn’t exactly like optimizing Web pages using SEO best practices. While some of these Twitter Tips are quick fix optimizations - like picking an appropriate Twitter handle, or optimizing your bio, others involve optimizing your use of the tool.

Optimizing your Twitter messaging, for example, means that you have to think about the target audience you are trying reach through your Twitter account and then work to send out Tweets that provide value to that audience. There is no quick fix for providing value in your messaging. This kind of optimization requires continued effort over the life of the account.

Here are the 15 Twitter Tips for optimization. We will be building out each tip into its own blog post that goes into more detail. As they’re completed, we’ll link to them from here. And don’t worry - once we’re done with these we’ll think of more tips to provide as well.

15 Keys to Understanding Your Twitter Account

  1. Twitter handle (user name) - pick one related to your goals. It doesn’t have to be your name.
  2. Photo - Add personality by using a photo of the account owner, even if the account is dedicated to an entire brand or product line.
  3. Use the name of the account owner. The name is different than the handle.
  4. Location - don’t leave it blank.
  5. Web site - use a tracking URL.
  6. Bio - describe the person behind the account and the brand or product they represent.
  7. Following - you must interact and join the community. Don’t auto-follow.
  8. Followers - you must offer value to your followers. Be a participating member of the community.
  9. Updates - the right frequency of updates depends on your goals, target audience, and topics discussed, but 2 posts per week is a pretty reasonable minimum for anyone.
  10. Favorites - click on the outline of a star next to a message to favorite. Easy way to archive messages you want to find again.
  11. Direct Messages - DMs are private messages between two Twitter users. To DM, both users must be following one another.
  12. Background - make the most of the screen space behind your profile.
  13. About - This is information about each message that is posted, including a permanent URL to link to each message.
  14. Twitter Client - where was the message sent from. Web, mobile, desktop client?
  15. The Message Itself - use keywords in your messages.