After commenting on my recent ‘What’s in a Twitter name?‘ post, I asked a follower of mine CoreStrenghtUK what type of blog posts on Twitter she’d like to see. Her response was ‘how to tweet for my business’, so here we are…

Image by Marcos Xotoko

A lot of businesses make a very simple mistake as soon as they get their Twitter account. They ignore their audience. Without engaging with your audience, your Twitter account becomes one-way – and one-way accounts are more detremental to businesses than benefiial.

So how do we make Tweeting for business a success?

1. Monitor your brand (and respond)

What people say about you matters. Whether it is good or bad, you need to know what they say. Simple searches (I use a search column in Tweetdeck) that look for mentions of your name or keywords bring those tweets to your attention. You can then act.

Positive tweeters love to know you’ve read their message (thank those who RT you messages), while negative tweeters can be appeased simply through a quick response, even if it doesn’t solve their problem and simply says “Sorry you’re not happy”.

2. Dnt yooz txt spk (itz nt 4 proz)

Although Twitter only gives you 140 characters to broadcast to the world, make sure you don’t resort to text speak to save space. You’re communicating your message, but also your brand. Text speak is unprofessional and is cutting corners. Do you want people to think that about your business?

3.Be personal (but professional)

Another great deal for your service? Meh. You’ve changed your delivery charges? Yawn. How was my weekend? Well, since you ask…

Sales messages are all well and good (and deserve to be tweeted), but make sure you take a break with some personality. Is it someones birthday in the office? Did they bring cake? Let your followers know!

Your personality is part of your brand. Just keep this question in mind: Would I tell this in a meeting? Make sure it is always “yes” and you’ll add the perfect touch of personality to your tweets.

4. Keep active (but not too active…)

I once found out Paul Daniels was on Twitter. I followed him immediately (well, wouldn’t you?), keeping tabs on where he was and what shows he was doing. but that was the first 10 minutes. Throughout the day he must have tweeted about 50 times. So I stopped following him. Conversely, there are a few people I follow who hardly tweet so I haven’t forged a reationship with their brand (fittingly I can’t think of who they are!)

Ensure you don’t tweet too much and dominate your followers’ timelines. I find that 3 serious tweets (to a case study, news article or product update) interspersed with 2 more personal tweets (”wow biblical rain outside our office”) seems to work well.

5. Share information (even if it isn’t yours…)

Don’t be afraid to send your followers links that go somewhere other than your website. Twitter is not about driving traffic to your best landng pages all the time. It is about communication. By tweeting interesting links to other sites you are putting the follower first. You’ll then become a trusted source of information, which is great for your brand and for the long-term relationship with the follower.

So what are your tips for using Twitter in your business?