How to Make Noise on Twitter

Twitter is one of those interesting subjects that can often be compared to Marmite. It provokes strong reactions in people – either love that is verging on obsession, or total loathing and avoidance. This is probably why Twitter has done so well, not to mention its unique 140 characters concept.

Tweeting for business is an entirely different matter than tweeting for yourself. Your business profile is no place for sassy comments or personal attacks. Your business page is to show off your work, and to meet other people and new audiences who are interested in the same things as you.

Twitter do’s and don’ts:

DO tweet regularly. Twitter is such a fast-paced network that your page will go stale in weeks if you don’t remind people of your presence.

DO use hashtags. If you’re promoting a #blog, especially if it is about #business or another keyword like #marketing, hashtag these words so that your post can reach more people interested in your subject matter.

DO jump on trending hashtags. Trending hashtags mean that people are talking about that topic everywhere RIGHT NOW, so if you get involved quick enough and with relevant posts, you could get a huge new audience from a viral thread.

DO make it relevant. They say that you should spend 20% of your time talking about yourself, and 80% talking about others on Twitter. However, make sure everything you post is relevant to your business. Twitter enables you to reach out to new people instantly, (without paying like Facebook), so you’ll often find people with similar jobs or interests will like or retweet your stuff, especially if it is interesting to them. But it works both ways – make sure you retweet content that your audience would also find interesting. Keep your tweets short, snappy and useful.

DO make your content useful. Why should people follow you and not that other marketing company? What makes you stand out? Find your niche and your tone of voice and remember to be consistent, but still interesting.

DO engage with your followers. Twitter is a social network – to build your community you need to reply to comments, questions and likes.

DON’T be afraid to share your competitor’s content. If it’s relevant, and useful, why not? Trust us, Twitter is a place where people help each other out. You’ll find companies similar to you will do the same thing.

DON’T be personal. Stay business-minded and professional.

DON’T forget to proof-read your tweets. A tweet can’t be edited once it has been made, only deleted. A silly spelling mistake can ruin your credibility in seconds.

DON’T spam people. It’s good to tweet often, but not so much that it becomes overkill. Focus on popular times of day to send your tweets, and remember to stagger them.

DON’T become generic. No one wants to talk to a robot! Maintain your brand’s tone of voice so that you appear friendly and not just like a salesperson.

DON’T repeat content from your other social networks. It may seem logical to share that marketing video on your Facebook and Twitter page, but you need to make it different. If someone is following both pages, why do they want to be bombarded with exactly the same story? If you MUST share it again, give it a different tag-line or purpose. Try and switch up your content so that your Facebook and Twitter feeds are still relevant to your business, but show different stories and inspiration.

So, with those 6 do’s and don’ts in mind – does your tweeting need an upgrade?