06 Jun Three Step Guide: How to Maximize Your Twitter Presence

Step One: Listen

How do you network? Do you walk into the room, stand in the middle, and loudly announce a new product? Probably not.

Chances are that you walk into the room, hang up your coat, and glance around for people you know and others you’d like to know. As you approach new folks, you probably listen to the conversation until an appropriate moment to introduce yourself presents itself. After you’ve done so, you might listen to the conversation and ask people smart questions so you can get to know them.

Think about Twitter like it is a cocktail party. Walk into the room (set up your account), identify smart people (follow), listen to what they have to say (read their Tweets), and engage with the intention of getting to know them (@reply and DM) over promoting yourself or your business.

Action items:

• Use Twitter search to look for relevant keywords. Use the search results to plug into new people in your industry.
• Use Twitter search to follow mentions of your brand. Not everyone that talks about your brand will use your Twitter handle.
• Pay attention to people you follow and identify repetitive hashtags. Some of those could be Twitter chats. Follow relevant Twitter chats.
• Sit back for a few weeks and read. Listen to what relevant people and/or customers are talking about. Get a feel for how they speak, what hashtags they use, and identify the strongest influencers.

Step Two: Have A Content Strategy

Social media is essentially a new channel for communication. It lives by different rules than traditional PR and advertising. It thrives on engagement and humanization. That said, have a content strategy for your brand. Twitter is a great platform to share your corporate messages and to engage with customers, influencers, media, and more.

Action items:

• Determine your Twitter tone. What does your ‘voice’ sound like?
• Create a content plan. What messages do you want to convey on Twitter? How often do you want to share brand specific information? How often do you want to share trends or spark organic discussion?
• Automate some of your messages, and deliver some in real-time.
• Create a content calendar and Tweet accordingly.

Step Three: Engage

Now that you’ve listened to what people in your industry and/or your customers are saying it’s time to start engaging. Engage with tweeps (Twitter people and brands) that are relevant to your brand whenever appropriate.

Action items:

• Your customers are talking on Twitter about your product or service, even if they aren’t tagging you. Proactively reach out to customers in need of assistance and solve problems.
• Start conversations with influencers and people who you want to get to know via @replies.
• Respond to @replies sent to the brand.
• Say ‘thank you’ to people who retweet your content.
• Check your DM (direct message) box, and respond to messages whenever appropriate.
• Read your stream (people you follow) as well as your keyword searches, and engage when you have something to contribute to the conversation. While it is fine to reply to someone on Twitter and say, “I agree” or “this is great,” contributing something to move the conversation along is ideal.
• Do you like something you’re read? Re-tweet! A re-tweet is like a virtual high-five.
• Remember that engaging is an everyday task. Be proactive and consistent to win the trust of others.

Do you have Twitter tips? We’d love to hear them. Tweet us @brgliving to start a conversation.