Let’s talk about how you can get your account ready for all those new followers,

1. Complete Bio: When people check out your Twitter profile one of the 1st things they will look at is your bio. You want to be memorable and unique. Always have your most relevant website link as the URL. Last but not least, be sure to add a professional picture of yourself as well, nothing is worse than seeing a new follower with the “egg!”
   A few actions to avoid in your bio:
   • Don’t stuff your bio exclusively with keywords. People cannot connect with just words. You want your personality to be present.
   • Don’t use industry lingo. Use words and phrases that your target client or market uses.
2. Have at least 20 Tweets on your profile: With a full page of tweets people will know you are serious about twitter. They can get a feel for who you are, what you have to say and if you match what they are looking for. Offer some good content that will benefit your target market.
3. A Professional Background: This is a great way to increase brand awareness. Use your logo, tag line, photo and anything else that helps represent your business. Mari Smith is a great example of branding. She changes her background to support her current marketing plans.
4. A Giveaway or Link for New Followers: Here is an opportunity to further connect with your new connection. Offer a great resource to them.

   This can come in a variety of forms – I use SocialOomph to set this up:

   • Share a popular blog post. If one of your blog posts gained a high number of comments and social interactions it must have been extremely helpful to your audience. Share this with new connections!
   • A free report. These are generally behind a lead generation form (opt-in form), where the visitor will enter their name and email address to receive your free gift.
   • A Custom Welcome to Twitter Page: Setup a page on your website just for new followers. Have a nice introduction video with something they can walk away with, a tip or action step they can do right away.
5. Understand the basics of Twitter: When you know a bit about Twitter you can engage much more efficiently and save yourself a lot of time.

Here are just a few to get you started, just press ALT and the number:

I look forward to seeing all your new tweets!

The Tweet

This is a 140 character mini blog post. This will post will appear to each of your followers. This is a short summary on what is going on, what you are doing, something interesting you want to pass on and information you want to share.

Who to Follow?

Twitter is about connecting and networking. People will follow you and you can follow people. When you have found someone that peaks your interests you can follow them and receive their Tweet updates. When you are on their Twitter profile you will see their picture and just below will be a follow button. In one click you are their newest follower. Do you have to follow someone who is following you? This is up to you. You do not have to, but keep this little tidbit in mind. If you are not following someone they cannot direct message (private message) you in the future.

Finding people to follow:

Search on Twitter.If you know their user name, first name or last name this can be the easiest way to find them. To do this click on the Find People button at the top of your Twitter page.

Your other networks. If you are on Facebook, LinkedIn or other social networks check your connections and see if they are on Twitter. This is an easy way to get directly to their page and follow them.

Email/RSS/or Text follow. You can invite your connections to Twitter if they are not Tweeting yet. Send them an email with your information and invite them to join you. If they do not want to sign up for Twitter at this time let them know they can subscribe to your RSS feed and get your updates that way. To do this all they need to do is click on the RSS button in the right column and insert that URL into their RSS reader. The other option they have is to receive your updates to their wireless device as a text message. All they have to do is “follow [user name]” to 40404.

If you decide you do not want to follow someone any more, just visit their page and hit the unfollow button below their picture.

The Art of the @ Reply

You received a Tweet that must be shared now what do you do? Quite simple, from the Twitter interface click the little grey arrow to the right of that specific Tweet. Now you will be taken to a Tweet post that will display @ and their name (ie. @ErinTillotson) Then be sure that you paste in their original message, if you have room you can add a statement about it.

I just want to send a message to one person. This is also a function of the @ reply. Just type in the post box @ and their username proceeded by your message. Now remember this is not a private message, your whole network will see this message.

Direct Message Anyone?

Now here is how you send that private message. To do this type a capitol D followed by a space and then the username, then of course your message. This will arrive to that user only.

Favorite Tweets?

Here is a nifty tool. You can use this in a few ways. I use this as a Twitter Testimonial Area. What the world are you talking about Erin? If I receive a thank you, a good job, a recommendation over Twitter I favorite it. Then when some visits my favorites they will see all the wonderful things I have helped with. The other use for this feature is to remember Tweets. Favorite it for future reference, because you like the quote or what ever reason you want to!

What other Twitter questions do you have?