How To Setup A Twitter Account For Business

From a technical standpoint, it’s relatively straightforward to set up a Twitter account. However, when you’re using that Twitter profile for business purposes, there are a few considerations worth pondering.

You Only Have So Many Characters!

Twitter doesn’t give you much difficulty when you sign up for a new account. They limit the number of characters and words you can use, which is where it gets a bit confusing for businesses who want to convey a branding message. Companies with three or more words in their official name will likely not find a happy compromise.

You can always use a person’s real name, but that’s not going to make things transparent and immediately crystal clear for potential followers. What many businesses do is create a main company social profile and then the social media manager also has their own.

Most Profile Names Are Already in Use

Getting a great profile name is not an option due to the massive user base already on Twitter. The profile name is the bit that follows the @ sign. You’ll need to be as clever as you can to convey your message, but you may just need to add a number to your profile name to get it to stick. Twitter is happy to show you tons of different options if you really can’t come up with any on your own.

In reality, your profile name doesn’t make much of a difference, although weird or hard to understand ones don’t fly. If you have to use initials or part of your company name, that’s a valid way to do things.

A Crisp Profile Photo Helps

Adding your profile photo may be a source of controversy. In general, personal accounts with a personal photo tend to gain followers the easiest. However, unless you’re a solo entrepreneur, it may be inappropriate to use one face to represent your entire organization. That’s why many people will use either a symbol or the company logo. Either option is fine, but keep the fact in mind that you need to size your images correctly for the square format that Twitter expects. Many company logos format poorly and become “hard to read.” If that’s the case, go back to the drawing board and re-work the image until it’s crisp and readable!

If you decide to use a personal photo, make it one where you’re facing your audience head on and smiling! Smiles work just as well for a Twitter profile as they do for everything else.

Your Header Photo Helps You Communicate Your Message

Uploading a well-designed header photo is another way to reinforce your branding message. Businesses use a full range of concepts with their header photos. You may want to keep it simple, or you may want a more elaborate design that showcases a new product or service. The choice is yours, but it makes sense to keep your message simple enough that people will immediately recognize what you’re trying to say. Avoid images that are at odds with your branding or industry. Keep things professional and you’ll find more people are willing to follow you quickly.

160 Characters for Your Bio Should Tell Your Story

The bio is a crucial piece of the puzzle for a business Twitter profile. Your Twitter Bio is the primary determining factor on whether someone decides to follow you or not. Keep things short, exciting, and completely on-topic to rivet their interest! It’s also important that you attach your offer or contact information to the bio in some way. There’s a handy website URL field that can be used to direct people to a landing page or contact form if you want.

General Guidelines for Business Social Media Profiles

• Stay away from using too much jargon or complex language, unless it’s a standard in your industry.
• Resist the urge to be too “cutesy” for almost all sectors. Your baseline follower may not understand the nuances of humor as readily as you think.
• Avoid typos and grammatical errors because they add a real “ick factor” for perfectionists!
• You must avoid using unprofessional images, and steer clear of posts containing controversy. Those two factors are an excellent way of achieving viral Twitter success for non-business accounts but are going to backfire for any organization that wants a serious reception.
• Point people in the right direction so that they get the assistance they need.

Get Ready to Work Daily!

Once you have a Twitter profile for your business, your work is only beginning. You’ll need to follow others and gain followers of your own. It will require a consistent schedule of content curation and creation to accomplish these goals. If you haven’t already put someone in charge of your social media marketing efforts, you’ll need to do that. Otherwise, you should consider getting dedicated project managers to handle all the heavy lifting instead.

Some companies think Twitter is not useful for social media marketing, but that’s not the case. The app and website offer a highly specific type of social media experience which has to be understood to achieve excellent results. The character limits mean that easy to understand images, videos, and text all perform well.

Twitter Is Hard Work but Well Worth It!

Twitter status updates have short life spans of around 15 minutes! Knowing this, you’ll need to supply a constant stream of content if you hope to capture attention! One Tweet is not going to change your business fortune. You need a continuous strategy that involves making the most out of the unique format of this social platform. One of the best features about Twitter is that’s it easy to track your results with tangible benchmarks. If you find you’re not getting the kind of engagement or traffic you want, adjust your strategies and campaigns and try again.

Twitter supports all industries. You may need to adjust your tactics depending on the products or services you sell, but there’s no question you’ll gain traction if you keep plugging away. If you don’t feel you’re up to the task, give us a call at 1-877-830-3318 or fill out our contact form. We’d love to help you set up your small business Twitter profile and manage it after that. Thanks for stopping by and reading!