Pleasing Tweets

Twitter, like your blog, feels more informal than a newsletter or article. However, if people are following your business Twitter account, they expect to hear something interesting about your product or service. How can a business take advantage of Twitter without getting too personal?

1. Identify Yourself. Take some time to set your profile page with accurate contact information.  Use your face, or a clear business logo, in your profile picture.  Use your business imagery in your profile background, and consider using similar imagery in both your website and your Twitter page.  People feel more connected with you when they can identify your product and visualize who is tweeting to them.
2. Add Value. Use Twitter to announce details about your business – that new product has finally arrived, or your appearance at a new market.  If you don’t have anything to announce about your business, link to a relevant article online.  For example, if your product is soup, you could link to a story about the nutrient value in some of your ingredients.
3. Not Too Much. Don’t constantly point out the connection between the story and your product.  As long as the connection is there, your followers will see it – if they want to.  Remember that your followers use Twitter for more than to find out about your product, and if you overwhelm them, they could unfollow you with a single click!  Avoid being perceived as a Twitter spammer.
4. Be Fun. As in your blog, you should let your voice shine through your tweets.  Excitement and optimism about your business and product is more likely to catch your followers’ attention.
5. Stay On-Topic. Business twitterers always have to remember that they are tweeting for the business.   Don’t fall into the habit of tweeting your lunch break, or your bad mood.  Maintain a separate private Twitter account for your non-business-related tweets.
6. Link To Your Blog. If you have an important blog post, share the link in a Tweet.  This is a great way to offer your content without making your followers read a huge tweet, or series of tweets.  Give a brief 3-5 word title, followed by the link.  Interested followers will click through!  If you use WordPress, there is a plug-in that can tweet your posts automatically.