Why You Should Be on Twitter

It is time for a refresher course on Twitter. There are many social media strategies behind Twitter’s use for business and why it is effective and valuable for your business. Revisiting Twitter basics is a good idea. Why are you on Twitter? Of course there are several good reasons.

Why

• Communicating with your friends: Twitter is definitely a good tool for communicating with your friends; however, if that is your only reason for being connected to Twitter, you should make sure that your tweets are protected so that you have control over who is allowed to read them. You should only allow your tweets to be viewed by people you trust.
   
• Networking for business: Twitter is an excellent tool for building your professional connections of value. You are not limited geographically. You can connect with people on a universal basis, which will most likely be beneficial to the success of your business. You can make all sorts of connections with people with whom you share professional interests and who are in your industry or niche.
   
• Spreading awareness: Twitter allows companies to spread awareness, discuss industry trends, and connect followers to company blogs by creating an online dialogue that easily reaches a large audience — an audience that is looking for information about your company.
   
• Sharing knowledge: Twitter is a great tool to share your knowledge and expertise and discover new opinions and thoughts from like-minded people in your industry.
   
• Customer service: Twitter is a great tool to monitor what your customers are saying about your company and your product. You can proactively respond fast to customer complaints and avoid them being turned into major issues. You can also use Twitter to offer special deals and promotions to your customers.
   
• Engage with clients and build your reputation: Twitter is a great way to engage with your current and future clients, building your company reputation through constant engagement and quality content and building your personal reputation as a thought leader and industry specialist. 

How

• Choosing a Twitter name: The Twitter name that you choose should be your whole name (or at least your first name and last initial) or some variation of your name. It is important to make sure that your real name is on your Twitter profile.
   
• Making your profile publically accessible: The whole purpose of your being on Twitter is so that you can build relationships with people. You are using your Twitter account for business purposes. The more high-quality connections you make, the more business you will potentially bring in.
   
• Using a real location on your profile: If you provide your real location on Twitter, you will be able to build deeper relationships with people in your area. Once you have established a relationship with those people on Twitter, you can go to the next step of networking with them in person.
   
• Customizing your biography: You should make sure that your biography mentions your professional activities and objectives but also gives a sense of you as a person. Twitter limits you to 160 characters maximum. Make sure that you use them most effectively.
   
• Choosing your photo: Your photo should appear professional (but not dry). A head shot is the best choice. This is how people will relate to you on a human level. It is very important that you choose the right photo.
   
• Choosing your URL: If you are connected to other social media channels, you should link them to your Twitter account. It is a good idea to have your name in your URL, if at all possible.
   
• Being discriminating in your choice of who you follow: It is not a good enough reason to follow someone just because they follow you. You should follow people back if you feel that your interactions will be mutually beneficial and that you can build a valuable relationship together.
   
• Starting to follow people gradually: Your list of people whom you follow should consist of people who have some relevance to your business. You don’t need to connect with a large number of people at once.
   
• Paying close attention to valuable and relevant tweets: Before you write a single tweet, you should listen to what other people are writing. Once you have really listened well enough, you should start to interact with others . There are many different ways in which you can effectively interact. A great way to interact is to show your appreciation (or gratitude) of the tweets that other people are sharing with you or retweeting what they have tweeted. Your Twitter interactions are the beginning of your relationships that you will build over time and eventually, hopefully, you will get to know those people in person as well.

Conclusion

Twitter is a wonderfully rich source of instantaneous information. The information presented here provides you with a foundation of how Twitter works and why it is worth creating an account and starting to tweet to others. Twitter has rapidly become one of the most valuable and popular social media tools that exists. People use it for personal communications and business communications. The potential is far reaching. More and more people are recognizing its worth and are leveraging it in so many ways for their business.

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