Twitter Starter Steps

You know you want to be on Twitter. You've done your due diligence and decided it's important for your business. Now what?

Other than registration, getting started with Twitter, requires a few more steps.

1. Pick a username that is easy to spell and appropriate for your company.
2. Your bio allows 160 characters. Use it wisely. Think a combination of search friendly terms yet human friendly as well. (It has to be readable so people know what you are about).
3. Your profile image should look good.  Don't just load up anything, think about your brand and how your background will look.
4. Design your background to coincide with your brand.  Test it out on multiple sizes and remember the center column will float left and cover anything you have in the background.  That being said, maybe it's my own pet-peeve but leaving your contact info, email, website, etc as part of your background image is just annoying.  I can't click it. I can't copy and paste it. If it's important stick it in your bio.

Once you have the Twitter profile page design completed, it's time to get some peeps.  This can take some time however here are some starting points for this as well:

1. If you know of  competitors or similar business Tweeters, check out their following and followers list.  Follow the same people if they look like they would provide value.  Keep working your way through these lists.  You might want to set an alarm so you remember to come back up for air 60 minutes later.
2. Use http://search.twitter.com/. Use the keywords you hope people are using to find you.  Follow these people if it makes sense to.
3. Announce your new Twitter account on Facebook, your blog, your website, where-ever.  If people don't know you have one, how will they know to find you?
4. Retweet anything that is of value and makes your business look good. (If you tweet something stupid it looks bad on you as well).

To make sure you are using Twitter to it's fullest potential, like knowing hash tags have nothing to do with illegal substances, check out the many online resources available.

Oh and most importantly, BEFORE you decide to follow anyone, you might want to have a few Twitter updates already live and ready.  No one wants to sign up to your Twitter account with "Hello World! This is my first Twitter post! So cool!"  Well no one other than your Mom.

Happy Tweeting!