Twitter Weekend on Spreecast - How To Use Twitter Effectively for Brand Building - Part 2

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In the first part, I talked about how to create your Twitter handle user name, what to use and MOST IMPORTANTLY what NOT to use as your Twitter handle or user name.  We also discussed choosing your user name is so important and I shared some tips about how to relate your user name with what you do or your business.

Then I talked about how and what you should write on the Bio spot of your Twitter Profile and how you should make your bio precise yet of right size to also accommodate your landing page URL.

Then I talked about how to choose your profile picture and what NOT to use as your profile picture such as LUSCIOUS RED LIPS or a shot of your eyeball or crazy stuff like that.  Also, you can use your brand as a background of your profile picture.

Then I talked about why it's a great idea to put your location on your Twitter profile because it increases your Twitter profile's chances to show up in searches.

• Today, the first thing that I am going to touch upon is Tweets and how to be precise in the stipulated 140 characters per tweet and send your message across to your visitors.

A tweet can only consist of 140 characters and yet it has to be precise, to the point and EFFECTIVELY DIRECTS your visitors to actions that you want them to take.

Now, if you want to stick your landing page or a website in your tweets, oftentimes you will find that if you type the full URL the total character count goes beyond 140 characters.  So, to accommodate your website or landing page in a tweet, you can use URL shorteners like Tiny URLs or Bit.ly.  You can do a search of URL shorteners on Google and you will find a whole host of them.

Also, there are some URL shorteners or shortening services that also gives you analytics on the URLs that you shorten, analytics like how many people visited the URL or how many clicked through the pages and that sort of thing.  I recommend you use those URL shortening services to their fullest extent.

• Next thing I want to talk about is automatic tweets and manual tweets and which one is better or works well for your business.

There is a number of Tweet schedulers and automatic tweet applications that are available that actually schedule your tweets and send them out at regular intervals.  My recommendation goes against such services.  DO NOT DO THAT…  Always MANUALLY send out your tweets.  Now, the reason behind NOT recommending automatic tweeting services is because if it’s too robotic, people tend to catch on and they WILL NOT interact with someone who or a Twitter handle that acts like a bot sending out pre-programmed messages.  So, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS send out your important tweets or important information in manual tweets.

• Now, what is it that you should Tweet about?

There is a whole host of different stuff that you can tweet about but the idea is that you want to add value to your followers.  If you have got devoted followers, you have an obligation to serve value to them and for that to happen you need to serve up topics or information that would be beneficial to them or their business or their brand.  Remember, people will only follow you if they see the value you share.  So, always serve up value.  DO NOT tweet spam content or useless info.

What really work well always when it comes to providing value is little bite-sized tips of what you can help your clientele with and also questions to get them engaged.  You can also add photos and videos and really mix it up and keep your followers interested in your tweets.  Twitter didn’t allow pictures and videos to start with but now you can stick pictures or even put links to your YouTube video that will play in side Tweeter and I strongly recommend you use that.

Another very important aspect of tweeting is re-tweeting.  Go ahead and re-tweet stuff that YOU find interesting and also allow other to re-tweet your tweets if they find it interesting and ACTIVELY encourage re-tweeting of your content among your followers.

Now, I see it every day that people tweet about what THEY have to offer again and again and again.  Remember, too much promotion of your offers and deals make people tune you out.  DO NOT do that.  There is a healthy optimum ratio for tweeting interesting and valuable stuff and tweeting your offers or deals or whatever you name it.  I would suggest you go with the 10:1 ratio which means for every 10 tweets that you send out that has value for your followers, you can go ahead and send a tweet about your offer or your deal or that sort of stuff.

Also, leave ample space in your tweets so that people who are re-tweeting your tweets can add their own personal touch and yet remain within the 140-character limit.  For example, if you tweet about a great video or a blog post and you want your followers to re-tweet that, leave some space so that your followers can add their person touch like “Here is a great video that I saw” or “here is a great blog post that I read” and that sort of thing.  You DO NOT need to fill all 140 characters.  So, leave some space for people who want to re-tweet your tweets if they find them interesting.

• How to find out if people are engaging with you on Twitter?

If you go to your Twitter page, in the top left corner there is a ‘@ Connect’ button.  Clicking that button will show you people that are engaging with you with replies and re-tweets and following you and that sort of thing.

Another VERY IMPORTANT part of engaging on Twitter is using the @ symbol.  Using the @ symbol will direct the tweet to a definite person but everybody on that person’s follower list will see that Tweet.  So, for example, if you send a Tweet like “@RajQuic Awesome first part of Twitter Weekend”, what happens is the tweet is directed towards me BUT EVERYBODY on my follower list will be able to see that tweet.  So, you are potentially reaching NOT JUST one Twitter profile but more than 800 profiles at the same time.  Isn’t that awesome!

Feel Free To Engage With Me on Twitter @RajQuic

• What is Hashtag Chat or Tweet Chat and how can you use Tweet Chat as a brand building tool?

A hashtag chat is also called a Twitter party and what it is, is a collective use of a specific hashtag within a specified time with the sole ambition of promoting an event or forwarding an agenda.

A Twitter party or a hashtag chat doesn't happen just once, it happens over time, rather over an extended period of time.  A hashtag used as group goes a long way in spreading the message faster to a much wider audience.

Twitter party or hashtag chat or Tweet chat doesn't have a short-term goal in mind.  For example, the hashtag #SocialMediaNinjaMastermind is an ongoing chat for discussing social media ninja tips and tricks among people who are following this hashtag and also over time spread it to a larger audience.

You can start following a Tweet chat by simply visiting TweetChat.com and then searching the hashtag that you wanna follow and once you find the hashtag, just click on the link and you will be in that hashtag room.  For example, if you want to follow #SocialMediaNinjaMastermind, just search for "SocialMediaNinjaMastermind" in the search box and click the link which will take you to the room that you want to follow.

You can also follow other hashtags related to your niche and see the number of people that are sharing information real time via Twitter and the awesome thing about this is that you can start communicating one-on-one with industry heavyweights by just clicking their user name in the same hashtag room.  Isn't that awesome!  It's like going to a party of Fortune 500 CEOs and getting to interact with them first hand.

Also, remember that a hashtag chat or a Tweeter chat can become overwhelming and you can get lost in the pile of information if you pick a huge chat or a niche that's too general.  So, select the niche that you are interested in most at that time and then get into that chat.

I will talk more about Tweet Chat on my Podcast at in the coming episodes since it's a huge topic in itself and an awesome tool to use when it comes to creating awareness for your brand.

That’s all for this part.  In the third and final part I am going to shed some light on the overall functionality of Twitter as a business development tool.

You Can Engage With Me on Twitter @RajQuic

If you find this post helpful and/or if you have your own inputs, please feel free to share in the comments section.

Rajat Dutta

Quic Social Media Tips

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