5 Tips for Using Twitter in Business Communication

Twitter started out as a personal tool to be used for micro blogging between techies and nerds.

In the past year it has moved mainstream and is now used by celebrities and businesses to communicate with their fans and customers.

Here are 5 tips on how it can be used in Business

1. Define your Objectives for Using Twitter

Is it for branding, customer service or sales and marketing?

These are the three major areas where Twitter is used by business..

Define guidelines for Tweeting – here are some ideas:

• Ask questions
• Ask for feedback
• Give news about your company or industry
• Be sure to use links together with suitable comment
• Decide on a company account or individual accounts

The question of what account type is an interesting one. A personal account is more human than a company account. The downside to this is that individuals can leave a company – many companies use a mix of both.

Also there is no reason to limit your account to a single account – multiple accounts may make sense for some companies.

2. Set Up A Listening Post:

You can use Twilert to enter keywords that you wish to be alerted for. Twilert will send you an email listing who has used the keyword in their tweets.

Another tool Twitter Search can be used to do real time searches for keywords. alternatively, an RSS feed can be set up on Twitter Search to manage the process.

Keywords could be your brand or specific products or services that people may have an interest in.

Tracking your brand name mentions is essential. Understanding what the Twitterati are saying about you is just as important as monitoring what the blogosphere is saying about you.

A listening post can also monitor any complaints about your product or service, and enable you to respond pro-actively to resolve the problem.

3. Follow Relevant Twitter Users

You can then identify the authors of tweets that you and start to follow them.

Be sure to maintain a balance of around 50% between the number of people you are following and the number of Twitterers following you.

If you try and grow your network too fast and have many more followers than followed, you could be accused of spamming.

4. Use a URL Shortening Tool.

140 characters need to be used carefully so you will need to use a URL shortening tool to conserve space for you comments.

I like bit.ly because it has good tracking features

5. Beware of Brand Hijackers

If you have unique brand be sure to set up a Twitter account in that name to protect your brand.

Does Twitter Have any SEO Value?

Twitter links are all “No Follow” so can any SEO value be gained from Twitter?

We will give an opinion on this question in a future post that is coming shortly.

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