Twitter Tips for Executives

How can your twitter space be used to build your personal brand in the business space?

What is Twitter?

Twitter describes itself as, “a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

If you’re new to Twitter, then that description might seem a bit vague and ambiguous. So, to help you wrap your mind around the short-form messaging tool, start thinking about Twitter as a new form of online communication. Twitter is just communication in a new shape, but it’s also a platform for listening to the communication of others in new ways.

Twitter’s primary difference is that posts, or tweets, are restricted to 140 characters or less. As a Twitter user you can post updates, follow and view updates from other users (this is akin to subscribing to a blog’s RSS feed), and send a public reply or private direct message to connect with another Twitterer.

Though users can answer the prompt, “What are you doing?”, tweets have evolved to more than everyday experiences, and take the shape of shared links to interesting content on the web, conversations around hot topics (using hashtags), photos, videos, music, and, most importantly, real-time accounts from people who are in the midst of a newsworthy event, crisis, or natural disaster.

Get the most out of Twitter #hashtags

One of the most complex features of Twitter for new users to understand is the hashtag, a topic with a hash symbol (“#”) at the start to identify it. Twitter hashtags like #followfriday help spread information on Twitter while also helping to organize it.

The hashtag is a favourite tool of conferences and event organizers, but it’s also a way for Twitter users to organize themselves: if everyone agrees to append a certain hashtag to tweets about a topic, it becomes easier to find that topic in a search, and more likely the topic will appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.

Although not terribly complicated, hashtags have some unwritten rules. The primary one to remember: don’t overuse them. If every one of your tweets is a hashtag, you dilute the usefulness of them by fragmenting the conversation.

Another simple tip: give your hashtag context. Most people won’t actually know what your hashtag means, so give a quick explanation in one of your tweets or, if you’re making a hashtag, make it very apparent what it’s talking about.

Finally, if you’re looking to create a hashtag, be sure that it adds value for yourself and your followers. The best way to utilize them is when you need to organize information. Conferences, major events, and even reminders (i.e. #todo) can help organize specific tweets and make life easier on you and your followers.

Build your personal brand on Twitter

Dan Schawbel bestselling author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog and Mashable contributor shows you how.

According to Mark Raby of the TG Daily blog, In November 2010, there were 175 million users on Twitter, ranging from senior foreign diplomats to tech-savvy 13-year-olds. It's because the service is able to reach across that swath of the global population that the site should exceed 200 million in early 2011. With all those people, the chances for networking are endless and connecting with new people can lead to career opportunities, so it is essential that your personal brand exists on the service. By leveraging the Twitter platform to build your brand you can showcase yourself to a huge and growing audience.

1.    Claim your Twitter handle

With Twitter continuing its meteoric rise in popularity, it’s no surprise that Twitter account names are starting to become as desirable as prime domain names.  Twitter handles have become so important, that there is now even an aftermarket for them, Tweexchange, where user names are bought and sold. Stop what you’re doing right now and claim the Twitter handle for your full name.

2.    Become known as an expert or resource

Essentially, Twitter is a shorter and more viral form of blogging, so the same rules apply, and by constantly writing or tweeting about your expertise on a specific topic, you’ll become known for it and people will gravitate to you and follow you. If you already have a blog, use Twitterfeed, so you can syndicate your posts on Twitter automatically.

3.    Establish a Twitter marketing plan

Just like with any other website or blog, just because you build it, doesn’t necessarily mean people will come. You should have a marketing plan in place to acquire new followers (include your Twitter handle on email signatures, business cards, newsletters…).

4.    Utilize third-party applications

There are literally thousands of Twitter applications out there, but only a few that can really help you build your personal brand. The following apps will help you stay in touch with your industry, find people you can network with, save you precious time, and push out your content:  Twellow, Tweetmeme, Tweetbeep, Hashdictionary, and Tweetlater.

5.    Form a Twitter mastermind

As you may suspect, certain groups of people on Twitter constantly promote and retweet each other. Some of them are in what are called “mastermind groups” — groups of individuals who are committed to helping each other and sharing knowledge amongst themselves. On Twitter, by finding people who share your interests, you’re able to help each other out and cross-promote. Group Tweet and Twitter Groups are two apps that help you form these special interest groups.

Why people may not be following you

(Atherton Bartelby author of the Curious Affairs blog and Mashable contributing writer explains.)

1.    You have no Avatar

More important than whether or not your Twitter profile background is “designed” is how you choose to present yourself in that seemingly insignificant 48×48 pixel square.

2.    You list no location, no website or no bio.

Clearly, Twitter is all about brevity. So how difficult is it to provide a few additional characters of information that may offer potential followers more impetus to follow you in return?

3.    Your website listed is a MySpace profile

It doesn’t take much these days to establish a web presence that seems genuine and thoughtful, and appears to intend to attract and build an online community based on the content it provides.

4.    You’re following over 1000 users, have 20 followers and no updates

Who, aside from those running Twitter apps that automatically follow and unfollow followers, would add these Twitter users? (Editors note:  If you are still learning Twitter jargon, this essentially means that you are following lots of people but no one is following you back and even worse you are providing no content and only taking from others.)

5.    Your updates clearly indicate that your Twitter activity is always, only, about pushing your own service/product or company

Since I do not use Twitter in this manner, I rarely follow any of these users in return, unless said product or service genuinely piques my interest/desire to support it.

 Special thanks to Mashable.com for this exclusive  compilation of Twitter tips.  For their full offering of Twitter tips you can reference their online Twitter Guide Book.