Every small business marketer on the internet has to realize the importance of social media by now. You can create content and have your loyal followers disseminate it for you, spreading your brand and message to an exponentially increasing number of potential customers. One of the most important social networking sites with which you need to work as a small business owner is Twitter. Many overlook Twitter because of the 140 character limit on their messages, thinking that no substantial message could be communicated in such a small space. However, this kind of thinking overlooks the key fact that Twitter is the social network which enjoys the largest market penetration in the United States, with more than 241 million active users, and an average of 5700 Tweets sent every second. Consequently, registering your business with Twitter is a great way to spread the word. This tutorial will show you how to get started.
First of all, go to the main Twitter website at https://www.twitter.com. From there, just enter your business name, email address, and desired password on the right hand site of the screen, and then sign up as a new user.
From there, you’ll be taken to another screen where you’re given the option to choose a username. While your main business name you entered on the previous page will always display, your username is what other people will use to correspond with you. Therefore, it needs to be something short, memorable, and relatable. For instance, if your main business name was Peggy’s Home-Made Pies, you might choose to register for a short username such as @PeggysPies. The choice is yours, but the shorter and more unique, the better. Twitter will offer its own recommendations right below the field where you must enter your desired username. When you’re satisfied with what you’ve come up with, click the large “Create My Account” button.
Now, you’re registered for Twitter! All that’s left is to learn to use it properly. Luckily, the site itself will begin a short tutorial on how to use it just after you register. It’ll walk you through connecting with your first followers, and also show you how to send out your first Tweets. As a general rule, you’ll want to follow people in your industry, or popular Twitter users who post things at least tangentially relevant to your business and your followers. Besides creating your own messages, you can also Re-Tweet the popular messages of others as a way to build relationships, similar to link sharing with blogs.
Speaking of which, it’s useful to let Twitter interact with your other forms of social media as well. For instance, you can link your Twitter to your Facebook to have the same messages appear in both places. Additionally, if you have a blog, then be sure to advertise every new blog post using your Twitter feed so that your followers can find it.
Lastly, Twitter itself maintains a page to help business users get the most out of Twitter by learning how to effectively get the message out and also measure the impact of Twitter on your marketing. To access that page, just go to https://business.twitter.com/twitter-basics to get started.
