Greg Stereo

Not a bad read from another website…it’s a business-focused article but the tips are useful for newbie twitter users in general:

First 4 Things to do for a new Twitter Account

Many businesses have already tried Twitter. Some have yet to test the waters. For those who plan to create a new Twitter account for their business, there are 4 things you will want to do first when you get started.

Completely fill out your profile

This sound simple, but some folks fly through this step. This is your opportunity to quickly summarize yourself (and business if applicable) and highlight your website.

Put some thought into your bio. Pick your most important details and highlight them here. Think about how you want to project yourself and with what audience you will most likely be in front of.

Include your location and url. Adding your location will help localize your profile. The url is nofollow, but still from a well known site and you’ll get a little SEO credit for the link.

Upload a recognizable avatar

Your avatar will be associated with every tweet. This is your opportunity to create branding for your profile. Your followers will visually remember you by your avatar. Keep the size in mind when choosing your image. You will want it to be legible and recognizable even when the image is shrunk.

Add a custom background

Nothing spells “noob” like a basic Twitter background. You’ll want to add a custom background before you begin networking on Twitter. This is a solid opportunity for branding and sneaking in a little more information about you and your business.

If you do not have the resources to create one yourself, there are many services out there that will build you a decent looking template for free (you’ll have their logo plug in your background) or you can have one designed for you (the fees are reasonable and worth it). Just keep in mind the size of the background image you use. You will want it to look right on all types and sizes of monitors.

Include information such as picture of yourself or company logo, additional summary and url’s to other social profiles and websites. Depending on how you set it up, links in your background will most likely not be clickable; so use marketing friendly urls. For example, try to use clean urls like yourbusiness.com or facebook.com/yourbusiness.

Listen, update and get involved

After branding your profile you’ll be ready to get involved. Think about who you want to target and communicate with. Begin following those who you want to connect with. Read their tweets for a while to learn what they are interested in.

Share links and information that you think your target audience and followers would be interested in. Pay attention to what they tweet, listen, respond and get involved in the conversation.

The Internet’s closed. The moose out front should have told you.

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