How Your Business Should Twitter

Starbucks, Comcast, Whole Foods, and the NBA are just a few of the major players taking advantage of Twitter’s current popularity and experiencing fantastic results. So how can your business benefit from Twitter?

While there aren’t a lot of strict right and wrongs when it comes to social networking, there are a few basic guidelines that can help companies navigate this new online terrain.

Personalization is Everything

Part of standing out on websites like Twitter is personalization. Your company Twitter account needs to reflect your brand, including:

Even though the messages are small, providing ample and varying content is the best way to keep your followers interested (and attract new ones). This can be as easy as providing updates on your company and products, linking to your blogs or other Web content, posting industry news, or just starting conversations.

Links are Your Friend

Sometimes we can’t say everything we need to in 140 characters or less. That’s why links are a great option for directing followers to your website for more information, introducing them to a great article on your industry, or varying your Web content and increasing your community building by showcasing a website other than your own.

Just remember that links need some kind of clue or introduction if you want people to follow them. Links dumped as posts on their own have little effect. If the URL to your link is long, use a TinyURL to shorten the link and make the most out of your limited space.