June 25, 2012

Tips for Conquering Twitter (Part 2)

By: Tom Swanson

Social media has become an inescapable part of companies’, organizations’, and individuals’ daily operations. Because it’s a quick, easy, and free way to get more online exposure (and because everyone else is doing it), most businesses and organizations simply can’t afford not to be on Twitter.

Because younger professionals are generally more comfortable with the Twitter platform, companies and organizations often entrust their Twitter presence to younger employees. This is a great opportunity to show your understanding of your company or organization: its mission, its strengths and weaknesses, and its values. If you play the Twitter game correctly, you can add real value to your team’s marketing campaign, and give your career a boost in the process.

Here’s our second tip (Part one is available here):

2. Keywords are important!

One of the main difficulties of marketing on Twitter is its 140-character limit for each tweet. It can be difficult to deliver a complete and coherent message (without resorting to excessive and confusing abbreviation) under these constraints.

Proper grammar and spelling are necessary to effective communication, and that includes Twitter. Twitter’s 140-character limit is not a license to spell “you” as “U” or to replace every “to” with “2”. It’s both unprofessional and difficult to read. Followers will flee from messages with too many of these mistakes.

The trick is to make every word count. This means being succinct, but it also means using words that your target audience is searching for: Make a list of keywords that are relevant to your job, business, or organization and try to use them as often as possible without sounding repetitive, pushy, or forced. Ideally, each tweet will market itself to its proper audience.

It’s also a good idea to perform a search for these keywords, and look at what other people are saying on your topic. This will help you find people who might be interested in your organization or business, and can help you enter conversations where you can show your expertise.

Part one is available here.