3.  Building Followers

As a business owner using Twitter to create brand awareness, buzz or website traffic (or all 3), growing the number of followers for your profile is crucial.  Crucial?  Yes.  Easy?  Some might say yes, but chances are they aren’t putting much effort or thought into the process.  Here are four ways to gain followers on Twitter:

• Be Popular: If you are a popular brand, then you have already got a huge advantage over the average business owner!  Celebrities, big brands (think Dell) and anybody/thing with a recognizable name will find that followers just gravitate to them.  We’re not all so lucky, so move on to the next actionable steps!
• Provide Useful Information: When you Tweet, think about how that message will resonate with your followers and potential followers.  If you are providing information that is useful and meaningful, people will not only read your Tweets, they’ll follow and possibly “retweet” that information to all of their followers.  Granted, this is a process that develops with time, but by merely providing value through your Twitter presence, you will attract followers.
• Proactively Follow Users: Another school of thought is that to get onto someone’s Twitter radar, you must first follow them.  This can be effective, but this tactic has it’s downsides (as I’ll discuss more in section #4).  If all you are seeking is an inflated ‘followers’ stat, than all you would have to do is start following Twitter users by the 100’s, 1000’s, and so-on.  However, you want to attract followers who are interested in your business and who could become a potential customer.  Only follow those who fit into this criteria – and yes, you will still increase your followers.
• Drive Traffic to Your Profile: I think that many people fall into the trap of thinking that growing a Twitter profile only happens within the microcosm of Twitter itself.  This just isn’t the case.  Part of your job when running a social media campaign is to get people to your profiles in many different ways.  Put a link to your Twitter profile on your website, blog, business cards – even cross link from other social networking profiles.  The point is – get people to that profile, let them see your fantastic Twitter presence and they too will start following!

4.  Know Who to Follow

A lot of folks who try to use Twitter (or any other social networking site) for their business have a one-track mind.  It’s all about getting followers and pushing products/services.  While those things are important, remember this is social media – it’s a two-way street.  You have to man up and follow people to make this gig work.

• Search Twitter Feeds: Keywords make the internet world go ’round.  And this is how you can find the best Twitter users to start following and building a community around.  Use tools like Twitter Search or Tweetscan to monitor Twitter discussions that use keywords related to your business.  These are the folks that you want to follow so that you can become a part of their discussion.
• The Twitter Elite: Just like in the “real world” – it can be beneficial to bump elbows with the movers and shakers of your industry on Twitter.  Following these Twitter Elite will not only put you on their radar, but you will effectively blend your network with theirs.  You can use Twitter Search and Tweetscan for this purpose, but there’s a more effective method of finding these individuals.  Head on over to Twitter Grader’s User Search tool.  Twitter Grader (powered by HubSpot) monitors Twitter profiles and ranks them by number of followers and other usage factors.  Just type in a keyword related to your business and see what brands and individuals pop up.

5.  Rules of Engagement

Just like any other marketing tactic, there are particular rules you must adhere to.  There aren’t any officially sanctioned rules for Twitter, but there are certainly accepted best practices that will keep your business from being labeled as SPAM by the masses.

• Be a Part of the Conversation: If you hope to ever sell anything to one of your Twitter followers, they need to have a reason to care about you and your business.  If you are somehow able to find 1000 followers, but you never Tweet – people will forget you exist.  Additionally, a Twitter feed that has no history of quality Tweets will instill zero trust in your brand.  Participating in the conversation ensures that you remain top-of-mind and show everyone your true colors.
• Respond When Spoken To: When a follower takes the time to send a message to you (whether direct or via a reply), the worst thing you can do is ignore them.  Take the time to reply – even it’s just a simple “Thanks.”  Another place where this becomes a factor is when discussing “retweets.”  If a follower retweets your message, link, what-have-you – thank them.  They’ll be more likely to do it again in the future!
• Monitor Mentions of Your Business: Once you engage in the social media space, including Twitter, you must monitor the conversation that is taking place about your business.  This enables you to quickly respond to negative mentions (online reputation management, anyone?), find new potential customers to follow and also to simply join a conversation – instilling a deeper trust in your business.  Use Twitter Search or Google Alerts to set up RSS feeds around keywords important to your business.  Monitor these feeds and respond appropriately.

That about sums it up.  Utilizing social media for marketing is a delicate art and Twitter is no exception.  I hope that these 5 points will help you to ramp up your Twitter presence and leverage the social media power for your business.

I want to know what you think about Twitter followers/following and the rules of engagement – leave me a comment!

Before I get to the meat and potatoes, I’m going to give you the “why you should care” speech.  Here goes:  Twitter is a powerful social media tool.  Period.  It is simple to use and there is incredible potential for reaching customers in a meaningful way.  For perspective, an eMarketer report projected 12.1 million US Twitter users for 2009 and an increase to 18.1 million for 2010.  If you were holding out for fear that Twitter was just a fad, think again because the bandwagon is still on the move!

1.  The Account

A huge part of finding success with Twitter rests on what I call the “structural components” of your account.  Such things as your username (gasp!), profile information (wh-what?), user image/avatar (oh no he didn’t!) and that pesky background (it’s on like Donkey Kong!).  Let me explain…

• Username: Think common sense.  Think branding.  Your business name would be a good [obvious] 1st choice.  If your Twitter campaign is only for a specific product line or branch of your company – be specific.  You want your username to be easily remembered and recognized.  And if you have a lot of products and branches of your business – go ahead and snag those profiles, too, while you’re at it.  The caveat to this is that if your business name is less popular than your own (yeah, that’s me) – it may make sense to leverage the brand equity in your own name.  You can change your Twitter username as needed and all of your replies, DMs, etc. will be redirected to your new username automatically.
• Profile Information: You don’t get a great deal of space to describe your business, so be specific.  The ‘Name’ field gives you the chance to restate your business name separate from your Twitter username.  So if you are Acme Computer Widget Suppliers International – chances are your username is lacking something.  Use the ‘Name’ field to spell it all out.  Include your ‘Location’ – especially if you aspire to attract local customers.  Don’t forget (I repeat, don’t forget) your website!  And your ‘Bio’ should be descriptive of not only your business but of your overall intentions for participating on Twitter.
• User Image / Avatar: Once again, think branding.  Don’t stick with Twitter’s default brown face.  So the question becomes – do you use your business/product logo or do you use a picture of the individual behind the account?  In a recent survey conducted by Kristy Bolsinger, the majority feel that a logo is more appropriate and effective.  Whatever you choose, the image you stick with should be professional and reflective of your brand.
• Background: I’ll step right up and say that I’m guilty of misuse of a Twitter background.  Twitter provides a handful of stock background images that can help spice up your profile, but that’s just the tip of the iceburg.  You can upload custom backgrounds into your profile.  This gives you a huge opportunity to provide your followers with more information about your business, images reflecting your brand and/or products and even to include more detailed contact information.  Not to mention you can show your or your marketing team’s creative prowess.

2.  Productivity

When I first began using Twitter, I strictly used the web interface.  At the point I began updating multiple Twitter accounts, this became impossibly difficult.  Log in, log out, am I in the right account, I don’t know, crap I need a desktop app!  This wasn’t the only issue.  There was also the issue of time and how Twitter was prioritized into my routine.  If you’re not careful, Twitter (like much of the internet) can become a massive time-suck.

• Desktop Apps:  Take yourself out of your web browser and into the life of social media leisure.  OK, maybe it isn’t that swell.  Desktop applications are programs that have been designed to speed up and enhance the Twitter user experience as well as simplify basic functionality.  These desktop apps let you manage multiple profiles simultaneously, they integrate reply, retweet and direct message tasks simply and in general speed up the process of using Twitter.  I personally use Twhirl, but am planning a future switch to Seesmic Desktop.  Check out this Mashable article that compares the top 19 desktop apps.
• Time Management: As I mentioned above, it is easy to get lost in Twitter.  When you let this happen you lose time you could be spending on other tasks – thus devaluing the ROI of your social media campaign.  Use basic time management skills to make Tweeting a routine.  Give yourself time to review updates from those that you follow.  Give yourself time to send replies, direct messages and retweets as appropriate.  And most importantly, give yourself time for your own Tweets.  I would recommend 10 minute blocks spread throughout the day.  This way you get in, get out and get on with running the rest of your business!

Well, thus endeth part one.  For more Twitter-goodness, check back in tomorrow when I’ll wrap things up with Building Followers, Knowing Who to Follow and Rules of Engagement.

**UPDATE** Visit part 2!

I want to know what you think about Twitter accounts and productivity, so don’t be shy – leave me a comment!

Every time I entered my URL, the Technorati system would give me a different error.  Sometimes it said that my URL couldn’t be accessed.  Other times it told me that my URL was flagged.  Then, blessedly, I made it past step 1 and my URL was recognized early Thursday afternoon.  Then step 2 involved placing the verification code on the site.  I complied, but when I attempted to proceed – the same cycle repeated.  Every time I submitted the approval, I received a different error.

In my anger, and relative haste, I performed some searches on Google and Technorati’s help sections.  I didn’t see anything that explained what was happening.  I then updated Twitter:

After a night on the town (well not really, I just went to the local cineplex and watched the new Star Trek flick), I returned home to find a Twitter reply:

As it turns out, @dorion works at Technorati and apparently is actively monitoring Twitter for anyone talking about his company.  In my case, I made an ass of myself calling out a company like Technorati.  As far as @dorion is concerned, he’s providing great customer service.  To my dismay, he’s been tweeting about a major server change at Technorati – one that is effecting everything… including the blog claim process.

I’ve read over and over again about people having positive customer service experiences on Twitter, but this is the first time it’s happened to me.  And I’m grateful.  I also learned a few lessons.

1. Don’t jump to conclusions (duh, right?).  There is always an underlying cause to a problem, and in many cases they’re quite understandable.
2. Use Twitter Search (double-duh, right?).  If I had searched Twitter Search instead of Google or even Technorati’s help section, I would’ve found @dorion’s tweets, followed him right then and there and moved on with my day instead of making an ass of myself.

Kudos to @dorion and Technorati for making the attempt to keep unsatisfied customers in the loop via Twitter.  And kudos to all the other companies doing the same.  My blog still hasn’t been claimed officially with Technorati, but I have an open support ticket and new-found patience with the process!

Here’s the official video announcement courtesy of the bit.ly Blog:

Kudos to bit.ly for keeping me (and countless other Twitter-ers) enticed with great new tools and providing the best URL shortening service around!