This is it! It’s time to dive in. Michael Phelps has nothing on you…after this, you’ll be a Twitter gold medalist!

Twitter for Business (Advanced Users)

The first thing I’d recommend doing is personalizing your Twitter background (see snapshot of mine above). If you’ve got a graphic designer on staff, the dimensions of the graphic are 1920 px wide by 1200 px tall (but you have to leave space for your feed, etc.) I used this website to download a PowerPoint template that I turned into a JPEG to upload (the directions are on the website). If you get the PPT finished and get stuck there, email it to me and I’ll convert it for you (once I completed the design in PPT I used Photoshop; much easier!).

The next thing you want to do, if you have a Facebook page, is set your Twitter account to cross-post to both sites (so you’re not duplicating your efforts). You can use the Twitter Facebook App (http://apps.facebook.com/twitter) or a third party site like http://ping.fm, which will cross post to multiple sites at once.

If this is a firm account and you’re trying to decide to use one account or several, here’s my advice (take it for what it’s worth). I would use one account with multiple users. Using your custom background, you can identify each of the twitterers by including a photo and their name, title, etc. Include some way for them to sign their messages, like their initials (mine would be “^KG”) so the readers know who tweeted the message. Also be sure to include all of their names in the Bio section of Twitter’s Settings/Profile, since you will have used your firm name as the name of the account.

This leads me to the reminder to be authentic and transparent. Always let the readers know who is behind the tweets; the greatest opportunity Twitter gives you is the chance to show the personality and humanness behind your organization. This is your chance to communicate your firm’s culture (I keep coming back to @Zappos as an example because I think Tony does this exquisitely). Allow your staff to participate in the conversations too. They are an extension of your firm’s brand and can have a positive impact on your web presence. Just be sure to have some guidelines in place.

Twitter is not really a place to sell your services; yes, that will hopefully be a byproduct of the dialogue that happens within Twitter, but Twitter is for making conversations and generating buzz. Your traditional marketing methods (because yes, you still need those) are for closing the deal. However, if you can come up with a creative contest, promotion or tweetup, Twitterers are suckers for those and will participate and retweet, potentially generating revenue for the firm.

Back up, what’s a TweetUp? A tweetup is akin to a meet-up; through Twitter, sometimes using a designated hashtag, you organize a live gathering somewhere in your city. For instance, you’ve been conversing with several individuals who may be good prospects so you invite them for a tweetup at the local Starbucks, coffee on you. It’s an informal opportunity to gather and network in person.

Okay, I’m getting “wordy” again, so I’m going to jump back into bullet points of info:

• Twhirl (http://twhirl.com) sits on your desktop and delivers a steady stream of tweets (you have to download Adobe Air first;http://www.adobe.com/products/air). It can help you stay on top of your tweets, but may be overwhelming and suck up time. So use this with caution.
• Use Advanced Search to locate questions/needs in your area of expertise and grab an RSS feed; keep an eye on this and respond when you can. Please note that you should approach with a little caution; be friendly and offer your assistance. If done right, you’ll develop a positive reputation as an expert in your area.
• Link appealingly and creatively to your website or blog; the headline you choose will either generate more web traffic or drive people away (never tweet, “New blog post: blah, blah, blah, link).
• Pictures ARE worth a thousand words. Post pictures using TwitPic (http://twitpic.com)
• REPOST IMPORTANT MESSAGES several times; each post only receives about 5 minutes of view time. That means if it hasn’t been clicked through within the first 5 minutes, chances are people didn’t see it. So repost it throughout the day to be sure it’s seen (use bit.ly to track click throughs)

Advanced Hashtag Uses (in each instance, you need to designate a hashtag so you can aggregate the responses)

• Tweetups
• Collecting ideas
• Sharing experiences
• Group live chats (publicize hashtag and date/time in advance!)
• Live Twitter an event, seminar or conference (publicize hashtag and date/times in advance!)

Tracking Traffic to your Website & Blog

• Google Analytics
• http://bit.ly.com (URL shortener and tracker)
• http://backtweets.com (tracks links to your site that may have been shortened by someone else); you can also grab an RSS feed from Backtweets

Finally, use Twitter to engage journalists and PR people (see Centers of Influence). Twitter has become a major source for reporters to find great stories. Follow HARO (“Help a Reporter Out”), Twitter handle @skydiver; he regularly posts inquiries from reporters.

That’s it! You made it through! Easy enough, right? Maybe not. Just remember that I’m here to help you navigate the Twitterverse, so feel free to email me anytime with questions.

If you plan to make the leap (or already have but are quickly seeing how complicated 140 characters can be), I recommend buying The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein. It retails for $19.99 but you can find it on Amazon for under $14.

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