Building your Brand on Twitter

Craig Simons | @craigasimons So, you want to use Twitter to build your brand or even yourself.  You probably already have a Twitter handle and you have maybe sent the odd tweet. Here are a few things to consider as you get started.

First, building your brand on Twitter is not one long and extended sales pitch. Although your end goal may be related to sales, we (as the audience) don’t want to be hit over the head with it. Tweets must not only be about what you are selling. This is basically the online equivalent of annoying telemarketing calls or sales people coming to your door. Don't be that person on Twitter.

Next is lack of follow through. One of the primary keys to Twitter is consistency. Many people follow quite a number of users, so one has to tweet several times a day (at least) to make certain that some of their tweets get seen. As I build my own personal brand, I tweet many times a day and consistently every day and it is working well for me. Establish a goal for yourself such as one tweet per day in the beginning until you are more comfortable, then work your way up.

Third, content is king. Your tweets must be interesting, entertaining and engaging. Each tweet is an opportunity for you to express to people that you actually are interested in more than making your company profitable. So mix up your tweets. Give us a chance to see the different facets of your company and your brand. Make us laugh, give us valable tidbits of information, ask what we think. Do this and I guarantee you will have us hooked.

Fourth and probably most important: engagement. There is nothing more frustrating that responding to a tweet and then to not have any kind of reply or acknowledgement. The more you engage with your user audience, the more they will tend to like you and recommend to others that they follow you.  I recently read a statistic that was actually quite alarming. Seventy percent of customer inquiries to companies, on Twitter, went unanswered! The faster a tweet is responded to, the more quickly you will earn the respect and love of your Twitter community.

One brand sticks out in terms of content and engagement is @starbucks.  In going through their news feed, it is clear they are engaging with their user audience. As an individual, one tends to think that a huge company would not have the time to respond to tweets and I am sure not all tweets are answered. But, just knowing that the company responds to so many will have their audience interacting. They also tweet about more than just their business and what they offer. With more than 4.5 Million followers, they must be doing something right!

So, be interesting, be consistent and most importantly, engage your audience.