Tips on using Twitter as a marketing tool

Google, Bing and Yahoo are currently figuring out how best to incorporate social media into their search results, such is its growing importance on our ‘search’ agendas. Bing has teamed up with the social networking giant Facebook while Google has favoured the other big player, Twitter. As Google is the most used search engine in the UK, Twitter would be a good starting point for a business looking to start marketing its brand via social media.

How best to use Twitter to help improve your rankings?

It is important to remember that Google, Bing and Yahoo are all keen on unique, well-written content, and the same is true for social media. If your activity looks ‘spammy’ and is light on information then this will bring you no benefits. However, a well-run Twitter campaign can do wonders for your search engine visibility.

So what are the important factors to consider?

User name
Having the right username is really important as this is the first contact point for potential customers. Pick a username that relates to your brand and stay away from ‘comedy’ names – trust us, they’re not as funny as you think!

Brand your profile
The chances are that people are going to want to check out your profile, so make sure you get this branded. A well-designed profile page should have a link to your website and some well-written biog content. This is an advert for your company so give it the creative thought it deserves. You only have 160 characters to make your statement to the world, so make the most of it.

Retweet
Twitter is about building community and you need to help others with their tweets. If you see something you like then retweet it. If you do the right thing by others then hopefully they will do the same for your tweets.

Create a conversation
To build a successful Twitter presence you need to strike up a conversation, so don’t make the mistake not engaging with others on the site. Aim to get people posing questions and starting discussions.

Spread out your tweets
Don’t make the mistake of starting the day with a flurry of tweets first thing in the morning. If you have found 10 good topics to talk about then delay sending some until the afternoon or evening.

Say something interesting
It seem obvious but so many people feel the need to tweet about nothing – make sure your tweets are interesting and worth following.

Share
If you want people to share and mention your great content on the website then make it easy for them to do so by adding a ‘share’ button.