There is a lot of talk around the net on how Twitter can be used to promote your business. More and more businesses are participating in the micro-blogging site in the hopes of increasing their site’s popularity in the internet community. Like using any social media as part of your internet campaign, there are some definite dos and don’ts when it comes to using Twitter.

Twitter shot to popularity in late 2007/early 2008, with no little help from the likes of Stephen Fry and Ashton Kutcher. The fact that celebrities are communicating with their fans on the micro-blogging site meant that Twitter has become The Place to Be Seen, and popularity on Twitter transfers into popularity elsewhere on the net.

It is not, however, a simple case of posting on Twitter and waiting for the website traffic to come rolling in. As with other forms of social media, participation is the key to your success. Also, a certain brand of etiquette is required for participation on Twitter. This involves, among other things, replying to other people’s tweets and reciprocating following to a certain extent. Like most social interaction, participation on Twitter involves a little give and take.

Social media optimisation is the new watchword for techniques to promote your site in social media networks. Social media optimisation, or SMO, uses techniques which are very similar to SEO techniques. Implementing SMO is slightly trickier, usually because you have a lot less space to do it in. Using Twitter is not a case of posting the same form of content in small chunks, but rather distilling your usual content into tiny updates that act as lures to draw people to your main site.

As you might know, each Twitter entry is only 140 characters long. It’s difficult enough to get a message across in 140 words, but 140 characters provide a real challenge for the most experienced copywriter. It’s tempting to write just any old thing in Twitter posts, particularly as viewers expect updates more regularly than regular blog readers. However, it is even more important to create interesting and informative posts on Twitter. Unlike Facebook updates, Twitter posts don’t disappear swiftly and stay visible on your micro-blog for some time. Keywords are still important when you use Twitter, and it is important to incorporate your Twitter use into your search engine optimisation strategy. Talk to us at SEO Consult about the best way to do this. Branding is still extremely important, so keep your posts consistent with your usual content.

You will have heard about the necessity of interaction for other types of social media, and Twitter is no different. Just as a person talking to themselves in a corner will get no attention at a party, a Twitter user posting idly into the ether gets no attention unless they talk to others. The major mistakes made by businesses attempting to break into the Twitter market all involved the assumption that they didn’t have to interact. Their selfish use of the network became an inside joke on Twitter, the accounts of those businesses died a lonely death.

Similarly, the information you post should be interesting. Linking everything directly back to your business is not a wise idea. A Twitter campaign should try to engage people in talk about the business’ subject without blatantly marketing. Interesting tweets can also start having a life of their own, so remember that hard work on an interesting post could always result in a viral.

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