Brad Peck
E-mail questions to
bpeck@uschamber.com

Second in a two-part series

Create a Strong Online Following

In my last column, we looked at using Twitter to keep on top of local, state, and national news. But let’s be honest, that’s not how you spend your day. You spend your day taking care of business and trying to get more of it. Twitter can help you there too. Before you jump into the communications stream, you need to answer some basic questions: Who is your audience? What action do you want it to take? Do you intend to use Twitter to promote your expertise? Get more customer feedback? Increase sales?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you are ready to begin.

Tell who you are. Set a profile picture and bio. Adjust the design of your channel to reflect your overall brand. This can be done through the use of a background photo or custom colors. Then, seed your channel with posts pertaining to your business and, perhaps more importantly, items of interest in your field. For instance, if you remodel kitchens, put up a couple of posts on work you have done, and post links to articles highlighting new products or even quality work by competitors.

Prepare to follow. Spend the first few weeks searching. Find your customers, competitors, and commentators. Read what they are saying, republish (Retweet or RT) their posts on your channel, and decide who to follow.

Talk, listen, and learn. Twitter is first and foremost a discussion forum. Answer questions posed to you and thank users who retweet your posts.

Don’t be shy. Add your Twitter account to your e-mail signature, business card, and marketing material, and don’t be afraid to follow and message folks with many more followers than you.

Reward your followers to gain more. Post your specials, offer a 10% discount to the first 10 people who retweet your tweets, create a survey to test product ideas, and give gift cards to participants. Twitter should be a real-time, natural extension of your traditional marketing.

Be interesting. Spice up your posts with pictures and other information. Instead of simply posting, “Downtown today handing out samples,” plug in your GPS coordinates and upload a picture of that stylish T-shirt you are handing out.

Don’t be reckless. Don’t alienate your followers and damage your brand with passionate comments about a controversial subject. Remember, it’s business.

For further information, check out http://twitter.com/Marriottintl and http://search.twitter.com/advanced.

Here are some additional resources:
• Find things local—http://nearbytweets.com
• Shorten Web links—http://bit.ly
• Add some color to your channel­—http://twitpic.com
• Keep track of incoming and outgoing posts—http://tweetdeck.com