The Wall Street Journal recently reported that 44 percent of the 974 million existing Twitter accounts have never sent a tweet. Yet, they are active users.
So, what does this mean? Is Twitter effective for businesses? Absolutely. Does it drive revenue for companies? You bet. Why? Because of the timeliness of the info, and because it is specific to what the user wants. They select to engage with you. It is permission instead of interruption.
But, for it to be effective, you must see the potential, and write your heart out. The University of Alabama’s Randall Huffaker provides you with some brief tips to help make Twitter effective for your business.
- Be Concise: When you have only 140 characters to express yourself, brevity is essential. Now, if words are not your thing, you can add videos and photos.
- Be human: Think of this as if you are emailing a friend – someone we can associate with and understand.
- Be topical, and react to what is going on out there.
- Reply, engage, answer questions: It is a conversation, and know your @ from your elbows. If you use an @, only that person and their followers see it. Who are you trying to reach?
- Serendipity: If you are a brand, don’t just tweet about my brand and things relevant to my brand, do you like my brand, would you like to take a quiz on my brand, if my brand was a color it would be … Tweet about anything because you are a person. Anything that takes your fancy.
If there is one thing to remember, it is to bring enthusiasm and confidence to every tweet. Don’t feel there are some rules you have to follow.
Huffaker is an instructor in the advertising and public relations department in the College of Communication and Information Sciences.
