Twitter Business Tips: Building Your Brand Online

Brand is everything for a business. The way your company is perceived by potential clients and the people who have already done business with you is one of the most crucial factors of your success.

A brand can make or break it for you. Most startups I work with understand that rule in one way or another. Some interpret it simply as a need to have a logo and focus their energy on having one developed. Others go deeper and work really hard to build their image.

Yet most of them fail at using Twitter for business.

It is one thing to have your logo and corporate colors on your website. Or a copy that communicates your values through your marketing collateral. Presenting your company through social networking sites is something completely different though. And the rules of the game are much different too.

Few weeks ago I started a series of posts that aim to help startup business owners to use Twitter for business. I stated in the first post that I consider myself a newbie when it comes to using social networking sites to promote a business. It was only last year that I started building my brand there. However I think I have developed (through trial and error, I must admit) some good skills and knowledge when it comes to building a brand on Twitter. This week I want to share them with you.

YOUR BRAND ON TWITTER

Twitter is a powerful tool when it comes to business. I didn’t realize it when I first went on to the platform a few years ago. And if you’d asked me just over a year ago about it, my thoughts about Twitter were still negative.

In time however I realized how little I knew about it, and that my lack of any success there came simply from my ignorance. I decided to try new things, followed some really good advice and finally established myself and my business on Twitter.

Since then I have done a lot of business through it. And even now, new opportunities are mounting for me (some of which you will soon hear about on this blog). Yes, Twitter is very powerful for business. But you really need to know what to do in order to get the most out of it.

MY PERSONAL TIPS FOR BUILDING YOUR BRAND ON TWITTER

I am not sure if there are any unified rules for building your brand on Twitter. I think you just have to work out what works by yourself. I did and below are some of the things that worked really well for me.

1. Use your real name.

As obvious as this may sound, I can see many companies making this mistake. It is great to promote your company name. It is in fact a part of brand building process. However when building relationships on sites like Twitter, your own name is a better choice. Let’s face it, no one wants to build a relationship with a business name. If you want to establish yourself on Twitter, use your real name. This way you will become a person, not yet another company name.

Naturally, you can use your company name as your ID (mine is pawelgra77, not my real name by all means), however state your real name too.

Twitter works slightly different than the business world. In the professional world it is your company name that must stand out. On Twitter though, a real person is valued more.

I personally hardly ever interact or reply to questions sent by Twitter accounts with business names only. I don’t feel the same connection with them as I would have with a real person. With some exceptions I also don’t like people hiding behind a mask and I think I am not alone here.

2. Use your own image.

You may have the greatest looking logo in the world, yet it is not you. And just like with your real name, in the world of business your logo is your image. When you interact with people on social networking sites though, you should be in front. It is easier for people to build trust and relationships with someone rather than a logo.

3. Tell a story in your profile.

Twitter profile is important and I am sure you heard about it already. However, merely stating what you do there is really not enough. You need to catch peoples attention with your profile description.

In order to do that, tell a story. Use your vision and mission for your business to create one. Maybe, like me, you are on a quest to create something? Or maybe you have some interesting personal background that may have shaped you as a person and a business leader? Your story will differentiate you from your competitors and make you stand out amongst millions of other Twitter users.

4. Create a welcome page on your site.

Putting your sites URL into your profile is not enough anymore. Your followers may not get the idea of what you are trying to build on Twitter from your home page. Therefore you need to have a dedicated landing page on your site for those who will come from your Twitter profile page.

A Twitter landing page is also your chance to strengthen the image of yourself that you are trying to build on the social networking platform.

Remember, it is as much about your business as it is about you.

5. Follow influential people in your industry.

This advice may sound silly as it hardly has anything to do with brand building. However, there is some login behind it. Many people, me included, will check whom you follow before following you back. If you show that you are interested in the industry and the niche you operate in (and the best way to do it is by following your industry influencers), they will perceive you the same way.

6. Post regular and valuable updates.

Note: I plan to dedicate a whole post to posting on Twitter, therefore today I will only touch on the subject.

Posting updates is where most Twitter newcomers (and many long time users alike) fail miserably. This comes especially true for businesses trying to establish their brand on Twitter.

For some reason many companies feel that they should be writing for their competition, not prospective clients. They post info related to what they do, instead of what their prospects would be looking for.

Graphic designers, instead of posting valuable info that could help their prospects use printed (or online) promotional materials better, post best design examples from the net. As if they thought that talking design will solve their clients problems.

Web designers are talking about code all the time. Not something their prospects would be interested in I’d imagine.

TIP: You can be perceived as an expert in your field by talking about technicalities of your work, true. However, I can guarantee that if you start helping your prospects and clients with THEIR problems, you will be perceived as the only person worth talking to when it comes to what you do. Your choice.

Your brand is one of the most valuable assets your business owns. However, just like you need to work hard to establish it in the real world, you need to also make sure that you do the same online.

These days, Twitter is a crucial part of a business. Whether you like it or not, you need to incorporate this social networking platform into your brand building strategy almost straight away.

The good news though is that it doesn’t take much time and effort to do so. In the next post of the series I will show you what sort of content you should be posting, where to find it and how to make it look even more interesting for your prospects.

GREAT TWITTER RESOURCE

If you want to learn more about Twitter I recommend you have a look at Twitter Dummy, a wonderful ebook by John Paul Aguiar. It is practically packed with useful advice on how to start and build your image on Twitter.

This is in fact the book I learned how to use Twitter from.

How about you?

How do you work on establishing your brand on Twitter? Do you have any tips that you could share with us?

Image by Flickr user, xotoko distributed under creative commons license.