Dos

Do: Keep it short and sweet.  With only 140 characters, it is important for your business to get its message across with limited words. Keep to the point and direct followers to your website or blog for more information.

Do: Permalink. Permalink. Permalink. This is a link you can include in your tweet to redirect followers to another webpage, website or social media account. ‘Bitly’ is an essential tool used to shorten links and character usage.

Do you know the real importance of integrated communications? http://t.co/qtilQwH7CB

— Springboard (@Springboard_PR) October 23, 2013

Do: Watch your words. Be careful not to accidentally tweet from the company account instead of your personal account. Keep your language clean, easy to understand and keep personal opinions out of business tweets.

Do: Follow as many people and businesses as you can. This will help generate awareness and interest in your company and spread your message online.

Do: Know your target audience. Be it young 20-somethings, mums or sports-enthusiasts, it is important to tailor your tweets to your target audience. Make sure to follow and engage with key ‘influencers’ in this demographic to build brand awareness among peers and stay up-to-date with what matters most to them. ‘Klout’ is a superb tool for identifying those key online ‘influencers’ for your target market.

Do: Write a clear description of your company in your biography. Let people know exactly who you are and what you do. Twitter allows you to include a link to your website or blog here so make use of it and drive traffic to your own media.

Do: Use Twitter to let your consumers communicate with you. Twitter offers users the opportunity to give your company feedback and to suggest new ideas or improvements. But, remember if you use Twitter for consumer issues you have to be responsive – no tweet should go unanswered.

Do: Use the company’s logo as the profile picture. Having your logo clearly visible on your page builds brand awareness and recognition amongst key stakeholders.

Do: Use hashtags. Hashtags (‘#’) identify key words or topics within a tweet. By grouping together these words or phrases Twitter generates lists of ‘What is Trending’ in real-time thereby enabling global conversations. Use relevant hashtags in your tweets to join conversations and help more people discover you on Twitter.

#ploughing is trending at number 1 at the moment! Fantastic publicity for the National Ploughing Championships #Ireland

— Springboard (@Springboard_PR) September 24, 2013

Don’ts

Don’t:  Plague people with promotions. As much as you want to push your company to the forefront of your followers’ minds, Twitter is all about portraying your brand’s personality. Don’t take a hard-sell approach. Aim to be engaging, helpful, newsworthy, inspiring, a thought-leader and not always promotional.

Don’t:  Over-do it. If companies flood people’s Twitter feed or constantly send Direct Messages (DMs), their followers will be quick to click the ‘unfollow’ button. Tweet regularly during the week to keep people interested but not so much that you turn them off.

Don’t: Use up all 140 characters. This allows people to fit their own Twitter handle (@…) and your entire message into a tweet when they retweet or quote you.

Jewellery looks fab! #irishdesign “@Springboard_PR: @BodegaCork for @DWorks_Studio jewellery catwalk show pic.twitter.com/BwGNvBcYMP”

— Susie Horgan (@Susie_Horgan) August 15, 2013

Don’t: Forget to re-read tweets. It is embarrassing when a business makes spelling and grammar mistakes in a tweet. Always reread your
Tweets before you hit send!

Don’t: Have too many hashtags. Using several hashtags or extremely long hashtags in a single tweet looks messy and people won’t be
bothered to decipher them.

Post by Susie Horgan

Susie founded Springboard in 2011, and has developed the business into a leading, director-led communications agency. She has worked for over 20 years in senior marketing and public relations roles.