How To Use Twitter For Your Business Or Website

Twitter is a high popular social media site, which provides an excellent way for business owners (website owners) to connect with their customer and client base. Using short, 140 character (or less) posts called “tweets”, Twitter allows you to communicate with other Twitter users, and publish news and updates about yourself and/or your business. Rather you are looking to expand your customer base, looking to connect more with your current customers, or both… Twitter provides a perfect platform to help you accomplish this.

For the sake of this tutorial we are going to assume the user doesn’t have a Twitter account. (If you are a GoRocketWeb client who would like to have us set up a Twitter Account for you, simply contact us and we’d be happy to do this)

1. Setting Up Your Twitter Account.

Twitter is a completely free service, and all you will need to get started in a valid email address. Once you are at the Twitter website, click “sign up”, and complete the brief sign up form. You will need to enter your name, email address, create a password, and choose your username. Your username is typically the name of your business and/or website, and is the name which other Twitter users will use to contact and communicate with you. Once you have completed the sign up form, you will need to sign into your email account and look for an “email validation” sent from Twitter (check your SPAM folder if you can not locate it within your inbox). Twitter will provide you with a link to click on within the email that will confirm you are the owner of the email address you signed up with. Once you complete that step, you’re done! You are an official Twitter user!

2. Setting Up Your Profile.

Now That you have a Twitter account, the next step is to fill out your Twitter profile. Click on the settings icon, and select the “settings” option as seen here:

Once you are in the Settings Dashboard you will see a menu that has a variety of options, which will let you change your password (if needed), manage your email notifications, and update your profile information and design settings.

If you select “Profile” from the menu, you will be taken to the Profile Dashboard where you can upload your profile picture, header picture, enter your name, location, website, and a short bio.

If you select “Design” from the menu, you will be taken to the Design Dashboard where you can change the color of your Twitter page background, text, and links.

3. How To Use Twitter.

Lets take a closer look at how Twitter works, so you can get started connecting with your current customers and attracting new ones! We will cover the basics, but if you have a question on something not covered below, drop us a comment and well be happy to point you in the right direction.

Tweeting:
A Tweet is a short, 140 character (or less) post. Tweets are what Twitter is built around. Tweets can be used to promote current products, discounts, specials, or news about your business to your followers.

Tweets can be simple text, such as:

Or they can include links and hashtags, such as:

Twitter Feed:
Your Twitter feed is similar to your news feed on Facebook. It displays all of the most recent Tweets from the people you follow on Twitter.

Following:
When you “follow” someone on Twitter you are essentially subscribing to their Tweets. Anything they post on Twitter will show up in your Twitter feed. You can follow as many people as you would like. Following people with your same interests or within your same industry is a good way to make new connections.

Retweeting:
When you see another users Tweet that you would like to share with your own Twitter followers, you can do what is called a Retweet, by clicking the “retweet” link, as seen here:

Replying:
If you would like to respond or comment on another users Tweet, you can do so by clicking the “reply” link, as seen here:

Hashtags:
Hashtags are used to highlight keywords in your Tweets, and to help categorize those Tweets, making them show up more easily in Twitter Search. If you click on a hashtagged word in any Tweet, it will show you all other Tweets (from all Twitter users) marked with that same hashtag.

4. Building Your Twitter Community

Next, you will want to start building your Twitter community by connecting with current clients, and making new connections. If you have an email list of current customers/clients, or another social network already in place (such as Facebook or LinkedIn), these are great resources to start building your Twitter community. You may wish to send out an email or announce to your other social networks that you’re now on Twitter, and invite them to follow you!

5. Integrating Your Twitter Account Into Your Website

In order to help your customers and clients to find you on Twitter, you will likely want to start by integrating Twitter into your website. The easiest way to do this is to simply provide a link on your website to your Twitter page. You may also wish to integrate your Twitter Feed into your website. Integrating your Twitter Feed into your website will automatically pull your most current Tweets from your Twitter page, and display them on your website.

GoRocketWeb clients, please contact us at anytime to have Twitter features integrated into your website. If you are not a GoRocketWeb client, contact your web developer or designer for help.