Have you ever sent a crafty pal of yours a link to some cool crafty thing you came across on the internet and just had to share? Do you agree that if your co-worker or employee was telling you about an awesome quilted car snuggy, for instance, you'd be very intrigued if not somewhat frustrated until you actually got to see it for yourself? Twitter is the perfect platform for trading links and sharing inspiration, so for that reason alone you should join the party. And you'll remain in Tweetdom, because at some point not to far into the future you'll realize the potential Twitter has as an integral part of your business marketing strategy.
I will get into the nitty gritty of Twitter as a useful tool in helping you grow your business later. This post will tell you how to jump start your Twitter experience so that you don't waste any time in getting Twitter to work for you. In no time you'll be enjoying tweeting back and forth on topics that interest you with people you didn't previously have access to.
When you have opened your Twitter account, be sure to fill out the Account tab under Settings. The only other mandatory action item at this point is uploading a custom picture. It doesn't have to be your face- it can be something fun- but the quicker you change out of the generic graphic Twitter provides, the quicker you'll look and feel like a pro.
Now you need to find your people. Directories such as Twello and Just Tweet It are definitely worth exploring. You can also register yourself in these directories under certain categories or genres such as crafts, knitting, scrapbooking, home business, and entrepreneur in order to help others find you. wefollow is probably the most widely used directory. Try searching for people by tags such as "craft", "handmade", and "creative" and follow those you know or find interesting.
Follow the instructions to add yourself to the directory and you'll be prompted to choose your own three tags. You'll want to choose tags that are specific to yourself and your business, but aren't as popular as similar tags. For instance, you'll want to go with craft instead of handmade (if these terms do in fact have the same meaning to you) because you will be more easily found and followed when you are in a group of 40,000 vs 117,000. And it's all about how many followers you have.
Now that you've chosen your tags, you can start including them in tweets that you want to direct to these groups. If you include "#craft" in your tweet, anyone who is searching for tweets directed towards craft followers will find and read it. This is a great way to broadcast to those you want following you.
But what are you going to say? This is the cool part: Twitter really makes it easy to be transparent. Where Facebook portrays you as your friends and family see you, and LinkedIn highlights your professional life, Twitter lets you easily be both. This is because people like receiving tweets that are relevent to their careers, interests, or business. But if all you do is shamelessly promote yourself or link to industry news, then no one ever gets to know the real you. As old as it gets to read all the "good morning"s and "good night"s on Twitter, it's also nice to know that its real people on Twitter, and not just a bunch of robots.
Next Twitter post will be about setting up your TweetDeck. As Snoop Dogg would Tweet, "good night my Twizzles!"
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