16th February 2012

Twitter simple advice to make it work for you

Twitter has grown in popularity; it has developed a culture of its own. Whilst having fewer members than face book an interesting fact is that while 12% of face book members update their profile daily 52% of twitter members update their status every day.

Source.

As you develop your RDR client proposition Twitter can be a cost effective and powerful communications medium for certain client segments. However if your new to it what should you do to make it a success?

The culture of Twitter soon becomes apparent through regular use but as more and more advisers embrace social media and twitter in particular to communicate with their clients, let’s look at some tips that can help you enjoy twitter.

When you start have a complete biography and have a picture, people want to know who you are and what you do and how you can be part of their community.

It’s helpful to be as transparent possible to ensure Twitter has no implications for your brand.

Be yourself. It is ok and welcome to be different on twitter. 

It’s okay to follow people you don’t know on Twitter. They can choose whether or not to follow you back.

It’s okay to unfollow people on Twitter. Unfollowing doesn’t automatically mean “I don’t like you.” There are many other reasons.

It’s okay to @reply someone a question or comment vs direct message, especially if it’s an idea where others might weigh in or add a perspective.

It’s better to direct message someone if you’re making 1:1 plans or having a very focused, personal conversation.

Promoting others and talking with others is a great way to show your participation to the community.

You don’t have to read every tweet.

You don’t have to respond to every @mention.

You aren’t obligated to reply to every direct message, however, the more you can respond, the more people tend to stay with you and build relationships.

When retweeting other people’s works, it’s okay to truncate a bit to be able to retweet. Please preserve the link and also the original person’s Twitter name.

If you’re running a customer service Twitter account, it’s polite to follow back the people following you. 

People might unfollow you if you tweet excessively.

Check your links before you tweet them! 

Use a URL shortening tool such as bit.ly to link to web pages in your tweets

If you are on twitter be sure and follow us at www.twitter.comaegonbizbrain

If not why not try the growing world of twitter

John Joe McGinley Head of Business Brain Feb 2012  

RDR