What’s the deal with Twitter?

Twitter, ladies and gentlemen, is the water cooler of the digital age! Twitter users share short updates, called Tweets, on what they’re doing with all of their friends and associates on the site (called Followers). 

Great, so why do you care? Well, Twitter is an SEO dream come true! There are so many people Tweeting like crazy, that the traffic that Twitter builds can be incredibly valuable IF it’s harnessed properly. 

Here are a few guidelines to remember when using Twitter:

1. Separate YOU from your company. Tweeting about going to the grocery store or how much you love Lost will not help your business at all (a bummer, we know!). Keep your business Tweets relevant.
    
2. Tweet often, but not too often. Tweeting every 15 minutes to talk about your business is, under most circumstances, not a good idea (and annoying). Keep your Tweets relevant (see #1) and they have to be newsworthy. Now, if your company is in the middle of a major revolutionary change (new product line, merger, etc.) then Tweeting more often is justified and mandatory!
    
3. Link away! Each one of your Tweets should highlight something about your business. Each Tweet should also have a link back to your company’s home page or an individual page or post (if it’s a blog or combination blog/website) relevant to that Tweet
    
4. Follow to get followers. Find Twitter users that are in the same business as you or have the same interests. One of our clients, Divinity MMA, has done an exceptional job building up a host of followers of both faithful and fight fans on their Twitter page. By following several Twitter users dedicated to mixed martial arts and religion, the followers of those users have in turn begun to follow Divinity.

That’s the basics on Twitter. For more information, a great book is Twitter Power by Joel Comm.