Get the Most Out Of Twitter

Hello, my name’s Tom and I’m a Twitterholic. I’ll admit when Twitter first came out I didn’t really see what all the fuss was about. How could something that was essential just like Facebook’s status updates be so popular, with out everything else?… well I was wrong. We started using it to primarily promote our blog, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

As a web designer it has become a great way of finding out the latest news and interacting with others in the industry. If you’ve seen our Twitter Profile, you’ll notice that we are doing pretty well for a modest sized company.

Now we can’t all be as popular as Justin Beiber (Ahh!!) or Stephen Fry but in this post I’ll give away a few of my tips on how to get the most out of Twitter for you and your business and how it can increase visits to your website design“>website design.

Share and Retweet Useful Information

I’m not saying you can’t post the odd random tweet, but on the whole it’s best to share and retweet information that you think potential followers will find useful and be of benefit.

Promote Your Blog

If you have a blog then twitter is a great way to drive traffic and get a buzz going about it. Everytime you post a blog then mention on your Twitter page. It’s also a good idea to add a retweet button to the pages of your blog posts, so people can simply click on it to retweet it on their Twitter page.

Choose Your Followers Wisely

A lot of people out there follow many many other people just for the sake of it, in the vain hope that they will follow them back. It’s a good idea to follow people that often retweet articles, not only are these type of Twitterers interesting but if they spot your blog then they could drive a lot of traffic to your website.

Have a Schedule

Having a schedule for your tweets can be really useful, not only does it allow you to get on with your ACTUAL work, it can focus your mind towards sharing and creating the most valuable content. After all, as I’m often told ‘quality is king’, or something like that.

Submit to Twitter Directories

Twitter can be a lonely place, especially if no one knows you’re there. Submitting to twitter directories is the best way to get your face out there. Add yourself under categories that best describe you and thus you’ll attract a lot more relevant followers. My top 5 directories would be…

Geo Follow – which allows you to list yourself by category and location.
Tweetfind – A free Twitter Directory which was created to help you find new Twitterers to follow and get yourself found.
Twitter Groups – Does what it says on the tin, join groups with Twitterers with similar interests.
Twitterectory – Yep, another directory, you can also add your name in the lists of categories, nice.
WeFollow – User powered Twitter directory based on categories and tags.

Use Your Bio and Picture

Make sure that you make good use of your Twitter Bio, give a decent description of who you are and what you do. Also add your web address, facebook profile, linked in profile – its all about driving that traffic.

Effective Use of Your Twitter Background

Your Twitter background is a great way to promote yourself or your business even more. Write a little about yourself, include you contact details, your website address, Facebook. There are some great example out there of how to do it well and it’s become a real design challenge – especially for us design types!

When you’re designing your Twitter background bear in mind that it’s going to viewed on a multitude of various browser sizes, big and small. It’s also going to be displayed on the top left of the screen – so keep all information neat and tidy on the left and don’t extend more than about 250 pixels right or people with smaller screen won’t be able to see your info (it’ll disappear behind the main content). It’s amazing how many people, even designers don’t realise this!

Express Yourselve and Your Personality

Twitter should be fun, it should be about engaging with your audience and even making connections with people in similar walks of life. Enjoy yourself, give honest opinions and show your personality. Who wants to follow a robot? Make it interest and go forth a Tweet!

My Favourite People to Follow

@smashingmag – Goes without saying, if you’re in Web Design then you need to follow Smashing.
@mashable – Again a must, the latest and best in social media news.
@instantshift – Similar to Smashing but with a bit more fun.
@sitepointdotcom – You may have their books, well they’re also good on Twitter too.
@stephenfry – Following Stephen on Twitter is as British as having tea and crumpets with the Queen, sitting on a swan.

Art and design has always been my love and talent. Like a cat I always land on my feet, achieving a BA in Graphic Design from Coventry University. My specialties include design, illustration, flash and animation.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 19th, 2010 at 9:56 am and is filed under Resources, Twitter, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.