Social Networking Advertising


Social Networking Advertising Tips: How to Make Your Twitter Profile Work for You, Not Against You

In social networking advertising, as in everything else in life, the importance of the first impression cannot be understated. This means that you need to optimize the appearance and text in your Twitter profile, so that everyone who sees it will know that your business “gets” Twitter. You’ll maximize your chances of attracting quality followers if you put some effort into making sure that the basic look of your Twitter presence is on a par with the companies who use social networking advertising most effectively. To ask your clients to follow you on Twitter is to ask for a little bit of their time every day, as they read their Twitter stream and see your tweets pop up. Let them know from the get-go that you understand what’s expected on Twitter, and will provide value respect the time they’re investing in reading what you have to say. Here’s a quick and easy cheat sheet to make sure you’re making the most of your profile settings:

Hatch from your egg.

The default Twitter avatar is a white egg against a solid-colored background. Unless this is, by an incredible coincidence, also your company’s logo, you’ll want to change that image to a more appropriate visual representation of your company as soon as possible. Many Twitter spammers and other lowlifes will just let their egg avatars remain, so don’t start tweeting at all until you’ve changed yours. While you’re at it, add a suitable header image. It’s a good social networking advertising practice to have a customized background as well. Many businesses use their Twitter backgrounds to provide the URLs of their other social media profiles.

Tell the world who you are.

Provide a succinct yet informative bio in 160 characters. It’s best to include some keywords here, so people searching Twitter for topics related to your business will be able to find you. Make sure your bio is not just a string of keywords without appropriate linking text, however—or worse, a string of hashtags. The former is more common in social networking advertising profiles than you might think, and this is always a beacon shining out the fact that the company in question has no idea how to use Twitter effectively. Sure, the hashtags might make it more likely that their profile will show up in searches, but they are much less likely to attract followers of quality. The language of your bio should match the rest of your branding. For example, if your image is hip and witty, make sure your bio is, too.

List your full web address.

It might seem like a no-brainer, but a shocking number of business profiles will put a shortened link for their web address instead of writing out the whole thing. If your URL is really too long to fit in the space Twitter provides for it, go ahead and use a shortened link, but it’s much better to show your customers and leads the full link. That way they’ll have a better idea of what they’re clicking on, and they might even remember the link and decide to type it into their browser at some point and to visit your site. It is all part of the overall social media marketing strategy.

And there you have it: the basics of Twitter profiles for social networking advertising in a nutshell. Or is that an eggshell?