You can setup Twitter for your business in a few easy steps. You may be wondering exactly what Twitter is, why you should set up a Twitter account for your business and how it can help your business bottom line so I’ll start by addressing those questions.

Twitter is an online social networking platform that has at times been referred to as micro-blogging. Users communicate by sending quick, short tweets, retweets, mentions and can also DM each other. What? Don’t worry I’ll explain each of those.

There are basically 3 types of users on Twitter; the personal account user, the career building user, and the business user.

Twitter for business is essentially used to communicate with your customers, promote your brand and increase customer loyalty by building a following of personal and career building users. The beauty of Twitter is that you can begin following others and getting your name and brand out there right away, no personal connection needed. Twitter also makes it easy to see what your customers and your competition are talking about by easily researching trending topics and hashtags. Anyone can read Twitter posts but only registered users can create a tweet.

Twitter takes a little bit of practice and requires that you give some thought to what you want to convey to your audience and how to do that most effectively in 140 characters or less. Challenging for sure but 320 million monthly active users is proof it can be done.

Let’s help you get familiar with some key twitter definitions.

Twitter Terminology

Tweet – A tweet is simply a short, to the point 140 character text message. Tweets may also contain links, videos or pictures. Retweet – (RT) A retweet is a “tweet” you share with your followers. You can add your own comments to a retweet and share your opinion. Mention – (@username) You can include the @ symbol before any username to make sure a specific individual(s) sees your tweet. If you want to reach us on twitter you would use @quilibetmedia to communicate with us directly and publicly. Hashtag – (#) The hashtag symbol is used to denote a keyword or topic within a tweet. Users can click on any hashtag included in a tweet and see other tweets that have also used that hashtag. For example, I might use the hashtag #socialmediaforsmallbusiness when tweeting about this post to be included in the list of results for any small business owners searching on Twitter for social media advice. Direct Message – (DM) A direct message is an inbox/outbox system that lets you communicate with other Twitter users privately. DM’s are also limited to 140 characters of text.

Setting up a Twitter Page for your Business

What you will need:

• A Twitter account for your business – use a business email address for notifications
• A Twitter username – short and sweet, 15 characters or less
• Business Bio – 160 characters to introduce your business
• Your business location
• Your business website URL
• A profile image (400 x 400 pixels is the recommended size)
• A header image (1500 x 1500 pixels is the recommended size)

Steps to setup Twitter for your business:

1. Signup for Twitter using a business email address and password you don’t mind sharing with your co-managers.
2. Create your Twitter Username – make it something easy for followers to type and remember.
3. Twitter will prompt you through some information to get you started, choose topics relevant to your industry.
4. Upload your profile picture
5. Connect with people you know already using Twitter
6. Verify your Twitter account –Twitter will send you an email to the address you inputted for verification
7. While logged into Twitter click on your profile picture.
8. Add your header photo
9. Click Edit Profile (on the right, below the header photo)
10. Enter your business bio, location (usually city and state), and website URL.
11. Click Save Changes (on the right, below the header photo)
12. Write your first tweet!

You did it! Your business is now live on Twitter! If you would like to learn a bit more right away Twitter has created some helpful information for new users. Twitter Basics Check back with us here at Quilibet Media as I’ll continue posting in our Social Media Setup for Small Business series over the next few weeks. Google+ is up next. If you found this article useful and informative please join us and subscribe to our newsletter below. Don’t worry we won’t flood your inbox with email or send you spam, we don’t like that either and don’t want to lose you.