1. Identify Yourself. Take some time to set your profile page with accurate contact information.  Use your face, or a clear business logo, in your profile picture.  Use your business imagery in your profile background, and consider using similar imagery in both your website and your Twitter page.  People feel more connected with you when they can identify your product and visualize who is tweeting to them.
2. Add Value. Use Twitter to announce details about your business – that new product has finally arrived, or your appearance at a new market.  If you don’t have anything to announce about your business, link to a relevant article online.  For example, if your product is soup, you could link to a story about the nutrient value in some of your ingredients.
3. Not Too Much. Don’t constantly point out the connection between the story and your product.  As long as the connection is there, your followers will see it – if they want to.  Remember that your followers use Twitter for more than to find out about your product, and if you overwhelm them, they could unfollow you with a single click!  Avoid being perceived as a Twitter spammer.
4. Be Fun. As in your blog, you should let your voice shine through your tweets.  Excitement and optimism about your business and product is more likely to catch your followers’ attention.
5. Stay On-Topic. Business twitterers always have to remember that they are tweeting for the business.   Don’t fall into the habit of tweeting your lunch break, or your bad mood.  Maintain a separate private Twitter account for your non-business-related tweets.
6. Link To Your Blog. If you have an important blog post, share the link in a Tweet.  This is a great way to offer your content without making your followers read a huge tweet, or series of tweets.  Give a brief 3-5 word title, followed by the link.  Interested followers will click through!  If you use WordPress, there is a plug-in that can tweet your posts automatically.

© 2009 Bright Stars Online | All rights reserved. This post cannot be republished without express written permission.

On the contrary, blogs are a great way to let your personality shine through to your customers. As you provide your brand message or product information, you should take the opportunity to connect with your audience on a more personal level. Customers feel more personally connected with your brand if they feel like they are friends with you.

You can “let your personality shine” by using an informal name or title, and by sharing some of your daily experiences running your business. When people visit your site, they will be open to hearing interesting stories about your business and industry. Use a conversational tone, so people feel like you are speaking directly to them.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you should let a day’s negativity, or bad feelings (we all have those, once in a while!), show through to your audience. Your blog isn’t an open portal to your personality: it’s a marketing tool that helps build your online image. Allow it to show some personality – but don’t feel that it has to show everything about you.

Start using your blog to build customer loyalty and trust by creating a more personal image online. You’ll be way ahead of businesses that don’t bother to connect with their online customers.

© 2009 Bright Stars Online | All rights reserved. This post cannot be republished without express written permission.