3 hacks you can implement to boost your personal brand on Twitter!
Whatever your role or industry, Twitter can work wonders for your professional personal brand. Just think, we’ve seen the huge success it has brought businesses big or small worldwide.
Despite the skepticism in some corners, being connected to a potential reach of over 320 million consumers, companies and influencers is definitely a good thing – for you and your business.
To that end, here are 3 super quick hacks to make your professional Twitter profile start working for you… now’s probably a good time to suggest setting yourself up on Twitter if you haven’t already.
#1: Hacks to an award winning profile
Unlike creating your Facebook profile (which can seem like an interrogation for personal information), setting up your Twitter profile only takes a few minutes.
You’ve only really got your profile picture, your Twitter handle (ie, @dsmn8) and your bio to sell yourself, so you need to make them count. Let’s look at Guy Kawasaki’s Twitter account as an example.
You could say that he is responsible for the term ‘evangelism’ when it comes to marketing and business, he also had a very successful stint at Apple Inc.
Firstly, the handle. Basically, get it as close to your name as possible. Failing that you can try adding your business on the end like “@AlexRogersDSMN8”.
Alternatively you might have to get creative, but not too creative, using “@$alesm4nP4ul” is just going to distract and send the wrong message.
Mr Kawasaki’s profile picture is smart, professional and also shows he has a personality, 3 for 3!
Next look at his bio, one of the key mindset’s to bear in mind about Twitter is that it’s about the ‘now’. Use your bio to say who you are right now and sell it like you mean it. So “I’m working as a sales rep for an alcoholic drinks distributor” could become “Currently quenching thirsty customers on behalf of @Brewdog #CraftAle”.
Tag your business or employer in your bio, and don’t forget to add a link to yours or their website in the available space – if you’re a content marketer, link to the blog instead of the homepage.
Adding a cover image isn’t a necessity, but if you do decide to, apply the same rules as your profile picture and make sure it looks good!
#2: “10 to Friend”
Did you know the average person spends nearly 9 hours a day on social media? The beauty about Twitter is that it’s built for quick consumption.
For this second Twitter hack, all you need is 10 minutes every now and then, but ideally at least twice a day.
‘10 to friend’ as you might expect, means spending just 10 minutes scrolling through and engaging with relevant accounts.
This can be a quick like, a retweet or a follow. That’s it! You can, of course, send tweets of your own or respond to any comments or message but the aim here is speed.
Make a habit of doing this and trust me, you’ll get better at it, you’ll get faster and you’ll soon be able to personalize your activity for specific accounts – like ideal business leads or employers. I’ve also found it to be the quickest way to learn about Twitter culture like hashtagging and all that jazz.
I tend to do this twice a day, once on my way into work (when everyone is on Twitter before work) and once on the way home at around 5pm. I’ll also try to share or retweet at least two valuable articles related to my job, whether they’ve been created by my company or a relevant industry publication.
#3: Play the Game
This one kind of follows on from hack #2 and might take you a while to get used to but you really do get out what you put in. How you engage will come naturally to you but the fact is you must engage.
There are different things you can try or better still you can try all of them. Hashtag trends are a good way of staying up to date and focused on what’s going on in the Twitterverse.
You may have to filter through a lot of rubbish hashtags in the beginning but the more you engage, the better Twitter will learn what trends are most appropriate to your behavior.
Set yourself goals to hit each day. You might want to find and follow a certain number of relevant accounts, like ‘X’ amount of tweets, post at least ‘X’ retweets for every 10 likes, post at least 2 pieces of company content, thank your followers – basically anything that keeps your Twitter game focused and fun!
Final Thoughts…
Nailing your personal profile on Twitter is as simple as following any combination or preferably all of these easy hacks.
The next step is to combine this activity with other professional social channels and networking opportunities.
Just like a business brand, your personal brand is an exercise in relationship + experience = success.
Happy tweeting!
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