This guest post by David Meerman Scott originally appeared on his blog Web Ink Now.
I’ve been enjoying Twitter and (so far) have managed not to become obsessed. I’ll tweet a few times a day and check out others now and then throughout the week.
As you probably know, people use Twitter to keep their “followers” (people who subscribe to their Twitter feed) updated on their life. For instance, you might tweet about the conference you’re attending, the project you’re engrossed in, or you might ask your network a question. Users can choose to follow the Twitter updates of anyone they want to hear from: family members, colleagues, or perhaps the author of the last book they read.
Twitter has been a valuable personal branding tool for me. I’ve connected with people who read my stuff, met new contacts, pointed people to my books, and promoted speaking engagements. All for free and in just a few minutes a day.
Many people ask me about Twitter and it’s use in personal branding and marketing. But they immediately dive into stuff like “how often should I tweet”, “what should I tweet about”, “is it cool to DM people” (send direct messages), and other details of using Twitter. Well, that’s all fine, but the vast majority of people miss the most basic (and important) personal branding aspect of all.
What does your Twitter page look like?
Most Twitter pages don’t say enough and most have crappy design. While that’s fine if you’re just communicating with friends, if you care about your personal brand, you need to do better. Much better. And it is so easy!
Here are my suggestions. You make these changes under the “settings” tab in Twitter. Again, this is Twitter for personal branding, so it may not apply to you:
Twitter ID: (mine is dmscott) Use something that is not silly. Something like MrSillyGuy is probably not a good idea for most people. (However it that is your personal brand of course it is fine. As of this writing MrSillyGuy is not taken as a Twitter ID, so go for it if you want to.)
Name: (mine is David Meerman Scott). Use your real name. Don’t just default to your user ID. And don’t just use a nickname like “Pookie”. You can put your nickname in quotes inside of your real name if you want to. You want people to know who you are if you care about your personal brand.
Location: (mine is Boston, MA area) Use the town or nearest city that makes sense for you. Saying something cute like “earth” or “somewhere in Canada” turns people who don’t know you off. Besides, the location is a good way to make local contacts.
Web: (mine is my blog URL) If you have a blog, put the URL here. Or maybe a company Web site makes sense for you. This should be somewhere people can go to learn more about you. You can leave this blank if you want.
Bio: (mine is Bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR) This is where you say something about yourself. You only get 160 characters. As a component of personal branding, this is a critical section. Don’t leave it blank. And don’t make a mini-resume from a laundry list of attributes like: “father, brother, surfer, economics major, world traveler, marketer, and rockstar wannabe.” (That would be my list) I see this sort of thing all the time and it is not good for personal branding. Try to be descriptive. And try to be specific.
Your photo is very important! Don’t default to the placeholder that Twitter provides for those with no photo. And don’t use something clever as a stand in (like your cat). If you care about your personal brand, you should use your photo. Remember, the photos appear very tiny on Twitter, so use a close-up shot.
The background image of your Twitter page is a place where you can really show off. The default blue background is like when you first open PowerPoint – it is a default. Twitter has some choices, but many people use them so you will not be unique. Shoot a custom photo that only you have and you will really shine. I have a close-up photo of a nifty old typewriter keyboard. It’s my personal brand on Twitter.
Don’t protect your updates. If you want to meet new people and promote your personal brand, I suggest you make your updates available to the world.
This stuff is really easy and important for your personal brand. If you are on Twitter, take the time to make some changes today.
David Meerman Scott is an online thought leadership and viral marketing strategist and the author of three books on marketing. Based in Boston, he is a speaker at conferences and corporate events and runs seminars about marketing around the world.
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It’s so easy for newcomers to make these mistakes with Twitter. A lot of people I know don’t even use their own avatar or add a url. Each time you forget to do one of these basic things, you miss an opportunity to promote your brand to others.
And congratulations Laura for being featured in Tribes about your use of Twitter Laura – I just received my copy in the mail from Seth today – it was great to see you there.
Yes, these things are so simple. And the mistakes are made on over half of the Twitter pages of people who choose to follow me.
I find that when someone follows me and I do not already know them, I quickly scan their profile to decide if I will follow them back. If they make all the mistakes listed here, it is quite likely they will not get a follow back because I just don’t want to follow someone who can’t tell me who they are.
That being said, there are certainly people on Twitter who do not care about personal branding and don’t want to get a lot of followers and that’s just fine too.
Dave, I follow your last comment here, in my decisions to follow back.
.
I am a little more forgiving in my criticism of them, although that won’t mean I’ll follow either
This is really important instruction for banding/personal or business.
Glad to have found this. I am in a business flux and have a background
challenge decision so I let my humble BIO speak for me.
I check followers tweets for one page, if I give benefit of doubt? 2 pages.
Then I decide yea or nay on the follow back. I expect the same.
I refuse to be all things to all people and will not bend to the sway of trying to influence soley based on my brand persona. If that actually makes any sense at all?
Nice to tweet ya-
See ya in twitterverse– maybe, lol…
Good advice, David, but there’s something else you’re missing for other readers out there:
I realize this is controversial to some, but if you’re going to use Twitter to provide updates on ANYTHING, expect that people will follow you whether or not you know them. They may run a Twitter Search on certain keywords, see you used them, and follow you without thinking. Or, they may see you live near them and follow you for local tips. Who knows the reason.
Once you accept the fact people will follow you who you don’t know, trust, or respect, it’s important to realize they may (and most likely will) reply to your messages. If you don’t reply back, well, that’s a problem to me because it tells me either you don’t know how to reply or you don’t see the value. And if you don’t see the value in replying to someone you don’t know, you might as well have a protected stream.
In sum, if I find you interesting, I’ll follow you. If I send you a message, try to reply to me. That way, if you say something interesting, I can “re-tweet” you to my followers, spreading your viral marketing with me.
Good post. It’s important that when adding yet another social media interface to your online repertoire that one completes it as thoroughly as possible. Much to be said about keeping it consistent.
I’ve finally written a blog entry emphasizing the importance of one’s online avatar. Both real photo as well as designing the image by one’s main creative craft reassures new inquiries. Plus, a creative self-portrait also helps others realize immediately the author’s professional endeavor and style.
My blog post: http://tinyurl.com/57db27
Good post. It’s important that when adding yet another social media interface to your online repertoire that one completes it as thoroughly as possible. Much to be said about keeping it consistent.