How to Use Twitter for Business

Contributor

By Virginia DeBolt
eHow Contributing Writer

Article Rating:

(17 Ratings)

Use Twitter for Business

Twitter is a messaging tool that restricts messages (called tweets) to 140 characters. It shares some qualities with instant messaging and with email, but it is unique in the sense that everyone can read what a user tweets. Here is how to use Twitter for your business.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

An Internet connection
A Twitter account

Step 1

Establish your account at Twitter. Make your username reflect who you are and what your aims are. Business usernames you can find on Twitter include: Dell, Comcast, TheHomeDepot and Peachpit.
Step 2

Use Twitter Search to look for particular words, business names or other topics of interest to your business. See what people are saying about you and your competitors.
Step 3

Comment on others' tweets in order to build a following. Follow people who are interested in the things of importance to your business and respond to their interests in ways that show your good intentions. In other words, don't simply spam everyone about your business.
Step 4

Share interesting things in the space your business occupies such as links, tips and other helpful information that will build up your list of followers.
Step 5

Have more than one person in your company sign up at Twitter to track your Twitter image. Give them more human Twitter usernames like VirginiaATeHow or something similar.
Step 6

Ask questions. Ask people what they want and what they'd like to see you do. Pay attention to the responses!
Step 7

Investigate the apps that make using Twitter on your desktop or phone more user friendly. Example apps include Tweetdeck and Twhirl.
Step 8

Retweet. When you see a helpful or useful tweet about your business interests, retweet it. People appreciate it and it shows your good intentions.
Step 9

If a conversation gets started that won't benefit everyone by being in the public eye, use direct messages to tweet one-on-one privately. Just type d username to send a direct message.