A beginner’s guide to building a presence on Twitter

Twitter is the best online marketing tool of the last five years. Thanks to Twitter, you can engage in immediate conversations, receive immediate feedback and find new people who share your interests.

From a community building standpoint, you can use Twitter to find potential new members, make people aware of your community, build your reputation and introduce people to others.

Many businesses and websites don’t use Twitter correctly and wonder why their strategy fails. In this article, I want to help ensure you don’t make the same mistakes.

First, let’s bust a myth.

Twitter followers

Huge value seems to be placed on the number of Twitter followers you have. This is a flawed metric – just as the number of ‘members’ your online community has shouldn’t be used to measure its success, the number of followers you have on Twitter doesn’t mean you’re popular or that people are interested in what you have to say.

What really counts is the number of conversations you’re having. Are people listening to you? Are people responding to what you’re saying? I’d rather have 100 followers that I communicate with on a regular basis than 10,000 followers who are strangers.

It’s about value and relationships

You should be using Twitter as an additional way of providing value. You should be giving more than you are receiving. If you give, you’ll naturally receive. Don’t be scared of using Twitter as a way of building your new online community. Don’t be scared of using it as a way of promoting an existing one – Twitter isn’t competition to your community. Just play by the rules.

A beginner’s guide to using Twitter

Let’s say you’re planning a brand new online community and you’re doing it the right way – you know that you don’t build the website before you’ve built relationships. Remember – you need to build relationships first to see how passionate people are about your idea and whether it’s something they’ll talk about. No conversation, no community.

You want to use Twitter to find and engage potential members. Here’s how you do it.

Signing up to Twitter

- Choose a Twitter username

I think it’s fine to use the name of your website/brand here – as long as you follow my next point. Keep your Twitter username short, snappy and memorable.

- Use your real name

The name you enter in the ‘Name’ field appears in the emails people receive when you follow them. The quickest way to be labelled as a spammer or bot is for this not to be a real name. Why hide your real name, anyway? Hardly the best way to build trust. People can’t build relationships with those that hide their identities.

You’ve already used your brand name in your username – you don’t need to use it again.

- Link

If you have an existing website, put it in the ‘Web’ field. This isn’t essential, though. People won’t frown on you if you leave this blank. If you’re building a new online community, I’d recommend putting up a basic webpage outlining what you’re trying to build/accomplish and link to that page (you could even put up a form for people to join a mailing/waiting list).

- Fill out the bio

The first thing any potential new follower does when they arrive at your Twitter page is read your bio. If it’s blank, they’ll move on. If it’s boring, or full of sales copy, they’ll move on.

Talk in plain English. Be honest, be genuine. This all sounds like common sense, but it obviously isn’t. Believe me.

Using Twitter

- Don’t follow anyone – yet

Don’t start following people as soon as you sign up. You have nothing to offer yet. You won’t attract genuine followers if your Twitter feed is empty.

- Tweet!

Provide content. Don’t start posting links to your website. Don’t start selling. Talk about your niche and provide value. Let’s say you want to build a community for photographers. Suggest starting aperture settings for specific scenes. Talk about the importance of light; share your expertise. Give, give, give.

- Share and promote (others)

If you find a good resource, post a link to it and mention why you’re sharing it. People want to hear your opinion – they don’t just want to see links. If someone else on Twitter gave good advice, give it a ReTweet.

Make yourself known as a resource of good information.

- Engage

If someone gave good advice, thank them for it. Develop conversations with people by thanking them for the information they put out. Ask them questions. Get to know them. Relationship building should be done in just the same way you’d do it in your online community – the only difference is the medium (and shorter messages).

- Follow

By now, you’ll have a good Twitter history. New visitors to your page will see that you give out a lot of useful, relevant information. They will see that you engage in conversations, and promote others on Twitter via the ReTweet feature.

Now is the time to start following others. Use the search facility to find mentions of keywords, phrases or brand names. When you find individual Tweets that are relevant, check out that person’s Twitter feed. You can’t figure someone out from just one Tweet, but you’ll get a better idea of their personality if you read more of their stream.

Check out their bio, and any link they include in the ‘Web’ box. If you think this person would be interested in the information you’re sharing, follow them.

- Return follow

If you’re doing a really good job, you’ll be getting notifications of people following you before you even start following others. I’d always recommend taking a look at the Twitter pages of those that follow you – make sure they’re real, and not connected to something you’d rather not be associated with – before deciding whether to follow them back.

Don’t feel as though you absolutely have to return follow everyone that follows you – but know that people who follow you will appreciate being followed back.

- Be wary of direct messages

When you’re following someone on Twitter and they are following you back, you can both communicate with each other via the direct messaging system. Be wary of this, though – some people do not like being sent direct messages; especially when they don’t know you particularly well. Don’t be afraid to use this feature – just make sure you don’t overuse it.

Twitter is built around sharing – only keep things private when you have to.

There are no hard and fast rules for the best way to use Twitter. Just be social, provide value, be genuine and have fun. You’ll get out of Twitter what you put into Twitter. Enjoy!

PS – Here is my Twitter page!

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27 Responses to “A beginner’s guide to building a presence on Twitter”

La revue de presse du community manager | Manager une communauté:
February 6th, 2010 at 11:46 am
[...] A beginner’s guide to building a presence on Twitter http://www.communityspark.com/a-beginners-guide-to-building-a-presence-on-twitter/ Strangers, Critics, Friends or Fans [...]
Recent Links at Fast Wonder: Online Community Consulting:
February 7th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
[...] A beginner’s guide to building a presence on Twitter [...]
Andrew:
February 7th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
I agree with what you said that the number of followers does not really count but the number of interested followers. Interested followers would bring about more positive results for you and your business.
Tia Fisher:
February 8th, 2010 at 5:59 am
Thanks for this lovely clear guide Martin: lots of realy good sense. Re the numbers of people you’re following – I htink a number too high actually counts against my interest in a profile. I figure if they are listening to so many, then they’re not really listening? On that note, I’d recommend Tweetdeck as a tool so that you can pick out groups of people who’s updates you really want to read.

I’ll pass your article on (though I’m aware of the irony of tweeting it to people who haven’t yet got going on Twitter, hmmmm!). Thanks again, Tia.
HI:
February 8th, 2010 at 11:26 am
Good post. Twitter can be very powerful if used correctly. If you are just going to use it to send out links and nothing useful within your niche, you will find that people will ignore you and will start to unfollow you. Be patient and build reputation within your niche and when the timing is right, then recommend products and services.
Nicole Price:
February 8th, 2010 at 11:34 am
These are fantastic ideas to ensure that anyone succeeds in using twitter. As long as one uses it for a purpose and not get bogged down in just constantly twittering, twitter is indeed a valuable tool.
Jason:
February 10th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Great tips I need to implement a few more of these tips into my Twitter campaign so I can build more followers, and traffic to the old website, and blog. Especially the selling part I think I go a little overboard with this, something I need to refrain from a little more . Nice Twitter tips, thanks!
Sharon:
February 11th, 2010 at 4:50 am
Great article. I think your points about not following people too soon are so important – anyone you follow will just move on if you haven’t tweeted (and you’ll look like a spammer).

You did say this but I think it’s even more important than the paragraph you gave it: ask questions. Get feedback. Don’t be a know-it-all. This goes a long way towards proving you’re human.
Mr Woc:
February 13th, 2010 at 11:20 am
Hi there

Ive had a go at twitter I havent quite mastered it yet, the main problem being is it takes a lot of time to forge relationships on there and I really find it hard to get the time to be on there !

Woc
M.-J. Taylor:
February 13th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Wonderful job demystifying Twitter for beginners. I am a long time SEO, and just really beginning to understand how to use social media to promote sites. I haven’t developed a huge number of Twitter followers, but I do have a large number of Facebook friends (nearly 2,500) and I love that I can push links through a tweet to my Facebook status. What a great way to drive traffic from loyal friends.
Adam:
February 13th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Great advice. I once looked in to using uSocial to get a jump start on followers but I’m glad I decided against it now. Like You said “I’d rather have 100 followers that I communicate with on a regular basis than 10,000 followers who are strangers.”
Edwin:
February 13th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Hi, this is a really good guide for those starting out in twitter. I made a very big mistake by mass following random stranger I don’t even know!

Quality > Quantity
Z9Falcon:
February 15th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Been using Twitter but I find it a little tough. If you start out with zero web presence and you have no followers, it’s extremely hard to start. This is where persistence comes in right? =)
Jay Courtland:
February 17th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Great article! So many use Twitter the wrong way. I like what you said about value and relationships, to me that’s the key!
Chris:
February 17th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Twitter is an amazing tool. But followers are not followers unless they’re attracted to what you’re tweeting about. If you go about building a presence on Twitter by following loads of people (i’ve done that!), then you’re not going to get far, all you end up doing is getting people who are not really interested in what you’re saying. The best Twtitterers organically attract followers with interesting tweets and provide great links to useful and interesting stuff. Word gets around.
Alan:
February 20th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Good post Martin, I’d really like to see twitter send something similar out to all new signups.
Rachel:
February 20th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I found that promoting others was the quickest way to increase my followers! I do need to work on contributing more content to my niche group – thanks for the reminder!
Pauline:
February 24th, 2010 at 9:28 am
I was starting to think that I must be the only person left on the planet who didn’t have a twitter account. I did have a go ages ago but I just couldn’t get my head round it. Also I kept getting people I had never heard of wanting to be my friend and sending me a load of spam. So I gave up. But I do want to have another go as I know it can be useful in some ways if you use it properly. So thanks for this guide I am sure I will be referring back to it.
Chris Kennedy:
February 25th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
I would have to disagree about the metric used. I believe the number of followers is important, and even if they are complete strangers.
Stefan:
February 28th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
These are some great tips even for a experienced twitter user thanks.
Sean:
March 1st, 2010 at 3:20 pm
DMs are the devil’s tool of Twitter!! The devil’s tool!!! *shakes hand wildly in the air*

Just messing, but they are usually pretty worthless. Out of every 20 I receive maybe one is from an actual person wanting to know something. .
Sophie:
March 4th, 2010 at 1:01 am
Definitely engaging in your fellow tweeters is essential. They need to know you’re human!
Mike:
March 4th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Just what I was looking for. Thanks for posting this guide. We just started up a twitter account last week and to be honest were a bit lost how to start and what to say. Obviously we didn’t want to blabber on about our business the whole time. So we’ve found you pointers very helpful and are looking to apply these twitter account now. Thanks again for the helpful advice.
Sam:
March 5th, 2010 at 11:36 am
This is an excellent article. I’ve often considered using Twitter, well in fact I do use it but never known how to engage potential customers. It’s always been very lacking to me but having read through this post, I’ve realised there are a few things I need to brush up on. Thank you
Jay Courtland:
March 5th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
All great points brought up in this article. One thing that will help in your niche to engage more people is to do a Twitter search on their search engine, mine for example is satellite tv, you’ll type in the keywords just like any search engine and see what’s going on in your niche. Try it out http://www.search.twitter.com

I hope this helps!
Gordon:
March 5th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Hi, This is good stuff. I’m a Baby Boomer who is interested in exploring twitter. I did see some statistics however that said people my age (50 +) haven’t taken to the world of twitter yet. (They are the ones that I’m interested in). Something like 3% of users. I’m going to give it a try and see if there is enough community of Boomers out there. Thanks for the advice, it helps.
Nicole Price:
March 8th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Your exhaustive list and Jay Courtland’s addition make a great list of dos and don’ts for successful twittering. Thank you.

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La revue de presse du community manager | Manager une communauté:
February 6th, 2010 at 11:46 am

[...] A beginner’s guide to building a presence on Twitter http://www.communityspark.com/a-beginners-guide-to-building-a-presence-on-twitter/ Strangers, Critics, Friends or Fans [...]

Recent Links at Fast Wonder: Online Community Consulting:
February 7th, 2010 at 3:46 pm

[...] A beginner’s guide to building a presence on Twitter [...]

Andrew:

February 7th, 2010 at 8:29 pm

I agree with what you said that the number of followers does not really count but the number of interested followers. Interested followers would bring about more positive results for you and your business.

Tia Fisher:

February 8th, 2010 at 5:59 am

Thanks for this lovely clear guide Martin: lots of realy good sense. Re the numbers of people you’re following – I htink a number too high actually counts against my interest in a profile. I figure if they are listening to so many, then they’re not really listening? On that note, I’d recommend Tweetdeck as a tool so that you can pick out groups of people who’s updates you really want to read.

I’ll pass your article on (though I’m aware of the irony of tweeting it to people who haven’t yet got going on Twitter, hmmmm!). Thanks again, Tia.

HI:

February 8th, 2010 at 11:26 am

Good post. Twitter can be very powerful if used correctly. If you are just going to use it to send out links and nothing useful within your niche, you will find that people will ignore you and will start to unfollow you. Be patient and build reputation within your niche and when the timing is right, then recommend products and services.

Nicole Price:

February 8th, 2010 at 11:34 am

These are fantastic ideas to ensure that anyone succeeds in using twitter. As long as one uses it for a purpose and not get bogged down in just constantly twittering, twitter is indeed a valuable tool.

Jason:

February 10th, 2010 at 9:09 pm

Great tips I need to implement a few more of these tips into my Twitter campaign so I can build more followers, and traffic to the old website, and blog. Especially the selling part I think I go a little overboard with this, something I need to refrain from a little more . Nice Twitter tips, thanks!

Sharon:

February 11th, 2010 at 4:50 am

Great article. I think your points about not following people too soon are so important – anyone you follow will just move on if you haven’t tweeted (and you’ll look like a spammer).

You did say this but I think it’s even more important than the paragraph you gave it: ask questions. Get feedback. Don’t be a know-it-all. This goes a long way towards proving you’re human.

Mr Woc:

February 13th, 2010 at 11:20 am

Hi there

Ive had a go at twitter I havent quite mastered it yet, the main problem being is it takes a lot of time to forge relationships on there and I really find it hard to get the time to be on there !

Woc

M.-J. Taylor:

February 13th, 2010 at 1:09 pm

Wonderful job demystifying Twitter for beginners. I am a long time SEO, and just really beginning to understand how to use social media to promote sites. I haven’t developed a huge number of Twitter followers, but I do have a large number of Facebook friends (nearly 2,500) and I love that I can push links through a tweet to my Facebook status. What a great way to drive traffic from loyal friends.

Adam:

February 13th, 2010 at 8:13 pm

Great advice. I once looked in to using uSocial to get a jump start on followers but I’m glad I decided against it now. Like You said “I’d rather have 100 followers that I communicate with on a regular basis than 10,000 followers who are strangers.”

Edwin:

February 13th, 2010 at 11:33 pm

Hi, this is a really good guide for those starting out in twitter. I made a very big mistake by mass following random stranger I don’t even know!

Quality > Quantity

Z9Falcon:

February 15th, 2010 at 2:50 pm

Been using Twitter but I find it a little tough. If you start out with zero web presence and you have no followers, it’s extremely hard to start. This is where persistence comes in right? =)

Jay Courtland:

February 17th, 2010 at 5:39 pm

Great article! So many use Twitter the wrong way. I like what you said about value and relationships, to me that’s the key!

Chris:

February 17th, 2010 at 8:01 pm

Twitter is an amazing tool. But followers are not followers unless they’re attracted to what you’re tweeting about. If you go about building a presence on Twitter by following loads of people (i’ve done that!), then you’re not going to get far, all you end up doing is getting people who are not really interested in what you’re saying. The best Twtitterers organically attract followers with interesting tweets and provide great links to useful and interesting stuff. Word gets around.

Alan:

February 20th, 2010 at 5:36 pm

Good post Martin, I’d really like to see twitter send something similar out to all new signups.

Rachel:

February 20th, 2010 at 5:38 pm

I found that promoting others was the quickest way to increase my followers! I do need to work on contributing more content to my niche group – thanks for the reminder!

Pauline:

February 24th, 2010 at 9:28 am

I was starting to think that I must be the only person left on the planet who didn’t have a twitter account. I did have a go ages ago but I just couldn’t get my head round it. Also I kept getting people I had never heard of wanting to be my friend and sending me a load of spam. So I gave up. But I do want to have another go as I know it can be useful in some ways if you use it properly. So thanks for this guide I am sure I will be referring back to it.

Chris Kennedy:

February 25th, 2010 at 8:59 pm

I would have to disagree about the metric used. I believe the number of followers is important, and even if they are complete strangers.

Stefan:

February 28th, 2010 at 5:09 pm

These are some great tips even for a experienced twitter user thanks.

Sean:

March 1st, 2010 at 3:20 pm

DMs are the devil’s tool of Twitter!! The devil’s tool!!! *shakes hand wildly in the air*

Just messing, but they are usually pretty worthless. Out of every 20 I receive maybe one is from an actual person wanting to know something. .

Sophie:

March 4th, 2010 at 1:01 am

Definitely engaging in your fellow tweeters is essential. They need to know you’re human!

Mike:

March 4th, 2010 at 2:33 am

Just what I was looking for. Thanks for posting this guide. We just started up a twitter account last week and to be honest were a bit lost how to start and what to say. Obviously we didn’t want to blabber on about our business the whole time. So we’ve found you pointers very helpful and are looking to apply these twitter account now. Thanks again for the helpful advice.

Sam:

March 5th, 2010 at 11:36 am

This is an excellent article. I’ve often considered using Twitter, well in fact I do use it but never known how to engage potential customers. It’s always been very lacking to me but having read through this post, I’ve realised there are a few things I need to brush up on. Thank you

March 5th, 2010 at 1:26 pm

All great points brought up in this article. One thing that will help in your niche to engage more people is to do a Twitter search on their search engine, mine for example is satellite tv, you’ll type in the keywords just like any search engine and see what’s going on in your niche. Try it out http://www.search.twitter.com

I hope this helps!

Gordon:

March 5th, 2010 at 10:31 pm

Hi, This is good stuff. I’m a Baby Boomer who is interested in exploring twitter. I did see some statistics however that said people my age (50 +) haven’t taken to the world of twitter yet. (They are the ones that I’m interested in). Something like 3% of users. I’m going to give it a try and see if there is enough community of Boomers out there. Thanks for the advice, it helps.

March 8th, 2010 at 9:23 am

Your exhaustive list and Jay Courtland’s addition make a great list of dos and don’ts for successful twittering. Thank you.

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