How to Set Up Your Twitter Business Account the Right Way

As business owners and entrepreneurs we have to project the right persona on Twitter. Many of us have a personal profile as well as a professional one. But which one is right for your branding?
Our social networks should project a clear and consistent message with our customers and followers, and it is important to build a community the right way.
While every individual or company has its own unique brand image there are a few things to avoid when setting up a Twitter business account or building upon an existing one. I’ve put together different mistakes made on Twitter. Put these practices in use starting today in order to create a growing and thriving community.

Keep your home base

If you’ve had a personal account for a while chances are you have a strong personal brand following. As your business changes and evolves it’s important to maintain that presence while linking to your company’s Twitter account. For example, Bryan Kramer, who has a following of over 216,000 people, includes his business as well as a link to Forbes where he is a contributor.  You can always add and modify a personal account — don’t discard it or ignore it all together!

Avoid mixed communication

In order to maintain a professional persona your personal account content and replies should be used for building relationships while your business account serves as an information provider. It’s okay to automate your tweets and keep personal updates on your own profile while handling any customer service issues and questions from your company handle. The types of followers on each account should also reflect this — connect with individuals rather than brands on your own profile.

Interact with relevant users

Pay attention to who you are connected with, and take the time to check out their profile and tweets. It’s important that they are actively engaged and sharing the types of tweets that match your brand. Take a look at how many quality followers they have. This will determine their influence as well. Personal Twitter accounts are all about communicating directly with people and building relationships.

Avoid sending out too many tweets

One of the best ways to lose an audience on Twitter is to send out a barrage of tweets each day. Choose your content wisely and valuate the quality of what is being posted for maximum exposure, retweets and favorites. Here’s a suggestion from Buffer that is a helpful guide, and also depends on your target market:

14 times per day, from midnight to 10:00 p.m. Central Time, never more than once per hour; seven times per day on weekends, from 3:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., roughly every three hours

Use DMs wisely

Keep direct messages on Twitter to a minimum with a clear purpose in mind. Many times this can be perceived as ‘spam,’ and most messages are either deleted or avoided. A pitch or sales message is a big turn off for influencers and potential customers — instead, use this as a relationship building tool where you can offer helpful information or ask for advice.

Stay active with your community

On the other side of the tweet spectrum is having gaps in between your tweets, which may give the appearance that your business is not active on Twitter. In order to be up to date you must be checking in daily along with sharing regular content and updates. This in turn builds trust and will help grow your following both personally and professionally.
You can start today in make your Twitter business accounts the best that they can be and targeted to the right audience. It’s always a good idea to use software and tools to monitor your brand reputation and track the feedback and response from your followers.
As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once famously said: “By seeking and blundering we learn.”