Have you been hearing a lot lately from people on how Twitter has done wonders for their business? Have you joined and have no idea what to do next? If you’re tired of feeling like you’re on the sidelines of social media networking and need some quick tips on how to make it work for you, then keep reading. You have to, however, remember one thing: no results are instant. It takes TIME! You have to nurture your social media connections just as you do your business connections and friendships IRL (in real life). Basically, the more you put into it, the more potential you have to get out of it.

Bear in mind that although most of what I explain is geared towards pointing the Professional Photographer in the right direction, it is applicable to anyone that has a business in just about any industry, especially one that’s client base is localized. Remember folks, I’m not just a web designer/SmugMug guru – I’m also a photographer just like you. I want to share with you some tips I have picked up, many of which I have used personally to grow both of my businesses.

REMEMBER: The one of the MOST important things about using Twitter, or any other social media networking, is brand consistency. Maintain the continuity of your brand, your look and feel, throughout every representation of yourself you have online. I will tell you what to think about at every step of this process.

Quick and Dirty – How to Join Twitter:

Sign up! Just that easy. Not sure what to name yourself? Keep it professional. Use your business name if you operate under a studio, or your name if that is your identity.

First thing’s first: Settings. 1. Location: Be specific. This is how people will find you, and know you are a locally based business. 2. Web: Put your URL to your website here. Remember to always drive traffic back to your website whenever possible. Embarrassed to have people see your website? We can help make sure your website is as professional as you are. 3. Bio: Super important for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)! This will help drive traffic to your Twitter profile and help people know what you’re all about. Put your phone number too! 4. Picture: Most people feel more connected when they have a feeling there is a real person on the other end. While you can put your logo here, it might be a good idea to put a photo of you! 5. Customize! Click on design. Don’t just pick something cool looking, brand your Twitter page. Create a background image that has your contact information and your logo. Note on background image dimensions: make your background 2048px wide. Height doesn’t matter so much if you blend it with a solid color background. Make your branding no wider than about 330px on the left hand side. Match the colors for your design by clicking ‘Change Design Colors’ to compliment your background. Be consistent and your profile will stand out!

Ok – all set? Now we’ll move on to what to actually do with Twitter.

Tweeting: My best advice: be professional, with a twist of personality. Tweet about things you are doing in your business, shoots you do, for business or pleasure, ways you are involved in your community, etc. When you Tweet, always remember that Twitter is only as powerful as it is because you can connect to people. You connect to people through a few different ways:

Mentions: When you type @ in front of a word, it makes it a hotlink to a specific user’s profile. You can use this to mention someone, or reply to something they tweeted. Then, when you mention someone, they would be able to see your mention. For example, say you wanted to post a tweet mentioning us, you would say something like “Check out @newskinmedia to learn more about social media integration”. Then in turn we could reply with a “Thank you @yourname! We appreciate it!” And people that follow us would then be able to find their way to your profile (and then hopefully make their way to your website). You can find the list of tweets with mentions to you when you go to your main page and click on the @yourname link under ‘Home’.

Hash Tags: Putting a hash tag before a word also creates a hotlink, but not to an individual profile, but to a trending topic or “grouping”. Example: #tag People can follow trending topics or groupings based on a specific hash tag, and you can put a hash tag in front of anything, but they key is to do your research and find some that have some sort of a following. You can visit hashtags.org to view real-time tracking of Twitter hashtags. (try searching #photog for a general trend on photography) You can follow @hashtags to have your hashtags tracked.

Shortening URLs: Having a hard time fitting in a link to a URL and keeping it under 140 characters? Try using a service like http://tinyurl.com or http://ow.ly.

It’s Business Time!

Here are some ways I have found that are an excellent tips and resources to use Twitter to drive business your way.

Follow Industry Leaders: Stay up to date about what is going on in your own industry. Creating a strong network of people pertaining to your industry is a really good idea. You’ll stay informed and can Re-Tweet cool things they have to say.

Following Vendors & Businesses to Build your Local Network: Try and find local businesses that work within you field to try and follow. Take it a step further and approach them to try to partner with them. For photographers, look up wedding planners, dress shops, etc.

How to Find Clients & Partners: I’m going to go over this step by step because the most important thing to remember here is that you don’t want to approach people before you’re ready. You want to make sure you have your website and Twitter profile up to date and looking *impressive* before you try to make an impression on someone! Follow the instructions above if you haven’t already to set up your account. Remember, the following steps are what I have found works for me. It will be a good way to get you started. If you have any input based on what you’ve found works, please comment!

1. How to do a Search on Twitter: This is where you get to be a little creative. Go to http://search.twitter.com and click on ‘advanced search’. Put in a search term, for example wedding. Next to places put your zip code and select a radius. Click search, you should have a variety of recent tweets show up from people within your area that somewhere in their tweet mentioned your search term. Try different terms such as engaged, or photographer. Who knows what you might get.
2. Make a list of people to contact:Write out the people you think you would like to contact. Plan ahead of time what you are going to say. Do your homework. Investigate their profiles, see if they have a website, learn about them! Best to be informed. If they are a potential client, make sure you have your portfolio looking awesome. If they are a company you would potentially want to partner with, have prepared an offer before you make the initial contact.
3. Follow: Once you have an idea of what approach you would like to make, go ahead and follow them. Then you can wait and see if they follow you back! Give it a day or so before you contact them. That should be enough time for them to have received the notification that you are following them so they are familiar with your name.
4. Contact / Direct Message: If they are following you, you are able to send them a direct message. It has to be under 140 characters, so make it short and sweet. If they are a client, show them your work! If they are a vendor or potential company you can partner with, ask them to lunch! Remember to try and propose something to them that is mutually beneficial. Be creative and be confident!

Keeping up with Tweets

Probably the hardest part for most people is maintaining activity on Twitter. I know I have a hard time with this myself as I get busy. Remember that building relationships is key. You do this through being consistent about your tweets, making them contain valuable information, and interacting with people. Remember to Tweet daily, if you can! Always remember that with every tweet and every follow you make, you are establishing long-lasting social media credibility. Here are some tools that can help you with keeping an eye on things as well as being regular with your tweets!

SocialOomph (formarly TweetLater): This service allows you to prepare a bunch of tweets in advance and queue them in a schedule to be sent out. It also provides many other tools for tracking keywords, extending your profile, viewing @Mentions and Retweets, and more goodies.

Echofon: As a plugin for Facebook, this is a great way to stay on top of tweets without having to actually go to the website to check on things. They also have an iPhone app you can check out.

TweetDeck: Similar to Echofon, but for your desktop. They also have an iPhone app.

Trillian Astra: This is what I personally use. It’s one desktop program which connects you to Twitter, Facebook, AIM, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and more. Love having everything in one place!

Summary of Best Practices

The following tips are courtesy of @ScottBourne of Bourne Media Group.

• Be generous
• Link to others
• RT others
• Inform, educate, inspire
• Always respond to sincere messages
• Stay focused and on message
• Utterly ignore trolls

Thanks for reading, everyone! Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions. Also, if you follow @newskinmedia on Twitter, you get 10% off Twitter Customization!