MasterMinds: Masters of the Twitterverse: Part 2

Have personality. Use as natural a “voice” as possible to give followers a sense of who you are. Remember, Twitter is a conversation, and your goal is to be engaging. Develop a specific identity, and don’t try to be all things to all people.

Are consistent. There’s no hard and fast rule on how often you should tweet; determine what frequency works best for you, then stick with it. Don’t let the conversation die.

Are focused. Tweet a clear, concise message about one subject. If you have more to say about that subject than will fit in a tweet (and this is usually the case), include a link to your website, an article or blog post. Use Bitly to create links that are short and can be tracked to measure response.

Include visuals. Photos and videos add impact to your tweets and stimulate greater response rates. According to Twitter, people are three times more likely to engage with tweets that contain photos and videos. Photos can be up to 5MB and don’t count toward the 140-character limit in your tweet. Acceptable formats are JPEG, GIF and PNG.

Incorporate hashtags. Using relevant hashtags can amplify the reach of your tweets. Use a keyword for your business or the subject you are tweeting about, such as #ransomware or #FCC, for example. Limit your use of hashtags to no more than two per tweet.

Limit acronyms. Yes, the 140-character limit on tweets has given rise to countless Twitter abbreviations. But if you must use them, do so sparingly and limit yourself to the well-known and socially acceptable. And never send out a tweet that is an alphabet soup of industry acronyms. As a rule of thumb, follow the same guidelines as hashtags: no more than two per tweet.

Encourage responses. Asking questions is a great way to stimulate interaction among your audience. Remember to keep it at a polite conversation level, though, and make sure your questions are noncontroversial.

Are fresh. Your feed should have a good mix of conversational and promotional tweets. Pull in news items and current events that are relevant to your business.