C Shaffstall

In the last decade it has become the norm for audio, video, and print advertisements to include a URL for more information, entering a contest, or voicing an opinion. Over the past year, more and more of those same advertising vehicles are touting a Twitter® account. So…should you tweet?

First, let’s define Twitter.

You are currently reading my blog. Blog is derived from web log. It is a web site that is generally maintained by a single user through a regular series of postings. Something along the lines of an online diary on the topic of your choice. Many companies these days are opting for a blog instead of a web site, but I recommend you do both.

Twitter is a micro blog. That means that the regular postings that you make are short bursts of information. Twitter limits your posts to 140 characters, but other social networking sites have micro blog features too and their character limitation varies. With so few characters allowed, is Twitter a useful tool for promoting yourself or your business? You bet!

Read some of my earlier posts and you’ll see that I always recommend a multi-pronged approach to any campaign. With that in mind, Twitter can provide great lift to nearly any type of promotional opportunity. If you are sending a press release, be sure to post the gist of the PR to your Twitter account (called a tweet); and reciprocate the effort by including your Twitter account information in the body of your press release.

In most tweets, you will want to include a URL where the reader can get more information. Many times you may use up these 140 characters just providing a title. Adding a lengthy URL will most surely put you over the limit. That’s where URL shorteners come in handy. Using any of these services, you can type in your hard-to-remember and difficult-to-type URL and they’ll return a neatly truncated version that you may use in your tweet.

If you have a web site where you regularly update stories or add new content, or maybe a blog, be sure to tweet each time you make a posting. Regular updates are key to attracting followers. Followers are like having your own fan club. These are people who have connected to your Twitter account so that they receive auto notifications each time you tweet.

If someone reads your tweet, and broadcasts it to their followers, that’s called a retweet. Here’s a great blog article that I found on the benefits of retweeting.

It’s not just press releases that can benefit. If you have a regular newsletter, post a tweet each time you send it out. If your subscribers’ spam filter gets involved and prevents you from delivering your latest issue, their Twitter account will prompt them to go on a search-and-retrieve mission.

While I believe that Twitter can be a great tool for promoting your business, let me caution you again about using public forums for posting personal content….

Once you get comfortable with tweeting, check out similar features at Facebook, LinkedIn, and Plaxo. Before you know it, you’ll be twittering like the Tiki Tiki room at Disneyland.