Get Started on Twitter: Basic Profile Set-up
Ok, you’ve decided to be a part of this Twitter phenomenon and you’re hot to go. You can’t wait to start tweeting, following luminaries in your industry, and getting some primo followers for your own words of twisdom. Hold on a second there. There are a few things you want to consider first.
• Do you want to be recognized by your own name or by your brand?
• What if you are in more than one industry – how do you pick?
• What should you include in your bio?
Whether to use your own name or your brand name is an important consideration. How do you want people to find you? What is going to be your primary identity? Will there be more than one person updating for your company/brand?
Many people use their own full name as their Twitter name. You may run into problems if your full name is very long because there’s a 15 character limit. For instance, my friend Miranda Wright Cole, ended up with the username MirandaWrightC as she didn’t have a brand she was promoting and wanted to keep her username as close to her real name as possible.
Tip: if you do use your real name, I recommend that you use an upper-case letter at the beginning of your first name and the beginning of your last name as Miranda does. (no space, of course, and no underscore between your names)
If you want to use your brand/company name for your username (as I do), you can also put your real name in the “name” field when you set up your account. I prefer this method as then you are “double likely” to be found easily. This is because Twitter provides search results based on both the username and the first/last name fields.
Another reason to use your brand as your username is that it might be easier for people who want to communicate with you to remember and spell. Also, brand names tend to be shorter than human names and won’t use up character limits when people direct comments to you.
If you are in more than one industry or are considering having both personal and business personas, my best recommendation is: don’t. Wherever possible, marry up your many selves. I’ve found you increase the impact of your exposure by consolidating. And don’t forget, one of the great opportunities of the internet is the transparency it brings to business. Customers now have a unique opportunity to see the people that make up the businesses they deal with and they are hungry for that! It is easy to be both professional and personal at the same time. Just remember this simple rule: don’t tweet anything you would feel uncomfortable saying to your best friend’s mother.
The last item that needs consideration before creating your profile is what you want to say in your bio. Again, I find its best to marry up your many selves. Use a blend from your business and personal life. It doesn’t have to be a 50/50 blend. It could be 90% business plus the fact that you have a new puppy. This may take some creative honing as you have to express it all in 160 characters, of course.
Here are some examples (I’ve removed actual URLs):
“Conflict resolution and communication skills consultant, community mediator, conflict coach, social entrepreneur, puppy owner and lover of life”
“Journalist turned entrepreneur. Now running www.xxx.us a new biz model for journalism. Personal blog: www.xxx.org”
“professor of game theory and economics. enjoy internet and experimentation. married. one son. photography. golf”
“UX consultant/designer, dad, recently moved to Charlotte.”
Now that you’ve decided on your username strategy and drafted your bio you are really ready to dive in. Go here and create your account! https://twitter.com/signup
Tip: remember to fill in your URL (to your company website, blog, or even your Facebook profile) and your location!
The next steps will be to personalize the look and feel of your twitter page, start tweeting, follow others, and get followers. I will cover these in future posts.
