How to be a Freelance Writer

Twitter can help businesses promote themselves.

After attending last week’s Refresh:Richmond meeting, which I mentioned here, I started to wonder why everyone seemed to be so fascinated by Twitter. It seemed like everyone at the meeting, from my attorney to Web designers, panel speakers, and humorists, had heard of Twitter and was using it. There are, in fact, more than 2.2 million registered Twitter accounts. Where had I been? I wondered. I immediately checked it out and signed up for an account when I returned home.

Twitter: a space to publish your updates in 140 words or less.

Here’s what I know about Twitter so far:

1. It’s an excellent tool for social/business networking.

2. It can become addictive.

3. You can update it whenever you want…but it’s wise to provide meaningful insights if you are using it to promote your businesses. (ie: “I’m going to the kitchen for a sandwich” is not terribly helpful for your readers, but posting a link to a relevant news story might inspire people to check your updates often for additional links and tips.)

The day I signed up for my Twitter account, I started to see Twitter references everywhere. From Lance Armstrong advertising his missing bike on Twitter to a page in Inc Magazine that published Twittered responses to the question “What’s the best part of owning your business.”

Because I’m new to Twitter, I’ve been looking around for some helpful resources that can help me understand it, its effectiveness, and how it can be optimized. Here’s a link to one article that good for beginners like me. I also found this Inc Magazine article by Jodi Mardesich about how business owners are turning to Twitter in droves. Here are Jodi’s tips (in a nutshell) for using Twitter effectively:

• Distill your message. Microblogging helps marketers to think by forcing them to distill their messages into haiku-like brevity. “Microblogging forces you to be interesting in 140 characters or less,” says Rich Brooks, president of Flyte New Media, who is experimenting with Twitter for his business and to advise clients.
• Share information. Companies can post links to press releases, can advertise promotions, or even send out product recall information. Whole Foods used Twitter to broadcast information about a recent beef recall. While its tweets did not reach all Whole Foods customers by any stretch of the imagination — it only has about 3,000 followers — the practice showed that Whole Foods is connected and quick, at least to those who follow it.
• Listen to customers. Just as you could go to Summize or Search Twitter to find out the latest news about New Orleans levee breaches during hurricane Gustav, you can enter your company name in those search engines to see what the twitterverse is saying about your company. Whole Foods’ Carter searches daily to see what is being said and even interact with people. If someone is calling Whole Foods “whole paycheck,” for example (a common slam), Carter can engage in conversation with them and see what their concerns are. It’s also wise to see what people are saying about your competitors and industry.
• Talk back. Twitter is a two-way street. “The savvy Twitter user realizes that the effective communications aren’t just ‘pushing’ content to readers, but they will also dialogue and converse with others by replying to them,” says Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester analyst.
• Improve customer relations. You can receive and respond to customer queries, says Robin Bloor, of HaveMacWillBlog, a technology analyst with Hurwitz & Associates in Austin. “Doing so provides a complete audit trail of questions and answers.”
• Track trends. Establish an affinity group and listen in, Bloor recommends. As you can follow anyone (except those who deliberately opt for select privacy), “it’s reasonably easy to set up any kind of group and follow it,” he says. While Bloor originally used Twitter to see what other analysts were saying, it could just as easily be used to follow a product or trend.
• Drive traffic. Twitter allows you to enter links, which are abbreviated into tinyurl entries if the link is longer than 30 characters. These links can direct traffic to your company blog or web site.
• Claim your identity. If your business has a brand, it should create an account on Twitter, plus Pownce and Jaiku, says Peter Lim, Forrester analyst.  Some squatters have already created accounts like twitter.com/ipod, but many brand handles are still available.

Here are some helpful tips for the advanced Twitter user from Kenny Hyder’s blog and some simple tips from SEO guru Brian Carter.