This is intended to be an easy guide to understanding Twitter from Day 0. This is aimed at people who are just starting out on their Tweeting Journey.

1. Step 1 – Identify Your Business Goal

   Like any other business activity, your Social Media efforts should have a solid strategy behind them. You can not just dive in and out! To get consistent and good results, you have to put in a lot of effort into your social media interaction.
   
   Also, remember that social media is about creating brand awareness and to a lesser extent about creating direct sales. We should not underestimate the value of customer interactions on Social Media as we all need people to talk about it. It is an essential part of the inbound marketing efforts for your business.

2. Step 2 – Identify Your Market

   The first thing to do is to identify where your customers are and who you are selling to. You need to know and understand how your customers are consuming content on Twitter. Only then will you be able to target them through Twitter. Do they like entering competitions? Do they use it for customer support? Do they talk about products and services they might be using? You need to know some of these answers before you can start using Twitter.

3. Step 3 – Start Tweeting

   You could just start tweeting on your Twitter channels but you are going to feel like this guy with a megaphone standing near your customers.

   You are hoping that people walking by will hear you and remember your name. As you can imagine, the conversion rate of this method will be very poor and the low ROI will put an end to your Twitter campaign before long.

4. Step 4 – Tag Your Tweets

   One way to increase the efficiency of your tweets is to tag them properly using Twitter HashTags. Simply put, these are just keywords to tag your Tweets so people know what you are talking about. Hashtags are to Twitter what Street Name signs are to commuters. Hashtags are searchable making it easier for your target audience to find your tweets.

   As this image shows, by tagging the @XavaIreland tweets with appropriate hastags, Xava can grab the attention of people looking for Website Design Services.

5. Step 5 – Content

   A limit of 140 characters is a perfect chance for you to get creative with your content. There are people out there who send whole recipes in single tweets – just check this out

   The content has to be interesting and something people will want to read, use and share with their followers,

6. Step 6 – Follow Back

   If people follow you on Twitter, follow them back and acknowledge their time and effort in following you. Just because this is on the internet, doesnt mean that normal courtesies do not apply.

7. Step 7 – Share Worthwhile Content

   You read lots of blog articles that you find interesting, why not share them with your followers. After all, you are hoping that poeple will read and share your content, you should do the same to other people. If you trust someone’s content, Re-Tweet or RT their content. Take a look at Storify to create a story out of your most favourite Tweets. This platform will automatically let the people whose content you share know that you have used it. Maybe they will follow you and share your content in the future. remember – The inlfuence of your content grows the more it shared around by your followers.

8. Step 8 – Interact

   Lots of big companies are using Twitter for customer service. Take a look at UPC Ireland or Vodafone to see how they use it. Remember, everything you do on Twitter is public so your interactions and your attitude is there for everyone to see. The better youare at interacting with people and handling criticism, the better profile you will have on Twitter. Dont ever do what Cinnamon did as I wrote in my previous blog article – How Not To Use Twitter For Business

9. Step 9 – Keep Sharing

   If you are using a WordPress based website, use plugins like Tweet Old Post to send out your web content to your followers at different times of the day so as to maximise the reach of your content.

10. Step 10 – Twitter Is a Satellite To Your Website

    Last but by no means least, do not forget the golden rule, The centre of your online universe is your own website. Always always always use your social media channels to drive your followers to your website. All your social media channels are working for one reason and one reason only – To Increase Traffic To Your Website