We live in a world of technology and social media. Today people expect to be able to log onto their chosen platform, reach out, and then get a response within a few hours. Some people even expect a response in a few minutes. Someone has to be online to intercept those messages and respond in a timely fashion as well as keep their page up to date with the latest happenings at the business. This means not only responding to messages but comments as well.  It says “Hi, we see you, we care about what you have to say, and we care about hearing from you.” For a business that has a large audience, this can easily become a full-time job.

With all that in mind, you’re planning on creating a Twitter account for your business. Let’s ask ourselves a few questions before we begin.

First things first. Do you plan on having a polite yet snarky millennial running said account? Jokes aside, do you really need a Twitter account?

On the business side of the spectrum, having a Twitter account is great for SEO. It helps build your brand, gets you noticed on/by google, and extends your reach. Depending on how you use it, Twitter is also great for creating another line of communication with your customers/audience/consumers/followers. Depending on the way you run your business and Twitter account, it’s a great way for people to ask quick questions and receive quick answers.

After reading that, are you thinking that you’re ready to hop onto the Twitter train? Cool, but it’s one thing to have a Twitter account and another to run an active and engaging account. It’s time to ask yourself, how is your Facebook presence? Do you keep an active, up to date, and engaging Facebook page for your business? What is the voice of that Facebook page? Is it friendly? Professional? Sarcastic in a funny way? Or something else completely? If your page is any of these things, your Twitter feed needs to match. If you give polite and professional commentary on your Facebook page, I don’t recommend trying to be “hip and cool” and blindly keeping up with whatever hashtag is currently trending. If you’re not careful, you’ll be eaten alive.

I know, that sounds like a lot of work. Maybe your following isn’t as large as you would like it to be, yet. Maybe you don’t have the time or resources to devote to social media. I’m not here to judge, just to advise. Also to drop some tips that will help you fake a social media presence for SEO. If you’re just starting out on social media, my best advice is to link accounts. This is probably the best thing to happen to social media besides being able to schedule and queue content (but that’s a blog post for another day). Linking your Facebook to your twitter means everything you post to Facebook automatically gets posted to your Twitter account as well. (Beware: we’ve recently discovered that links won’t always transfer over to Twitter) So if you’re consistently updating Facebook, then Twitter will also be updating as well. I still recommend keeping an eye on your twitter feed to respond to any retweets or comments. While linking your accounts means you won’t have to come up with twice the content, you still need to appear at least responsive so people have a reason to follow you on Twitter.

 

TLDR; If you absolutely insist on having a Twitter account and not having someone run it, just link it to your Facebook so you at least appear active.

 

Social Media Quick Tips:

Post consistently.

Be sure to respond to messages within 24 hours.

If you outsource your social media management, you need to regularly send them content.

Photos of the team are good, let your audience know there’s a face behind the screen.

Work in progress photos are good!

Photos in general are good.