The basic principles of traditional networking is the same as social networking. If you want to be unsuccessful with traditional networking and make sure people look the other way when trying to connect with you, only talk about yourself, your products, and act as if you are the most important being alive. With social media marketing it is the same. Talk only about yourself online and others will look elsewhere for help. The birth of the social web enabled marketers to network online and build their own network of targeted people with whom they can engage with.

This all sounds very simple, but somehow on most social media channels, many people are not considering the implications of their actions and what long-term impact their efforts are creating. With the microblogging tool Twitter, consider just for a second how you would feel if your family, friends, colleagues or even your boss saw the tweet you just posted. Twitter is public online channel and this means that it is visible to everyone. What if your tweet goes viral?

If you are unsure how you should be using Twitter, find below 10 recommendations that you can use as a guide for using Twitter in your digital marketing strategy.

Twitter marketing tips

• Don’t use funny characters in your Twitter handle: It is best if you can align your online presence with all the different social media channels that you are using. Try to keep your Twitter name as short as possible so that you have more space for your tweets.
• Branding: Same as above, if you can align your online presence with all the social media channels you are using, the better. Add the same branding to your Twitter profile.
• Be helpful with your bio: Provide useful information in your bio to give some personality to your tweets. Add your website or blog link to your bio where people can find out more information about you.
• Auto message: Never, never, never auto message people on Twitter. Your recipients will know it is not targeted at them and that it’s a broadcast message. Many people will see this as spam.
• Who are you?: Always introduce yourself on the Twitterverse. This is every important when you are joining a conversation. To give you an example; when I join a new conversation, I introduce myself, “Hi I am Anton and I live on my blog at http://www.antonkoekemoer.com”.
• Don’t follow everyone back: Review the people who have followed you if you would like to follow them back. You don’t have to follow back every single person that is following you. Only follow the people you would like to connect with.
• Unfollowing: Never unfollow people once they followed you. If you want to build a good network on Twitter, work at it and don’t expect instant results.
• Give credit: Like most of the content you are using in your digital marketing strategy, give credit to the originator of the information.
• Negativity rubs off: Don’t be negative on your Twitter profile. It is a fact that most people will react better to positive messages/content on social media channels. Try to be the positive voice in your niche.
• Be helpful: Be the one stop go to person with all the information everyone wants to know in your niche and topic.

	About: Anton Koekemoer I’m a digital marketing specialist and I’m very passionate about online marketing. My main goal with marketing on the web focuses on designing strategic plans and business solutions around digital technologies to get good results. I’m also a blogger, dad, and I like golf, photography, and music.