10 Tips to Brand Your Startup on Twitter

Usually, students tend to be more active on Facebook. Often, students starting up let go of Twitter as a social medium to brand their startup. Facebook as a personal favourite among social media shouldn't be your reason to forget Twitter for your business. Twitter is a social medium where niche audience can be targeted. Apart from just promoting your company and building a brand, it also helps you network with other entrepreneurs in the startup Ecosystem. (Entrepreneurs are usually quite active on Twitter.)Here are 10 tips to brand your startup on Twitter:

1. Be clear about what you want to say

Don’t beat around the bush. Decide what you want to say and tweet about it. Being abstract with your tweets can affect your brand image on Twitter.

2. Include Links

Include external links in your tweets. Links make people curious. Include links ranging from your website, blog and other websites. Don’t include only your company related links. Focus on all related content and links, not just your website.

3. Be Creative

There is a reason why Twitter is called micro-blogging website. Twitter gives you just 140 characters to say what you want. It’s up to you to use those 140 characters in a smart, funny and intuitive way.

4. Be Nice

Be nice to people who retweet you. Say thanks for every mention, it helps build a network of passionate and enthusiastic followers. It also reflects your level of interaction thereby increasing your brand value.

5. Use Hash tags

Use hash tags, they are a fun way to promote what you have to say, when people follow a particular hash tag; your hash tag powered tweet can grab their attention.

6. Plan your tweets

Make a plan before you start out. Chalk it out. It gives you a clearer picture of who you’ll be targeting and helps promote your venture better. Follow the plan and tweet every day.

7. Don’t become a nuisance

Don’t become boring or a nuisance. You have to time your tweets in a way such that they are not tired of looking up at your tweets. But don’t tweet very infrequently as well. Maintain a schedule for tweeting. Use scheduling tools to schedule to make your tweets more regular.

8. Be a Listener

Often small businesses make the mistake of not replying to mentions. Take some time to address your followers’ queries or any other mention. It may be regarding a product or some event but make sure you reply to them. This will build a strong fan base for your business. It will make them like you better, if you take the time to respond.

9. Be Genuine

Another mistake that businesses do is spam their products onto followers. Don’t obsess over a product you’re trying to sell. Ask yourself if you would like it if a brand you follow ends up spamming you with their products. Treat your followers the way you would like to be treated. Try being genuine in your tweets by giving them something to ponder about, feed them with interesting customer experiences or stories with illustrations, don’t blindly ask them to buy something.

10. Follow back

If an interested peer follows you, follow the person back, this builds you a network of people, following back a person will often make friends of friends follow you. But you have to do it moderately. If the person following you seems like a spammer or if the person is inactive then don’t. This ensures a good following/followers ratio. You’ll seem less desperate if you have more followers than you following them.