Twitter for Business users

Here are some tips on how to use Twitter effectively for business. Plus a few precautions.

1. Don't automate it
If you've got a blog that's connected to your business, you can use a service such as TwitterFeed to directly channel your new blog posts into Twitter posts. It sounds impressive but don't do it. Your business's primary Twitter feed ought to be hand-fed. If you publish a flood of impersonal links, your Twitter account will just seem like a faceless promotion machine and that's not a good way to engage people on Twitter.

Link to the very best stuff on your blog, as well as relevant information that you see elsewhere on the web, and also post items that don't contain links at all. (Don't forget to use a URL-shortening service such as tinyurl, is.gd, or xrl.us for your links.)

2. Be conversational
Your business's Twitter account should talk like a person, even if it's a collective "person" representing your company or brand. Think of your Twitter account as a character in an Internet play, it's a walking, talking personification of your company. If you feel like it: Use the first-person ("They're putting my stuff on sale again!"), invent a personality or just use the royal "we" and "our", "Our editors have the latest on so-and-so" but be chatty.

Some companies prefer to disclose members of their team when they're tweeting from the company account. This is also a valid approach. Par example, the clever group-tweeting service CoTweet (currently in beta) can automatically append your initials to the tweets you make while representing your company. (Macworld is testing out this service to see if it makes it easier for a group of our editors to jointly operate our various Twitter accounts.)

3. Follow people who are relevant

• Follow everyone on your staff who uses Twitter from your Twitter account.
  
• Follow colleagues in related companies and in your industry.
  
• Follow relevant brands and journalists and pundits in your market, even those who compete with you.

It's professional and polite to follow people and by following people you are creating an ecosystem. People will see who you are following and consider those as suggestions for users they should follow as well.

4. Make sure your people are on Twitter, and refer to them Remember that individuals tweet different things than companies. It's acceptable for your company's employees to talk about making waffles or going out for drinks, as well as what they're working on. Not everyone will embrace Twitter, but many of them will. Even the most personal stuff that leaks on to Twitter can help make stronger personal connections with colleagues and audience members alike.

Having said this, you need to be aware who your employees are and make them aware that everything they write on Twitter (unless they're using a "protected account" that limits access) is public. If there's someone who works for your company whose Tweets are a bit risque, you should consider whether or not you want to refer to them from your company's account. An alternative is to ask employees to create two Twitter accounts, one for work matters and one for their sordid personal lives and keep them separate.

Once your people are on Twitter, they'll be able to mention what they're working on and reference the brand via Twitterspeak. Par example: "Just wrote a cool story for @macworld about the iPod shuffle." That will drive followers to your company's Twitter account.

Likewise, your brand's account can drive followers to your people. For example: "Our very own @vacuumdood thinks the new Dyson sucks awesome: tinyurl.com/example"

5. Answer your mentions
People will refer to your company's account as if it were a person. You should reply to tweets that mention you, when relevant. This will give your account more personality and will make those people feel engaged directly with the brand. For example, a person might ask you a question directly: "@macworld Hi. Do you know when Apple will enable SMS message forwarding on the iPhone? Thanks." "@janevans35 Apple's not saying, but we hope it's with the next major software release!"

6. Search for your name
Beyond mentions, which are specific references to your Twitter account, there are probably people using Twitter to talk about your business. Use Twitter's powerful search features to find those references, either from the Twitter Web site, a Mac-based Twitter client program such TweetDeck or Tweetie that supports saved searches, or even via your RSS reader by subscribing to the RSS feed linked to from every Twitter search results page. There are a lot of companies offering great customer service and support on Twitter by watching what people say about them. When I groused on Twitter about my bad luck finding a JetBlue flight from Oakland to Boston, within a half an hour I had received a reply from the JetBlue Twitter account with an explanation.

7. Consider creating sub-accounts for sections of your business or customer base
If you're part of a big enough company, consider creating smaller, more targeted accounts. Starting a new section of your site devoted only to fans of the double bass? It might be worth starting a new @joesmusicbass account, then Tweeting about it from your company's main account: "Bass lovers rejoice! Welcome our new friend, @joesmusicbass to the party!"

8. Use Twitter to ask your customers questions...and get good answers
Twitter is a great way to get answers to questions. Trying to figure out what your customers want to see or are interested in? Use Twitter to ask them. Sure, it's not a scientific survey, but it can give you an immediate snapshot of the zeitgeist. This can be both instructive and productive.

9. Be a good Twitter citizen Can you persuade your Twitter followers to promote you to their followers? Sure, but be mindful: He who has the most followers doesn't necessarily win. If you get people to promote you to their friends to win a prize, you may end up creating a harmful backlash.

Recently, a software-deals site offered a free program to anyone who would tweet about its bundle to his or her friends. The people who tweeted were rewarded, but many of their friends felt like they were receiving spam. Even though the people who tweeted were complicit in the act, it was the company that induced the tweeting that received the bulk of the criticism. The etiquette of Twitter is still evolving, be aware and be wary.

Conclusion
Even if you're not the type of person who uses Facebook or Twitter yourself, there's no denying that these new forms of connection and communication are powerful and becoming increasingly important. That's why your business should be on Twitter now.