GUEST POST BY NABEHA LATIF

Ever since Twitter hit the internet in 2006, it evolved from a punny remark about your meal snaps to an integral part of online communication as a whole. With its simple ideology and a tweet (message) consistent with a set amount of characters, you witness an ever-growing set of to-the-point remarks and comments alike. However, Twitter isn’t only for some fun pastime. It can be utilized as a significant component of managing your business online. So here’s our guide to keeping your business up to the digital standard.

Why Twitter for Business?
There are many motivations to make Twitter a piece of your business’s digital media plan in an undeniably jam-packed online media scene.

Marketing and getting the word out on Twitter is particularly appealing because the platform fights at a surprisingly high level as far as reach is concerned. The complete number of individuals going on Twitter is more than the number of registered accounts!

This implies that you’re not simply getting your content to users when you tweet. Instead, you’re likewise contacting a more extensive crowd who additionally reads Twitter.

The Basics:
Assuming you’re completely new to Twitter, the initial steps are similar whether you’re making a profile for a business or individual use.

Whether you already have an account or not, utilizing these tips will keep your basics solid.

Creating a Profile

1. Profile Photo: The profile photo represents your account everywhere on Twitter. It should be recognizable and shouldn’t change too often. Most companies include their logo in their profile image.
2. Header/Cover Photo: This is where you can share the latest updates in a visually striking format. It is often replaced, unlike the profile picture.
3. Username: Your @name is the name of your account. It doesn’t change. You can change your display name, but it’s best to set it as your organization’s name and leave it at that.
4. Bio: Your bio is your brand’s elevator pitch. A concise introduction for your brand, Link your website!
5. Pinned Tweet: A pinned Tweet is the first piece of content users see when coming across your profile. It isn’t required, but it’s a great place to highlight content.

Twitter Slang/Terminology:
I’m sure we’re all familiar with what a “tweet” is by now, but when it comes to Twitter, that’s only a starter! Here’s some terminology you should understand before heading on in the circle:

1. Hashtag: A word preceded by a # symbol. It acts as a tag to content to categorize or relate to a particular topic.
2. Mentions: A tweet with the @ symbol followed by a person or brand’s username. This helps you tag people and monitor them to see what others say about you.
3. Retweet: Sharing someone else’s tweet is known as a retweet.
4. Quote: Similar to a retweet, but with an added comment about the original tweet.
5. DMs: Also known as Direct Messages, they are private messages between accounts. If a non-follower contacts you, they will be sent to your requests folder. This can be changed in settings.
6. Topics: These are headings and tags an account can follow in order to see content related to a subject of interest.

Verification:
Verification on Twitter means having a recognized account by Twitter and being granted a blue tick in front of your username. 

For a brand, you’ll need to provide your Official Website and Official Email. For a brand celebrity, an extra piece of information is required, which will be a form of Official Identification.

How to run your business on Twitter:
Once you’ve nailed down the basics and prepped your account for expansion, consider going through the following tips to grow your business.

• Create a Marketing Strategy:
  Creating, posting, and monitoring your Tweets is a key aspect of your business. So It’s best to be consistent and orderly about it all. A Twitter marketing strategy will help you bring your brand on track and help you achieve your set goals. Your Twitter strategy will tie into your overall Social Media Strategy and should be on your content calendar. Having a global view of your social media marketing will allow you to take advantage of each platform’s specific strengths.
• Finding a Brand Voice:
  Twitter is covered with the graves of accounts that didn’t think before tweeting. It pays to have your brand’s voice designed for the platform. Having a consistent voice on social media makes it simpler to interface with your audience. It likewise assists your brand with standing apart among the organizations battling a portion of the 1.9 billion hours that clients spend on Twitter every month.
• Use Twitter Lists:
  When you get active on Twitter and your channel begins to top off, Twitter Lists can diminish the clamor by sorting your channel into targeted topics. Making a Twitter List resembles making a timeline that just has content from the accounts you pick. There is an assortment of topics you should make a list about for your business. You can utilize them to monitor accomplices, contenders, or the accounts that draw in with you the most.
• Twitter Spaces: Twitter Spaces is another component that permits you to have live audio discussions with different clients. With Spaces incorporated into the Twitter platform, it’s not difficult to spread the news about your audio sessions. Joining is pretty much as simple as clicking a link in a Tweet. Announcing your Spaces talk with a Tweet allows you to use the span of your current Twitter brand into engagement on Spaces.
• Using Ads to Promote: Twitter’s millions of clients are a major piece of what makes it an alluring platform for brands. In any case, the volume of the content presented on Twitter consistently can likewise imply that your brand’s Tweets become mixed up in the conflict. Twitter advertising is the response to this issue. You can promote anything from a solitary Tweet to a whole account. With no base financial plan, there’s a Twitter advertising choice that will assist any brand in getting noticed.
• Utilize Advanced Search: For thousands of Tweets each moment about movies and memes, Twitter’s search bar generally isn’t to the point of observing the content you’re searching for. Twitter’s advanced option is an all the more integral asset for filtering through Tweets, with many capacities to assist with advancing your brand. You can look by account notices to observe clients drawing in with you. Commitment channels permit you to track down the most famous Tweets about a topic.
• Monitor with Twitter Analytics: Twitter Analytics is a robust platform that utilizes diagrams and reports to give experiences to your Twitter usage. This instrument gives data on everything from your top Tweet to ad transformation rates. Knowing how to utilize Twitter Analytics gives many advantages to your business. For example, you can use it to decide the days and times your audience is generally dynamic or analyze your ads’ profit from speculation.
• Twitter API: The Twitter API (computerized programming connection point) permits you to cause programs that collaborate straightforwardly with Twitter. There are numerous ways that this instrument can help your business. You can make your own channels to get constant data on just the most essential Tweets or make custom audiences. Not every person with a Twitter account approaches the API. To utilize it, you initially need to apply for a developer account.

A Tweet is a 280-character fresh slate. It isn’t always simple to know how to impart your brand’s message on Twitter. These tips and tricks will guide you to make Twitter content that gets results.

1. Keep it Concise: Simple, Short, and Clear. That’s how your tweets should be! Remember, you’ve got limited characters.
2. Keep It Organic: People don’t really talk to brands, do they? So why talk like one? Keep engagement on a high by toning down on the formal end.
3. Engage with People: If you’re just broadcasting out into the Twitterverse, it’s easy for your audience to tune you out. And you don’t want a passive audience. The more engagement you get, the more visible you are.
4. CTAs: Good business Twitter use strikes a balance between conversational Tweets and advertorial content. The traditional best practices of ad copy still apply on Twitter. And knowing how to write a good CTA never goes out of style.
5. Use the Emojis: Emojis help you cut down on long words with little emoticons to help get your points across. Tweets with emojis generate more engagement than those without!
6. Trending Hashtags: Hashtags cut through the noise of Twitter to get your Tweets seen by people who are interested in a specific topic.
7. Add Some Visuals: Twitter isn’t a picture-based platform, so that’ll help you cut through the crowd with more visuals paired with a fresh tweet. Tweets that include a visual element (an image or a video) generate more engagement than those that don’t.
8. Time Your Tweets: Don’t waste your perfectly crafted content by tweeting it when no one’s around to see it. Use Twitter Analytics to track when your Tweets get the most engagement.
9. Frequency of Tweets: In most cases, it’s best to tweet more than one or two and fewer than three to five times per day. There are several ways to schedule your Tweets so that they come out at the right frequency. Twitter has a built-in scheduling feature to ease your burden.

Request: Please follow @angieweinberger on Twitter too.

GUEST POST BY NABEHA LATIF

With all the world going digital and businesses indulging more in online servicing, communications, and social interactions have therefore been more of a hot spot, especially with the likes of LinkedIn helping now Freelance and stay-at-home workers connect and grow themselves.

LinkedIn is by no means a new platform or in its early stages, a well-established and maintained social platform for business-minded individuals and professionals. However, does being a professional on LinkedIn or being a veteran on the site mean you have the best profiles out there? Not at all! Much like everything else, each passing moment calls for a new development that brings multiple changes to the platform. So this brings up the question, how do you get the professional and sleek-looking profile to stand out?

As an ever-growing platform, certain aspects call for a sturdy base for an end-user, and such can be obtained by adding on and working around a few LinkedIn Must-Haves to boost your profile out into the digital world. LinkedIn requires each individual to start off by creating their own profile, but that’s where the majority of the users leave it. There are so many options, tips, and tricks to get the most out of your profile and make it attractive.

1 – Use your Real Name

Your name and title should be exactly how it is in your real life. Please refrain from using nicknames or pseudo names, just like you won’t dare on your resume. LinkedIn is a professional site, full of professionals and businesses looking to get the most of out their work. Hence, keeping it professional yourself will help you get on the bandwagon, people are looking for solutions, not gimmicks!

2 – Use A Professional Headshot

At a glance, your name and photo are the most commonly viewed piece of information regarding yourself. Adding a professional headshot provides the first visual representation of you – do your best!. Remember, it will make your profile seven times more likely to be viewed by others.
       

3 – Optimize Location

Setting your location as accurately as possible helps businesses and other people look for the ones around them, so optimize yours to the best it can be. It’ll help you network where you will work geographically.  It doesn’t apply to Freelancers/Digital Nomads yet I would recommend you to stay honest regarding your location as preferred by the clients/companies.

4 – Profile Headline

We often wish to see a trailer of an individual before we get to know them for a better understanding, your LinkedIn Profile Headline is just that! You’ve got 110 characters to aptly describe yourself professionally.

5 – Industry Alignment

Looking for a business to match your skill set? You’ll need to be more visible, to make that happen. With the right words and by being specific about your industry, you’re paving a way for potential employers and connections.

6 – Get Connected

At its core, LinkedIn is still a social platform and what do we do on social platforms? Get social! Getting “LinkedIn” the site is part of the name. If you don’t have enough LinkedIn connections, you simply might not show up on as many LinkedIn searches as a 2nd-degree connection as you should.

7 – Be Reachable

It should be easy to find you on other social networks. This is crucial in checking your credibility as a person.  Provide your email address and do add links to Twitter/Facebook even if you don’t use them in a professional capacity.

Flex a little: Add items to your profile, such as projects, test scores, courses, patents, certifications, and volunteering/causes. Looking for work? 42% of hiring managers surveyed say they view volunteer experience as equivalent to formal work experience.

Make it Easy to Get Hired on LinkedIn

Now that you’ve got your head above the crowd, how about we get yourself on stage? With the basics covered and brimmed with your details, let’s get into the nooks and crannies to make it a tight seal.

• Stacking up on Experience: Work on adding more experience and skills. Being a Swiss army knife in this regard with tons of skills and expertise in your repertoire will help you stand out as well as be a prominent prospect for anyone looking to hire  Here are a few suggestions: Social Media, Newsletters, Copy Editing, Web Content, News Writing, Speech Writing, SEO, Email Marketing, Creative Writing, Online Journalism, etc. You can further add Knowledge Management, Learning Management Systems, Talent Management to represent your teaching skills.
• Tell Us About You: The basics will help lay the foundation, but you’ll need to ice the cake to make it look pretty! Show examples of your work, i.e. Youtube or Vimeo videos, presentations from Slideshare/Prezi/PowerPoint, documents from the scribe, word.
• Vanity URLs: Create a vanity URL to make your look sleek and extra presentable. Use a customized URL like linkedin.com/in/JohnWick rather than linkedin.com/pub/john-wick/4a/z89/145/

• Consistent Posting: Make it a weekly habit to post, comment, and endorse your connections on LinkedIn. Update your status on a regular basis. Share thoughtful/insightful news within your industry.
  
• Endorsements: Endorsements may likewise influence how you show up in LinkedIn searches made by users looking for similar people or results. Multiple billion endorsements are given out since LinkedIn’s initiation (10 million on a daily basis)! A normal number of endorsements per LinkedIn client is five. It is a simple method for being better in search results than expected!
• Polish Your Achievements: Add accomplishments, publications, blogs, certifications, and licenses. Bring out those tidbits of information and experience you have under your belt, even a little goes a long way!
• Recommendations: Get recommendations and endorsements on the skills from colleagues/friends on LinkedIn. That’ll help people trust your skill set more once it’s endorsed by other individuals. On LinkedIn you’ve got to establish your credibility, so get on the grind and ask for them!

Request

If you have worked with Angie Weinberger in the past or you enjoy her regular Club Sandwich kindly endorse her on LinkedIn or write a review for her. We also would love to see you follow us on LinkedIn.

About the Author

Nabeha Latif is a Digital Media and Branding Consultant who specializes in leveraging online marketing channels to achieve desired goals. Since after her majors in digital marketing, she has collaborated with names like UN, Ali Baba Inc, Uber, UNESCO, UNDP to name a few. She is also actively involved in providing business development services related to marketing.

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