50 Twitter Basics for Building Online Community

Building online community by means of Twitter can be a mystery to beginners.

The fear of the unknown may lead to a decision not to become involved with Twitter as an online community channel. Yet Twitter can be a big asset for businesses, brands and individuals seeking to build online community!

I had an example of this last night when invited for dinner at family friends.

The gentleman of the house owns his own business, and in conversation he hinted that his web designer had registered Twitter and Facebook accounts for the business. 

Yet the channels had never been used, due to his apprehension and fear of the unknown.

He asked, "Where do I begin, Twitter as a community seems so complicated?"

So I said that I would do some research and come up with a basic Twitter Check List for him to work through at his leisure.

The check list in this post was created as a result, and it is sure to help most businesses and individuals get started with a Twitter online community. 

50 Twitter Basics for Online Community

• Load a Profile Image, either your own photo or a square business logo.

• Create your Bio, describing and using the most important keywords.

• Enter your location as this will assist in attracting local online community.

• Ensure your Twitter page and Tweets are open to the online community.

• Upload a background image, or have a designer create a custom background.

• Ensure that the background works for all sizes of monitor.

• Capture your Website or Blog url in the space provided.

• Select any options that allow emails when receiving a Direct Message.

• Create 15 seed tweets to populate your page, 1 or 2 keywords per tweet.

• Get familiar with the Twitter Search bar, play in the search bar for 10 mins.

• Start searching for people in the online community with similar interests.

• You stay in NYC and have a fashion blog? Search for "fashion new york"

• Many tweets and profiles will be found. "Follow" the ones that interest you.

• Make a start by following at least 100 profiles that have your interest.

• These profiles will show up on your Home Page as you have chosen them.

• Skim though your home page and Re-tweet any tweets that really move you.

• Skim through your home page and reply to ones that ask a question.

• Create carefully crafted tweets daily, using your keywords to attract folks.

• The following, re-tweeting, replying, tweeting spree will attract followers.

• Thank anyone for following you by tweet or DM, build online community.

• Reply to anyone thanking you for a follow, re-tweet, reply or DM.

• Twitter is about engagement! Spend 80% of time engaging, 20% tweeting.

• Answer questions in a meaningful manner, always drawing people in.

• Shorten re-tweets and add a short comment yourself.

• Engage and agree on subjects that interest the follower. Its about them!

• Share personal life tweets, as well as business interest tweets.

• Highlight things happening in your industry and city, not only your business.

• Do not take part in any scheme to purchase thousands of followers.

• Engage, Engage, Engage, at every opportunity! Build online community!

• Include your Twitter url in your Email signature, and on business cards.

• Include your Twitter url on website and blog, integrate online community.

• Add a Twitter "Share" button to your website and blog posts.

• Integrate Twitter into your website and blog by means of a feed.

• Add a Twitter "Follow" button to your website and blog to grow community.

• Include Twitter url into your Facebook Info page to integrate community.

• Integrate your Twitter page to Facebook by means of Involver or ShortStack.

• Plan your tweets according to world time zones ensuring real time viability.

• Make tweets responsive by asking questions to the online community.

• Follow leaders in your industry to gain insight as to the space.

• Stop following people that have not been tweeting for ages.

• Stop following people that purely tweet outbound sales messaging.

• Tweet about other peoples interests in general and the online community.

• If you tweet about your own stuff make sure that the tweets add value.

• Come across in an engaging manner, always building online community.

• Use Direct Message for any private discussion not for public eye.

• Keep away from any highly Political, Racial, Sexual, Religious issues.

 
• Make use of #hashtags as they link you to like minded people or tweets.

• Use your keywords as #hashtags as they help optimize your tweets.

• There is a time and place for everything, you can't tweet on company time.

• Use TinyUrl or Bitly to shorten links within your tweets.

• Tweet regularly, and at a time of day that your tweets are likely to be seen.

• Do not over do the tweeting! Rather engage with the online community.

• Brands should be careful as to who they empower to tweet and engage.

• Brands should have a written policy on Social Engagement for staffing.

Summary: Use these 50 Twitter Basics for online community. 

This checklist on 50 Twitter Basics for Online Community is a start and should get you well on your way to success in the Twitter online community space.

Credit: Inspired by posts written by Bridie Jenner and Chris Brogan.