Although Twitter has its own internal search, major search engines like Google and Bing also index profiles and other content from this site. Since links to Twitter often rank quite highly in targeted search results, you can boost your inbound marketing efforts by maximizing the visibility of your page in relevant results.

The first tip for accomplishing that goal is to include a few relevant keywords in your Twitter bio. You don’t need to stuff your bio with keywords or stress over choosing the perfect ones. Instead, think about words and phrases that are most relevant to what your business does, and then include them. This will help Google understand the topics where it makes sense to display your page in their results.

The next tip is to focus on building relationships with relevant users. This is important for two reasons. First, it’s the best way to show search engines that your Twitter account is legitimate and not just a tool being used for spam. Second, and even more importantly, this is a key part of how you will start getting real value out of Twitter. A common mistake businesses make is assuming they can put up a profile and lots of people will start following them. The reality is if you want results, it’s usually in your best interest to make the first move. By starting to follow both influencers within your industry and people who fall in your target customer demographic, you will start having opportunities to engage with the users who will allow you to get the most value out of Twitter.

Finally, while it’s best to be authentic and natural with your Twitter activity, there is one technical spec to keep in mind. A tweet can consist of up to 140 characters. But because you want to encourage other users to retweet what you share, do your best to keep your messages in the 120-130 character range. This will allow others to retweet you without needing to do any editing. Additionally, studies have found that this length gets the highest number of people clicking the links that are shared in the tweets.

Simple Guidelines for Communicating Through Twitter

As a business, you don’t need to reply to every single tweet that’s relevant to you. That being said, you should always reply to negative comments and questions. For negative comments, just be sure to reply with a level head. And for questions, the reason it’s always worth answering is because users are 64% more likely to buy from a business that consistently answers the questions they’re asked on Twitter.

With both types of responses, you don’t always have to send them publicly. Instead, there are times when it makes sense to do so by direct messaging. This form of communication is similar to sending an email or a message through Facebook. The one thing to keep in mind is Twitter doesn’t automatically allow you to send DMs to every user. Instead, they either need to be following you, or they need to have opted in to receive direct messages from any follower. Since you do want any user to be able to reach you, be sure to go to your settings page and opt into receiving DMs from any of your followers.

Finally, don’t be afraid to use a tool like Send Social Media to schedule tweets throughout the day. While you don’t want to fully automate your stream, using a scheduling tool can allow you to stay active without constantly needing to keep a Twitter client open on your computer or phone. Just be sure that if someone responds with a negative comment or question, you do get back to them in a timely manner.

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