This past Wednesday the Halifax social media workplace education program for business started off with Twitter training. 16 great businesses started using Twitter; many for the first time. There were a lot of great moments at 140 characters or less.
Twitter, in my opinion, is one of the hardest social media networks for business to understand. Twitter has 140 characters or less to work with, but this network really makes people nervous. After all, how hard can it be? Well just ask McDonalds New Zealand. They are the only company that I know of that was able to destroy a Twitter account in 4 tweets. Business people are apprehensive about using Twitter.
The first part of Wednesday’s class focused on going through the Twitter set up process. We looked at all the profile settings; including the two-step sign in verification process. There was so much to learn as we went from setting to setting. Some things to foe all of us to remember: it’s important to have a great avatar, have your notifications set properly and have a great Twitter username.
The homework for the participants, as they left, was to finish the Twitter account setup as much as possible; and to bring lots of great pictures for creating headers and backgrounds. I am looking forward to helping them get their Twitter headers and backgrounds set up professionally.
Next week the class will also focus on getting a better understanding of how to use Twitter for business. We will be looking at using Hootsuite, Buffer and other 3rd party Twitter applications. We will also be discussing basic Twitter techniques for business. I am so looking forward to seeing their next tweets. One of the participants wished it was Wednesday again so he could learn more. I am impressed with their desire to learn.
So what’s our walk-a-way for today? Firstly, make sure you go and look at each of the profile settings for your Twitter account. Consider your security settings and set your notifications wisely. Secondly, give some thought to your avatar, header and Twitter background. Lastly, start tweeting. You will learn by doing. Just remember this, think before you tweet. Don’t be like McDonalds New Zealand and burn your Twitter account.
So please stay tuned for more learning ahead. What do you want Twitter to do for your business?
