Many people are overwhelmed with the amount of social networks available. Don't worry, if you already have a Facebook account for your business, you can actually find quite a few tools that interlink Facebook and Twiitter, so you might only have to write an article once. Read the “How to use Twitter with Facebook” article here: http://support.twitter.com/articles/31113-how-to-use-twitter-with-facebook/
The question you have to ask yourself is "Do I really need Twitter for my business?" and if yes, "How can I utilise it?" To answer that question, you should know that search engines such as Google pick up on your Twitter feeds. So if SEO is one of your aims, it may well be worth the time investment.
Your short posts on Twitter are referred to as tweets. If you write about something that is current or sought after by many people, your tweet might show up in common search engines such as Google and people can find out about you and your company through that post. It is not quite real-time yet, but it takes effect very quickly.
Twitter is especially effective if you have a content-rich website, which talks frequently about interesting topics. A perfect example for Barcelona could be companies that offer accommodation, jobs or general tourist information that needs to be constantly updated. Equally political blogs or websites can attract a lot of attention through Twitter.
Setting up a Twitter account is free and easy. You can have an open setting that allows people to see your posts, even though they are not (yet) your followers.
Each tweet allows you to enter 140 characters, including spaces.
Below are my top five tips for driving traffic to your website and drawing attention from new potential clients.
1) Drawing attention: Using hashtags
If you write about something that your company is currently doing, you can attach a "tag" to it.
When people are searching for the relevant word, your entry pops up on their Twitter search, as well as through Google.
You can attach a tag that you think describes your activity.
Example: Guiri Business is a Barcelona networking event for English-speaking professionals.
They tweeted the following: Barcelona #Guiri Business Drink July 18th 7-9pm #Biergarten Hotel Princesa Sofia. Last one before the summer holidays! http://lnkd.in/ZPVNr9
A business person who who had heard about this event might type in the words Biergarten and Guiri in a search engine. This tweet will appear on the first page of the Google search.
At the end of the tweet you can see a website URL, this links to a LinkedIn page where the event is properly described. This is how Twitter helps gain attention to your event and drive traffic to your site.
To find out what people are actually interested in hearing about, refer to our article on keyword searches (http://www.barcelona-metropolitan.com/articles/top-ten-tips-for-search-engine-optimisation/)
2) How do I drive traffic with Twitter on content-rich websites most effectively?
Here at Metropolitan we receive a lot of job offers in our online Classifieds section. We tweet these jobs from our @workinbarcelona Twitter account.
We know that people looking for jobs might enter very specific searches in Google, and want to be directed to the relevant job, not a site homepage. So, instead of only tagging with "#jobs" and "#Barcelona", and directing readers to our general website, we tag with the specific nature of the job, such as "#telesales" or "#programmer"
By tweeting and tagging every job we're able to be much more useful to our job-seeking followers and we are much easier to find through search engines.
3) How to make your URL smaller
Talent Search People also tweet all their current positions on their Twitter feed. They are currently advertising a Graphic Designer job on their website, but the URL is very long and they still want their Tweet to include the tags #Barcelona #jobs and in this case perhaps #graphicdesigner
With only 140 characters to work with, a long URL could hinder a clearer description of the offer.
Ultimately they want to bring people to their site with their URL, which in this case is very long:
http://www.talentsearchpeople.com/jobs/Graphic-Designer-with-native-level-of-English/11117.html
By going to websites such as www.tinyurl.com, people can easily copy and paste their long URL and in one button click shorten it from 95 characters to mere 26 – in this case the end result was following:
http://tinyurl.com/c42c9bv
The smaller URL will still lead the viewer to the same website but uses a lot less characters.
4) Connecting and talking about others
Imagine you are a Creative Agency and want to offer an interesting entry for your blog or website readers that is relevant to your business. However you still have very few followers.
If you were to visit the MIBA, the Museum of Ideas and Inventions in Barcelona, you could tweet about them. You can find their Twitter details by typing MIBA Barcelona Twitter into a search engine. It will reveal following URL: http://twitter.com/mibamuseum - You only need to use their Twitter name, which is after the backslash, in this case "mibamuseum".
You can tag them #mibamuseum in your entry and even address them directly to pay thanks using the "@" symbol.
Example: Thank you @mibamuseum for a great day.
This entry will be shown in the feed for the Miba Museum, who have more than 1700 followers, hence you are supporting MIBA, as well as draw attention to yourself on a relevant market. This might also help you gain more followers.
5) Twitter etiquette
It is very simple. Be nice to those who follow you.
You can send personal messages giving thanks.
If you have built a small group of people you follow, or who follow you, refer to them with the "@" sign when you talk to them, the "#" sign when talking about them and share their tweets (clicking re-tweet), when you see something interesting you think might be worthwhile sharing with your followers.
By Christine Gneuss of Smartnoise. www.smartnoise.co
TAG TOPICS: Barcelona entrepreneurs, Christine Gneuss, technology, e-commerce