alaahassan

You’re trying to grow your personal brand on social media.  The challenge is which social network should you focus on?

It’s not very easy for me to answer this question but I can assure you that the more social networks you engage in, the more chances you have to get discovered online.

Twitter is indeed a great choice for helping you build your personal brand.  I’ve been using it for a while myself and love seeing the results from my branding efforts.  You can follow me here.

Here are 5 ways you can benefit from Twitter:

1. Drive Traffic to Your Personal Website from the Twitter Profile Bio

One thing I love most about Twitter is how easy it makes it for people to visit my website or my Clarity profile.  Within 1 or 2 clicks (or taps), users can learn about who I am, where I’m located and what is my website URL.

If you want to have a positive first impression, it’s very important to use a good quality headshot with your full name.  Your bio should include a descriptive summary of who you are and what you do.   Keep it simple as people skim through text.  Make sure to include some keywords within your industry so that if someone searches on Twitter by profession, your profile will show up in results.

Finally, make sure to include a link to your website or to whatever landing page you want people to visit when they want o learn more about you and what it is that you offer. Use the following tools to create a personal website if you don’t have one.

2. Follow 5 People Within Your Industry Every Day

Most people simply create a Twitter profile, post a couple of tweets and complain they’re not getting good results from this social network.  Keep in mind that you need to put some effort on a daily basis if you really want it to pay off.

Remember how it’s important to be patient and consistent when developing your personal brand.  It’s not easy but it’s not difficult.

I great tactic that I’ve seen work for me is to follow at least 5 people every day who share similar content as me or experts within my industry.

Following 5 people a day adds up to 150 a month.  Now that’s a lot of people to follow but if you see they’re not posting valuable content worth sharing within your network, simply unfollow them.  Focus on quality vs quantity.  Following too many people makes it hard for you to keep track of what people are tweeting about.

In my situation, I followed people within the eCommerce industry, companies that provide software solutions for online retailers as well as eCommerce and online marketing blogs.

For example, I follow Scot Wingo, co-founder of Channel Advisor, a company who offers a powerful software for online retailers.

 

3. Retweet 5-10 Times a Day Industry Related Posts

Just like how I recommended you follow 5 people a day, you should also consider retweeting content posted by them throughout the day by retweeting their posts.  People will appreciate this gesture since you’re helping them spread their thoughts.  This will help you get noticed even more than simply following them.

When you start retweeting their content, they will hopefully do the same with your tweets.  This is a perfect example of the art of reciprocity.

For example, my friend Luiz Centenaro tweeted about a topic I enjoy a lot which is conversion rate optimization for eCommerce.  His blog post was insightful that I decided to retweet it to my network so they can benefit from it.

4. Favorite 10 Tweets Within Your Industry a Day

If you don’t have time to follow or retweet people’s content on Twitter (which is hard to believe if you’re serious about building your personal brand), you can simply favorite their tweets.  When doing so, it simply means that you’ve acknowledged or valued their tweet as well as it’s a great way to bookmark it for future reading.

I usually launch my Twitter app, browse through my feed and whenever I see something interesting or worth reading later, I simply tap on the favorite (star) icon below the tweet.  This will send a notification to the person who Tweeted it and creates curiosity to visit your profile.

For example, my good friend Johnny Russo, eCommerce Director at Bentley Bags shared a blog post about free shipping.  I didn’t have time to read it at that time so I tapped the favorite feature.

5. Use Twitter Search Once A Week to Engage With New People

In order for you to discover new people to follow as well as new content within your industry, you will have to make use of Twitter search.  I recommend you do that once a week so you don’t get overwhelmed with too many tasks on Twitter.

The best way to search something is to start with the main keyword that you’ve been targeting and from there, you can simply use different variations of it in order to dig deeper within the Twitter network.

For example, I love everything eCommerce.  I can search the keyword “eCommerce” as a first step.  But if I am looking to connect with eCommerce consultants, I can simply search “eCommerce consultant”.

Conclusion

Twitter may sound confusion at first, but trust me, as you learn how to use it, you will realize how powerful it is when it comes to building your personal brand.

In order to succeed, make sure to optimize your profile, follow individuals within your industry, favorite as well as retweet their content and always look to expand your network using the powerful Twitter search.

Good luck!