Twitter is a relationship building and relationship maintenance tool; the most obvious business use of Twitter is to meet potential customers and leads the same way you would at networking event or tradeshow.

However, you can also use it to:

1) Develop and promote your brand

2) Interact with your customer base

3) Track what people are saying about your company and brand

4) Create buzz around upcoming events

5) Help individual employees act as liaisons to the public

6) Promote other content you’ve created, including webinars, blog posts or podcasts

7) Develop direct relationships with bloggers and journalists for potential PR placement

With Google now showing social media updates in its results, a good Twitter Handle can only go a long way in helping your brand achieve a better search engine optimization.

Getting your Twitter handle correct.

With Twitter fast becoming a major search engine option and prime source of news, it is very important to use the medium correctly. One major aspect of being on the micro blogging site is to get the handle, or the twitter name, that is most beneficial for you and your business. Here are some basic Dos and Don’ts that you should keep in mind while creating your Twitter handle.

                               

Creating a Twitter Handle

Dos

One name

Try to choose a name that is available on most of the social media platforms. With growing number of fans and followers, it will be hard for them to remember if your handle is abc on Twitter and ab_c on Facebook. Of course, that makes it even harder to find a handle that is available, but if you do, your followers will instantly recognize you across the web.

Real Name

Your full name or a variation of it will make it easier for people remember your handle. It also helps in promoting brand recall. Every time you tweet, you promote brand awareness for your brand and helps in making the handle more authentic.

Short is sweet

With only 140 characters to use, every letter is valuable. It’s not generally an issue but when people want to reply to you or retweet your posts, a short the handle is way better than an elaborate name. This will also earn you some brownie points with people who hate editing tweets before retweeting.

Avoid numbers and underscore

Underscores and numbers give the impression that your first choice was taken, or it gives the appearance that you aren’t putting enough thought into your username to think of something unique. This is not the impression your brand would want to give to the consumer. The uniqueness of your brand name and the brand equity associated with it should not be diluted with numbers.

Don’ts

Something completely random

This is not just confusing for the consumer but also a lost opportunity to increase brand recall. Do remember that while promoting your brand, the more you talk about it, the more it will register in the consumers’ mind. This rule is applicable any medium, be it ATL, BTL or Social Media.

A handle that has an underscore

Using an underscore is not incorrect or wrong, but it is generally not done. Use it at the risk of coming across as unaware of the “social norms,” or as a brand trying too hard to play the social media game.

A handle that is a slogan

While it may be a great way of promoting a campaign or a particular product, avoid using a handle that is a slogan for simple reason that slogans keep changing. The idea is to build bigger brand recall rather than momentary campaign involvement.

Once you are done creating your twitter handle, the world of 140 characters can open up like never before for you and your brand. Amazingly crafted tweets can make your brand a PR success like none before. Also, it can help you create a database of real time testimonials. So get going. Let your brand tweet its way to higher brand equity.

Also read about the Do’s and Don”ts on Facebook.

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Tags: Branding, Handle, Micro Blogging, PR, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 at 11:10 AM and is filed under Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.