5 steps to creating a solid Twitter profile

With the ever increasing rise of Social Media, many new products and technologies have been born. Along with these, even more marketing tactics have been brewed as a result of the rising impact that new technologies have on society. One of the latest trends is that of Twitter. Will Twitter continue to grow at such as rapid rate and continue to become such an integral part of society? I don’t know, but what I can tell you is how to create a Twitter profile that is solid and reputable so that you can create the best personal brand for yourself before you damage your reputation beyond repair.

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Profile image: This is a vital part of creating your own personal brand image. This is where you will make your first impression to other users, and it has been proven time and time again that first impressions count. You want an avatar that You also want your avatar to represent YOU, be UNiqUE and provide some insight into the type of person you are. People should be able to recognize your avatar quickly and easily helping them to remember you and create a connection. Your Twitter avatar grabs attention and then allows you to strike the killer blow with the quality content of your tweets. Don’t change it too often either or users will not be able to recognize you and the familiarity formed with you will be lost easily.

Quality & Quantity of Tweets: That brings us onto the next point – quality and quantity of Tweets. You should be aiming to provide a resource to someone else out their. There is no point in speaking, if there is not a single person listening. Don’t tweet just anything and spam as often as you can, but rather tweet frequently and try to keep your topics consistent. People will follow you if they find value in what you tweet and are generally consistent with regards to the topics that you tweet about.

Followers Vs following: No one wants to follow someone who simply follows hordes of people and has no one following them back. Take a look at your followers : following ratio. Anything above 1:1 is what you should be aiming for and will help in create a respectable Twitter profile. Also, don’t automatically follow someone simply because they follow you. One thing that will get you unfollowed almost immediately is sending direct messages automatically to those that follow you. It is unnecessary spam and is bound to get people to ignore and unfollow you almost instantly.

Ability to interact, engage: Twitter is a great way to quickly, easily and efficiently interact and engage with people. They might not follow you yet, but might want to ask you a question to find out if they will really get some value out of following you. The best way to provide value through your Twitter profile, is to engage and interact with people. Ask and answer questions and create a presence for yourself. The best way to further your reach into new markets is by proving to users that you will interact and engage with them therefore providing a valid reason to follow you. Listen and then respond.

Being Real: Stands out from the crowd and grabs attention immediately. This point is essentially behind the other four points. It’s great if you have a good Twitter avatar, quality tweets, a good followers to following ratio and often engagement with people, but what will add that extra cherry on top that will open you up to a trove of new followers is simply being real. Be you. Show people out there that there is actually a real person behind the Twitter account who has real emotions and is in fact tangible. Vary things up, share your experiences and opinions and make connections. People connect with real people and by showing a unique side to yourself through using emotions, people will soon find you. Coupled with a great avatar, quality tweets, no spam, the ability to listen and then interact and you will be on the rise to Twitter stardom.

This post was written by James Macdonald, founder and webmaster of Captain Awesome – A Cape Town Blog. His blog covers gaming, SEO, life as a teenager and any newsworthy content regarding Cape Town. You can follow him via @jbigmac on Twitter as well.

Running Wolf’s Rant would like to take this opportunity to thank James for his contribution to the blog. We are confident that the information given here will be very helpful for Twitter users and that it will answer some pending questions.

Henno Kruger

Blogger, Desktop Activist, Twitter / Facebook Addict, Music Festival Addict, Avid lover of South African music, Founder and owner of Running Wolf’s Rant