Before you go changing anything around on your twitter profile to make it more professional you must decide what the purpose of the account is.

Is your purpose to connect with friends and family?
Is your purpose to share important updates to customers of your store or online business?
Is your purpose to attract potential clients and to give them an understanding of why they should choose your product or service?

If your purpose is only to connect with friends and family then you don’t really need to have a professional presence in my opinion.

But if your purpose is business related then the following steps will help you create a professional presence on twitter.

Sometimes people will have a personal and a business-related purpose for using twitter. In those cases I recommend having a personal twitter account and a separate business related account on twitter.

1. Get a custom background

To create a professional presence on twitter you want to have your own unique background. The default background is used by millions of people and you want to set yourself apart.

There are many websites that will help you create a customized background for your twitter account. And the best part is that most of them are free.

To create a custom background for my twitter account I used Twitbacks.com.

2. Use a picture of yourself

Twitter allows you to have a small avatar picture associated with your account and I recommend using a personal photograph for this.

It doesn’t have to be a professional headshot where your hair and makeup is perfect; it just needs to be a picture of you.

This allows your followers to connect your tweets and messages with a real person. This personal touch adds credence to what you say.

3. Your phone number

I like to post my phone number on my twitter account for all of my followers to see. When followers see a phone number listed with a twitter account it gives them confidence that if they had a problem or question there is someone they could call.

I know some of you will be uncomfortable doing this and it’s completely understandable.

But if you run a small business or work in any line of sales then you really need to have your phone number listed on your twitter account.

To my knowledge twitter does not allow you to actually list the phone number as part of your account. But you can have it be part of your background.

In the example below you can see my phone number is on the far left side:

4. List your email address

You will also want to list your e-mail address on your twitter account. Just as with phone numbers, you can’t actually list your e-mail on your account but you can include it as part of your background.

I know some of you will be concerned about posting your e-mail and receiving spam.

To deal with this I created a second e-mail address that I used specifically for my business. And this is the e-mail address that I post on my twitter account.

Luckily Gmail has a very good spam filter and so I actually get very few spam messages in my inbox each week.

5. Be professional in your tweets

People follow you for a reason. Whether it’s to hear about new products your store is offering or updates about the cause you represent, people are listening to what you say.

And the minute you deviate from that you will lose followers.

So before you post a tweet ask yourself, “Why are people following me? And is this new tweet something they want to hear about?”

If the answer is no or if you’re not sure then do not post the new tweet.

6. Tweet regularly but don’t overdo it

I will usually tweet something in the morning and then sometimes in the evening. 1 to 3 tweets today is optimal.

You want to your followers to see something from you each day but you don’t want to overdo it.
The last thing you want is for one of your followers to see that the last 20 tweets are all from you. When this happens to me I immediately unfollow the person.

7. Only follow people that you’re interested in

A popular way to get followers is to follow a whole bunch of people and hope that many of them follow you back. This results in you having 3,000 followers and you are following 3,000 people yourself.

When people see this it looks less professional. They know there is no way you can be listening to what all 3000 people are tweeting about.

On the other hand it is much more impressive if you follow just a few people and yet have hundreds of followers yourself. When people see this they are more likely to follow you in my opinion here.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



7 Ways To Create A Professional Twitter Presence

2 days ago, I met my friend Sam Mutimer (@sammutimer) for lunch. We talked about blogging, conferences and social media over lunch. I left with the opportunity to work with her team at Thinktank Media (@thinktankmedia) when they roll out strategies for new clients.

I was quite surprised – especially as I use twitter to hang out and connecting with awesome people when I have the time.

How I Got The Job

I don’t remember how I met Sam, but she soon encouraged me to go the the tweetup she founded called Tweetupmellers(@tweetupmellers) . She was great at getting me to talk to new people and was really encouraging.

I kept in touch with Sam, helping her out and just talking about her projects. I also focused on connecting with more people from the tweetupmellers community. Fast forward to two meetups later, and she was talking about a new project and how she might be needing additional help for it. In the past month, she has hired 3 of the twums attendees and has discovered many others through twitter.
My job is only 8 hours a month – but I will have the opportunity to earn an income while setting up my blog. I’ll be able to accept more work when she gets new clients and I’ll get some training in the business side of the industry.
This wouldn’t have been possible without twitter. Here are my five tips:

1. Go To Tweetups
I can’t stress the importance of this. I went to the tweetups with the view to hang out with fun people that I’d been talking to for months. It has since turned into one of the best ways to get people interested in your work.
I’ve observed:

• Neil creek(@neilcreek) get several clients – and a lot of buzz – due to his Meetheads concept at the tweetup.
• People talking about possible joint ventures on new projects.
• People hiring those that they’ve met at a tweetup.

2. Provide Advice For Free
I would often send DM’s to Sam with ideas for her projects. These were little things and didn’t take that much time. She would always send a DM back thanking me and would occasionally seek me out for advice.

She told me how she had done a similar thing when starting out. She worked for free and soon developed a strong reputation. I have seen this work very well for people building a portfolio. My tip would be to make sure you get testimonials. I do this by favouriting the tweets that compliment my work and by seeking LinkedIn recommendations.
I’ve done this a lot off twitter – guest posts, emails with advice and even meeting people to help with blogging projects.

3. Connect With Connectors
There are some people who love connecting people. They thrive on helping people. Sam is one of them. She has hired a number of my twitter friends including @mr_billiam and @ttam.

This also worked for a local web designer, @richardhuf. I was asked by a friend, @frankinoz, if I knew anyone who could do wordpress PSD’s. I didn’t know anyone so just pumped out a tweet asking for recommendations. Richard responded and has helped Frank for reveral projects. Based on this, I referred him to Sam. I’m still waiting to hear if anything came out of the referral.

You can accomplish so much by just focusing on people who love connecting and helping them out. Sam has since hooked me up with several leading business authors to interview and review their products.

4. Make It Known That You Are Looking For Work
I didn’t actively seek employment but I often talked about how I wanted to get a job at the end of the year. This was a major goal of me and many of my twitter friends had been helping me out and encouraging me to develop new skills.
As a result, I’ve had several offers to exchange skills and the eventual job offer from Sam. All of this before I was even prepared to re-enter the workforce.

5. Offer To Help
I do this often and its led to a lot of opportunities. Most people will reciprocate when they can.
I offered to review @sarahprout’s Twitter Success Blueprint (published on Twitip). As a result, I found a new friend and mentor. @Braqueen offered to exchange blogging advice for a mini makeover. I sent feedback to @howtomakemyblog and now have a guest posting opportunity.

This can help people see your skills and ascertain whether they want to work for you. You don’t even have to do it for free – you can do it at a reduced price.

Have you had success on twitter?
I have been hearing many more stories of people finding work on twitter. I’d love to hear about your success in the comments.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



5 Methods I Used To Get A Job Through Twitter

Then I remembered a neat little trick in Gmail!

See, you can set up Gmail to send all of your Twitter follower emails (or any email really) to go directly to a specified folder and skip your Inbox.

Here’s how you do it:

Go into your settings in Gmail. Click on Filters. You want to now Create a New Filter.

In the From section enter in the email address your Twitter followers come from. You can find the address from an email sent. It will be in the form of:

twitter-follow-username=gmail.com@postmaster.twitter.com

The username part will be your user name on Twitter.

Click on Next Step. You’ll see the following:

Check off Skip the Inbox (remember the idea here is to keep your Inbox clean). You also want to click Apply the label (this sets up the new folder the emails will go to). Scroll the dropbox to New Label. Call the new label Twitter Followers (or whatever you like).

Click Create Filter and you’re done! Your Twitter followers emails will all go directly to the new folder you set up and skip your Inbox. When you have free time you can batch all of your followers in one sitting.

Follow FFB on Twitter @freefrombroke

FFB writes for the personal finance site Free From Broke. At first he didn’t know what to do with Twitter (“it felt a little like talking to myself”) but now is completely addicted to it (check out his guide to Twitter).

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Keep Track Of Your Twitter Followers And Have A Clean Inbox In Gmail