Creating intimacy on Twitter

Aug 12, 2010

Table of contents:

1. Post about your day, personal feelings and thoughts
2. Have a wide range of Tweets
3. Have an interesting icon
4. Complete the Bio, Location and Web URL
5. Customise the design of your profile

In order to gain the most use out of Twitter it is important to create a sense of intimacy with your following rather than just a slew of one way broadcasts. Here we explain how you can create this bond with your followers.

Post about your day, personal feelings and thoughts

One of the most interesting aspects of following people on Twitter is reading about their day, problems they might face or significant accomplishments they have achieved. Posting personal details amongst your other tweets aids a sense of intimacy with your following despite the fact you might not know these people. Allowing such intimacy gains the trust of your following as they will grow to know you better and trust in your recommendations and advice. For example, you might mention the great customer service you have just had with a company. This is a personal view that you share, which your following will remember for the future. This is one of the most powerful methods of word of mouth marketing and so you can become a great influencer just by sharing your opinion. You don’t need to post explicit personal details or feel the need to share every little aspect of your life, but if people are following you and they are interested in what you have to say, they will be interested in hearing how your day has been.

Have a wide range of Tweets

If you are someone who likes to share a lot of links, or a business trying to gain sales then by all means do that, but try and and include other kind of tweets to make your feed more interesting. Include jokes, funny anecdotes, opinions, views and what you are up to. If you are a business include tweets about what’s happening in the office, or what the company is doing for others that does not directly try and sell the company. Ask questions and offer your services to others in need of answers. You must aim to be a person who your followers look out for on their feed for your updates rather than someone who the skip by because they are sick of repetitive boring updates.

Have an interesting icon

Your icon on Twitter can often be a first impression of you as a person or as a company. Try and have an interesting picture that represents who you are as a person. There is nothing worse than putting people off from following you because you have a poor quality or boring picture.

If you are a business try and have a good quality logo that represents the feel and aspiration of the company. If you have a tired old logo and colour scheme consider a re-brand that will bring you up to date with new modern companies who are gaining the most from social media and web technology.

Complete the Bio, Location and Web URL

The Bio is often the first thing people will read when they land on your profile. Try and write something interesting about yourself that is also short and snappy. You could write what your job title is, if your updates are related, what your interests are or something unique about yourself. Try and write something that gives an essence of what you talk about on Twitter. Give a location to allow people to know where in the world you are from. If you are uncomfortable saying exactly where you are from just give a general area. If you don’t have a website give the URL of another social media profile you use, a Tumblr, Flickr or Facebook account to allow new people to get more of a sense of who you are and what you are about.

Customise the design of your profile

To make your profile more representitive of you try changing the colours or adding a background image. If you don’t have a clue about design you can get some great profile designs from a number of websites or follow a tutorial to learn how. If you are a business customisation of your profile is a must. Get a professional to design your profile, which includes your logo and company colour scheme.