The beauty of Twitter is in its brevity. This also applies to the fields you’re given for the profile information on your account. Here’s how you can maximize the limited space you have on your page.
Remember: These tips for making the most out of your profile will get people to your page. But the quality of what you tweet and the level of interaction and engagement that your company or organization demonstrates, is what will gain and keep the subscribers.
Avatar (Photo)
Be consistent, and make sure users can identify you, your company, or logo. Changing the profile pic from time to time is okay, but change it too often, and users won’t be able to identify with you easily. Particularly when using a Twitter application such as Tweetdeck, Seesmic or Twhirl the fastest way to identify a tweet is by the 73 x 73 dpi avatar.
Remember, Twitter isn’t Facebook or MySpace. Especially if you’re representing a brand or institution, you want consistent messaging.
Don’t forget to check us out on Twitter too: @inculink
Good Examples:
@OCReggie Four reporters cover the Orange County Register account. As their shifts change, so their avatars. But every avatar has an orange in the upper left, along with a black and white headshot.
@Kimpton We actually brainstormed the idea of what image would be best fitting for Kimpton with their in-house PR team. The Kimpton Hotels are known for their pet-friendliness and in-room goldfish service.
Location
Some accounts list iPhone or Google Maps coordinates. But particularly if you’re a business where you want people to identify your location easily, simply enter your city and state. Don’t make it more complicated.
Web
This is your chance to lead your followers to Rome. Whether it’s your official corporate homepage or Facebook fan page, make sure it takes people to your primary presence on the Web.
Bio
You get 160 characters – an extra 20 characters to sell your brand! Take advantage of it by entering keywords or tags that you’d want people to identify you with. The bio text is searchable, and is your one chance to define yourself in a quick snapshot. Twitter apps that call upon the Twitter API will also crawl these 160 characters.
Background
The avatar, location, website and bio are important in getting people to your Twitter site. But the work doesn’t stop there.
Once people are on your site, you want to:
- Continue your branding
- Give them more information on how to connect with you
- Lead them to any other social media site that is a part of your brand
On the right are examples of @Zappos and @rww (Read Write Web) using the left sidebar real estate on the background image.
All of these changes can be made in “Settings” on your Twitter homepage. It only takes a few minutes to update. And if you don’t have the design skills to create a nifty background, check out a slew of Twitter background resources available for free on the Web, such as TwitBacks.
The Big Picture
Putting it all together in to a neat package is fairly easy, and the investment for building your brand online will go a long way. Here are a few examples that meets the basic rules of the profile on the right, and takes advantage of its background real estate.
@GaryVee – Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV
@CallFireCEO – Dinesh Ravishanker, CEO of CallFire (VOIP solutions)
@UCIbrenICS – UC Irvine’s Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences:
