Karl Kasca

Setting up a Twitter account is very quick and easy.  But there are a couple of things you can do to make your profile and bio line much more effective.

Action Steps

• Go to Twitter and click "Get Started Now" (next to "Join the conversation").



• Enter:



• Username - "FirstnameLastname" is a good one, so people know who you are.



• Note: You can set up a business Twitter account, but you'll probably get more followers from a personal account.



• Think of it this way: How many businesses do you "know"?



• If "FirstnameLastname" is taken, consider adding your middle initial or name, or first & middle initials (e.g., cspenn) as Christopher Penn, of the Marketing Over Coffee marketing podcast had to do: http://twitter.com/cspenn. 



• It's better to have a name someone can recognize as "you", rather than your fantasy name, e.g., "tennisking", unless you're branding yourself, e.g., Carrie Wilkerson, who is "The Barefoot Exec" (http://twitter.com/barefoot_exec) for work-at-home Moms. 



• Remember that your name will be in lower case, so your nifty "IThinkThereforeIAm" name will just be the mish-mash of: "ithinkthereforeiam".



• Also focus on keeping your Twitter name fairly short, so if people refer to you in their tweets your name won't be taking up a lot of space (remember: 140 characters for a tweet is very limiting!).  I'm much more likely to want to refer to: @rickhenkin than @RichardEntwhistleThoroughgoodness and waste all of those characters.
  
  - Note: More on the "@" (at) signs in another article.



• Password



• Email Address



• Once you're in Twitter, go to the "Settings" tab and enter:



• Name



• Username



• Email



• One Line Bio (Very Important!):



• Note: Try to get as much about you and your business as you can in this Bio line in a light easy-to-identify-with way:



• Your position.



• Your company.



• A short statement about what you do, or are trying to achieve.



• Maybe something light or whimsical that shows what you identify with in your off-time (Yoga diva, Dad of x kids, etc.) and that you have a sense of humor.



• Your Blog (or your website address if you don't have a blog).



• Note: People do check out your Bio and your Twitter page to determine if they want to Follow you or not (so make sure it "sells" them on following you, not on telling them you're some sort of crazed space alien).



• Then they might be attracted to your website and/or blog...which could lead to business (or new contacts or affiliations, etc.).



• Protect my updates - Do *NOT* check this box!



• You *want* people to be able to see your Twitter tweets and Google to index your Twitter tweets so you can be found - that's the whole point!



• SAVE!



• Add/Upload your Picture: 
  



• At your Profile page (click on "Profile" in the top-of-the-screen menu).



• Click on "Add a Photo" next to your name.



• Browse to the folder with your photo file (e.g., gif, JPG) in it, select it and uplaod.



• NOTE: We recommend that you use a photo that most people who know you would recognize, which looks welcoming, and in attire which you could go to a business-casual meeting in.  We do *not* recommend that you use pictures of slices or parts of your body, or in contortionist positions, or the back of your head, etc.
  

Video: Twitter account with a Killer Profile