#Networking On Twitter

Twitter is a micro-blogging social media site. Each post must fit within 140 characters. When setting up a new account on Twitter, tweeters can use the search tool to find categories, companies, or groups that interest them. Networking on Twitter is a great way to connect with others in the industry.

Users can choose to follow news personalities, manufacturer reps, industry consultants, associations, friends, companies and other organizations. To build relevant business followers, distributor reps and other social media team members can promote their user name, and their company’s user name, by placing a “follow link” in their e-mail signature. Distributors should make it easy for their potential audience by providing a link via other social media pages, company website, advertisements and printed literature.

Hashtags (#) are a key aspect of Twitter, allowing one to categorize tweets by topic and enable public searches by that topic to find related tweets. Users should not use more than two hashtags  per tweet; it tends to waste message space. If the social media team has a lengthy message to communicate, using a URL shortener, such as bitly, can save space. Networking on Twitter can also be done through each team member’s LinkedIn profile, allowing new posts to generate on both mediums at the same time (given the message is within the 140 character tweet limit).