{ www.Twitter.com }

For businesses on Twitter, the conversation is the canvas

It took Twitter three years, two months and one day to reach our first billion Tweets. Today, there are over a billion Tweets sent every three days. These Tweets represent conversations related to almost any topic imaginable.

For businesses and brands, these conversations provide a rich canvas and a powerful context in which to connect your messages and your brand to what people are talking about right now. It’s a canvas for telling engaging stories, for participating in cultural events, for broadcasting content, for connecting directly with consumers, and for driving transactions. Businesses can influence and participate in real-time conversations on Twitter to drive consumer action with integrated paid, earned and owned campaigns, delivering results throughout the marketing funnel.

Businesses can also use Twitter to listen and gather market intelligence and insights. It is likely that people are already having conversations about your business, your competitors or your industry on Twitter.

To learn more about how businesses are finding success on Twitter, download our free Twitter Guide for Small Business, or check out our Twitter Advertising case studies.

Glossary

Twitter users have developed short-form syntax to make the most of 140 characters. Here are the fundamentals.

·        Mention

Once you’ve signed up and chosen a Twitter username, you and others can mention an account in your Tweets by preceding it with the @ symbol, eg: “Glad your shipment arrived @janesmith!”

·        Retweet

When you see a Tweet by another user that you want to share, click Retweet below it to forward it to your followers instantly.

·        Message

If you want to privately Tweet to a particular user who’s already following you, start your Tweet with DM or D to direct-message them, eg: “DM @joesmith234 what is your order number?”

·        Hashtag

Users often prepend # to words in their Tweets to categorize them for others eg: “Check out our new products for the Fallhttp://t.co/link2 #fallsale” Think of hashtags as the theme of your Tweet. Users can then click on a hashtag to see other similarly-themed tweets and find yours in search.

Best Practices

Build your following, reputation, and customer’s trust with these simple practices:

1. Share. Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better, give a glimpse of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and share the latest, so give it to them!
2. Listen. Regularly monitor the comments about your company, brand, and products.
3. Ask. Ask questions of your followers to glean valuable insights and show that you are listening.
4. Respond. Respond to compliments and feedback in real time
5. Reward. Tweet updates about special offers, discounts and time-sensitive deals.
6. Demonstrate wider leadership and know-how. Reference articles and links about the bigger picture as it relates to your business.
7. Champion your stakeholders. Retweet and reply publicly to great tweets posted by your followers and customers.
8. Establish the right voice. Twitter users tend to prefer a direct, genuine, and of course, a likable tone from your business, but think about your voice as you Tweet. How do you want your business to appear to the Twitter community?
9. Download the Twitter for Small Business guide

Download

Twitter offers users and brands a variety of engaging ways to connect on mobile.

Twitter on the Go

Fast Follow

People can follow an account from a phone without creating a Twitter account. For example, users can text ‘Follow Twitter’ to 40404 and receive Tweets from @twitter sent to their phone. This is a simple way for people to get information they care about in real-time. Promote this feature in a storefront window or a website to stay engaged with your customers, regardless of whether or not they are on Twitter.

Read more about Fast Follow and international short codes.

Notifications

Twitter users can elect to receive text message updates when your account tweets. Mobile notifications can be a great way to promote exclusive content, coupons and events. If someone has signed up to be notified of your Tweets, they’ll get it as an SMS message whenever you tweet.

Read more about How To Get SMS Notifications for Tweets and Activity

Pro Tip: Tell customers they can receive your company’s Tweets on their phone by going to to your profile page, clicking on the profile icon next to the blue Following button and selecting Turn on SMS Tweets from the drop-down menu.

Tweet from anywhere

Tweeting on the go will help you stay connected to your followers wherever you are. Twitter offers official apps for the Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows, and Blackberry phones. There are also numerous applications to help you upload pictures and video, such as TwitPic, YFrog, Plixi, Flickr, and YouTube.

Target your message

Brands can refine the reach of their Promoted Tweet campaigns by targeting users with platform-specific messages across Twitter.com, iOS, Android, BlackBerry and other mobile devices. This means that, even on the go, Twitter users can receive Promoted Tweets in their timelines with deals, discounts, news and information from relevant brands

Next: Case Studies →

 

The fastest, simplest way to stay close to everything you care about.

An information network

Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting. Simply find the accounts you find most compelling and follow the conversations.

At the heart of Twitter are small bursts of information called Tweets. Each Tweet is 140 characters long, but don’t let the small size fool you—you can discover a lot in a little space. You can see photos, videos and conversations directly in Tweets to get the whole story at a glance, and all in one place. See it in action.

You don’t have to tweet to get value from Twitter

You don’t have to build a web page to surf the web, and you don’t have to tweet to enjoy Twitter. Whether you tweet 100 times a day or never, you still have access to the voices and information surrounding all that interests you. You can contribute, or just listen in and retrieve up-to-the-second information. Visit fly.twitter.com to learn more about what’s yours to discover.

Twitter for Businesses

Twitter connects businesses to customers in real time—and businesses use Twitter to quickly share information with people interested in their products and services, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and influencers. From brand lift to CRM to direct sales, Twitter offers businesses an easy way to reach an engaged audience. Visit Twitter 101 for Businesses to learn more.

Twitter around the world

Twitter was founded in San Francisco, but it’s used by people in nearly every country in the world. The service is available in more than 20 languages, and we continue to add them. You can change your language preference in your user settings with just a few clicks.

Twitter on the go

Experience Twitter on your mobile device by using one of our free Twitter apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Windows 7. To get the latest apps, go to twitter.com/download on your mobile device.

Twitter for SMS

Twitter for SMS is an instant infrastructure for mobile communications. Individuals, businesses and social causes can use Twitter for SMS and our Fast Follow program to connect directly to anyone with a mobile phone. Here’s a list of all the countries that offer Twitter for SMS; we are actively working to add even more.

Twitter in the Community

Twitter lends itself to cause and action. Every day, we are inspired by stories of people using Twitter to help make the world a better place in unexpected ways. Visit stories.twitter.com to learn more.

And with just a Tweet, millions of people learn about or show their support for positive initiatives that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. Programs like Twitter Ads for Good offer a way for non-profit organizations to promote their efforts the same way as businesses can. As more community-centric organizations join the platform, citizens will increasingly engage with the efforts taking place to move their community forward. Follow @TwitterGood and @TwitterSF for more on these topics.