Used effectively, Twitter can be a big part of your social media marketing mix. It’s the perfect platform to share links to articles you have published, as well as whitepapers, videos, presentations and more.
Twitter is also a great way to connect with prospective customers, industry peers, the media and others.
However, one area people often overlook, is ensuring they have optimised the chances of being followed. This is why you must improve your Twitter profile to build a larger audience.
5 elements to improve your Twitter profile
Here are five areas to look at improving within your profile, with some tips and further reading on each.
Username
The first step to improve your twitter profile, is to ensure you have a good looking and memorable Twitter username. Having a username like frank63782 just doesn’t look the part.
Say your name is Sarah and you run a cloud hosting company called XYZ Cloud. We all can guess that both @sarah and @xyz are already taken, like most short usernames, however you could try combinations and clever versions, such as;
- @sarahxyz
- @xyzsarah
- @xyzcloud
- @xyzcloudhost
- @helloimsarah
- @xyzhosting
- @sarahfromxyz
- @xyzteam
- @teamxyz
You can change your Twitter username at any time, under settings. Once chosen, I wouldn’t change it often though. This is one element that should remain the same each time you improve your Twitter profile.
Profile images
There are two main images in your profile. The Twitter header image, which is a long rectangle, 1500 x 500 pixels, and the profile avatar, which displays circular and is 400 x 400 pixels.
If you don’t have a professional image that is landscape wide and useful for the header image, I recommend you find an appropriate stock image from Unsplash, and then use a free photo editing software like Photopea to edit it.
The profile avatar is ideally a head and shoulders photo of you. If you don’t have one suitable, ask a friend to take one. Given the small size that it is displayed, there’s no need to spend much to get a photo taken.
This article has more details on Twitter image sizes.
Twitter bio
You are given the ability to add a short text bio. Make sure you use this space to the best you can, and make it interesting. Feel free to add a hashtag or two, but don’t overdo it.
Don’t waste text characters here on website URL or location, given these are separate fields. If you want to improve your Twitter profile, look at others in your field and what they have written. Feel free to add a little fun or personality as well.
Website
Make sure you use this field, to either direct people to your business or personal website, or if you have neither, then to an alternate social network such as Facebook or LinkedIn.
For added points, you can look at using a tool, such as Bitly, to shorten the URL and track the performance of this link as well.
Location
An element often overlooked when looking to improve your Twitter profile, is the location field.
If you are targeting a specific geographic location for your business, then complete this field. Let’s say you only target London. Then adding London, UK is a perfect location. However, let’s say you are targeting all of Canada. Don’t put Vancouver, Canada, but rather leave it broad, such as Canada.
In Conclusion
So, there you have it! Five elements you must review to improve your Twitter profile, to attract more followers and better engagement.
All the best of luck, building a Twitter audience, and increasing your influence and business!