Want to take your photography business onto Twitter, and use it to bring in a ton of clients? We’ve been on Twitter for well over two years now, and we’ve learned:
- What works for us might not necessarily work for you
- There really isn’t a right or wrong way to Tweet
If that’s the case, how will you ever learn to use Twitter? How do you know if you should 
take Twitter on as one of your marketing techniques, and use it to promote your business?
And once you do take it on, whom should you follow? What strategy should you start out with? How often should you tweet? And so on. You’ll never be at a loss for questions related to Twitter. Yet that’s the beauty of it.
Because people don’t have a regiment in place, they don’t know what to expect. Your Twitter account is what you make of it. Here are 8 tips to make you better at Twitter, and get you started on the path to more clients.
1. Tweeting frequency
Not sure how often you should tweet? Its really up to you. The important thing is to have a schedule and stick with it. Maybe four tweets per day five days per week works for you. Or ten tweets all day long seven days per week. The key is regularity so people will begin to recognize you.
2. Non-tweeting times
What if you forget to tweet for a few days? What if you don’t want to tweet on weekends? What if you’re gone on vacation for a week – should you apologize for being away? Twitter isn’t an exact science, so be active when you can. While you should maintain somewhat regular patters, don’t worry about null times. Simply start in again.
3. The best hours in the day
Keep in mind your clients potentially are all around the world. If your client is active while you are asleep, set up tweets to release during that time frame. The key is to know your client, and be active when they are. The only way to figure it out is to try it out.
4. Talk about your tweets
Do you mention your Twitter account in other marketing materials? If you send newsletters, postcards, or are actively networking in your area, include your Twitter address, and tell people to join you there. You’ll be surprised at how many followers you can pick up simply by telling them you are on Twitter.
5. What’s your purpose?
With some of my Twitter accounts, I’m active and “talk” to my followers regularly. With some of my Twitter accounts, it’s simply used to provide information and build up my expertise by providing good quality information. Decide what your purpose is, and stick with it.
6. Be careful with automatic feeds
The big thing for a while was to have your Twitter account feed into your Facebook account. The trouble with that is frequency – you can quickly overload your Facebook friends with too much information if you Tweet a lot. I prefer to let people choose, and provide quality information in both places – separately. That way you can follow me and get the information you want in any format you desire.
7. Build up your personality
People follow you because they want more information about you. Don’t be afraid to inject your personality along the way. You may decide to put in occasional personal remarks, or talk about your lifestyle.
8. Stick to the topic
With our @photoshoptips account, we provide links and resources related to Photoshop. And if we get off topic, our followers let us know. So we consciously make sure every tweet is somehow related to Photoshop. Yet for my account @LoriOsterberg, I consider it to be a catchall, and fill it with anything related to any aspect of my business. So you may see everything from photography tips, to social networking advice, to comments on how I liked a book or movie.
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