Your Personal Brand on Twitter is vital.

Image via CrunchBase

Twitter has roughly over half a billion users. This platform is becoming one of the biggest networking platforms.

New connections made on Twitter can lead to new career opportunities.

Twitter is a great space to demonstrate and promote your expertise to a large audience. It gives everyone a stage, but it’s up to you to build an audience so you’re heard.

Being able to brand yourself in the digital space is crucial and save you tons of money when your trying to stand out in the Entertainment Industry.

I’ve seen thousands of lost dollars from entertainers hiring someone else to create their online presence.

With time and a bit of learning you can do it yourself and in turn have more control of your personal brand.

Claim Your Twitter Handle

Imagine starting a business and trying to buy your website domain name, only to find that it’s unavailable. Horrible right? The same idea goes for Twitter handles.

Not owning your domain name  puts your business or personal brand at risk. Trying to reclaim your domain name maybe difficult or highly expensive. Same case goes for Twitter, however reclaiming a Twitter handle can be near impossible. Unlike domain names that can be purchased, there is no marketplace to buy and sell taken Twitter handles.

What can happen if you don’t claim your personal full name twitter handle today:

• What looks better : @JaneMarks or @JaneMarks123
• Harder for people to search for you and people will confuse @JaneMarks for you, rather than @JaneMarks123
• Jeopardizes your personal brand consistency 

I can use myself as an example. I’ve made it a point since the beginning to own the all  my domain names; .com, .net,.info,.tv.

Although I’ve been on twitter from the beginning someone else owns @LanaLayne  and I was forced to settle for @Lana_Layne.

Ironic enough if you clicked @LanaLayne, you’ll notice it’s a abandoned Twitter handle. The frustration of trying to reach my Twitter twin to ask for my name, has near been impossible.

So take my advise stop right now, go to Twitter and claim your name and all your business names or else you’re at risk of being @JaneMarks123.

Strategize Your Personal Brand For Twitter

Profile of Twitter user (Photo credit: Emilie Ogez)

Assuming you went and claimed your name on Twitter, it’s time to build your Twitter profile. No one likes to follow a Twitter Egg avatar. Consider your Twitter Profile as a first impression to potential new connections.

Tips for personalizing your Twitter profile for your brand:

• Fill out your twitter profile completely.
• Utilize Hashtags in your bio that is relevant to your personal brand.
• Add a background to your twitter profile. I recommend designing one that utilizes the same logos and color scheme as your personal website extending your brand image and keeping your brand cohesive for your audience.
• If you want to add more information than Twitter allows on your profile, add text to your background with contacts, links, or other information you want to share.
• Pick a clear profile picture that represents you.
  • Avoid pictures with friends
  • Photos that are more than 3 years old
  • Any photo you don’t want a future boss or client to see. (Although you may use twitter for social means, take note that employers and clients often research your public social networking profiles. Don’t risk your next career opportunity with a compromising photo)
  • Use a headshot, find a photographer on websites like Model Mayhem that are trying to build their portfolio to get low-cost to free pictures taken.

Establish Yourself as an Expert

• Use twitter to share useful information relevant to your personal brand. If you are a technology expert, set up keyword alerts on technology and share interesting articles to your audience.
• Create useful resources like digital downloads of your music
• Tweet your youtube channel videos.
• Be consistant with the topics that you tweet about and tweet often. If you are a fashion expert mostly tweet about fashion. People will add you to list and use you as a resource for information.

Build Your Audience. Create a Plan.

Just because you’re on Twitter and have good content doesn’t necessarily mean people will listen. Like websites and blogs, you’ll need a plan to acquire new follows and connections.

•  Add your Twitter handle to your e-mail signature
• Promote your Twitter Profile on your websites and blogs. Make it visible and easy to follow.
• Add your Twitter handle to Resume
• Include it on your business cards, head shots, zed, and music demos
• Connect with others and tweet others utilizing their twitter handle, this promotes your twitter handle to their audience. Take note, use this when relevant. Don’t spam other peoples timelines. It’s annoying and will probably get your reported as spam or even blocked.

Utilizing some of theses tips will help you enhance your personal brand and turn twitter into a amazing networking tool.

Remember just don’t create an amazing profile. In order to build and maintain your audience and amplify your personal brand:

• Know your audience
• Create quality content that is useful to your audience and tweet often.
• Engage Engage Engage. This isn’t a chance for you to pitch and be a commercial, this is a space where you can really make meaningful connections.
• Follows are not equal to collecting baseball cards. More follows doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone is listening. Having less followers that are retweeting , mentioning, or replying to your tweets is far more important and creating a valuable Twitter experience.

Related articles

• Connecting with your Target Audience Using Social Media | Alex Forss
• How to Identify an Online Community for Your Business
• Success on Twitter: A How-To for Small Businesses
• How Social Media Has Changed The Way We Complain

• The Twitter CV: how to sell yourself in 140 characters (standard.co.uk)
• Twitter is No Longer a Village (novaspivack.com)