Twitter and personal branding: The BIG mistake I see people make every single day

I've been enjoying Twitter and (so far) have managed not to become obsessed. I'll tweet a few times a day and check out others now and then throughout the week.

As you probably know, people use Twitter to keep their "followers" (people who subscribe to their Twitter feed) updated on their life. For instance, you might tweet about the conference you're attending, the project you're engrossed in, or you might ask your network a question. Users can choose to follow the Twitter updates of anyone they want to hear from: family members, colleagues, or perhaps the author of the last book they read.

Twitter has been a valuable personal branding tool for me. I've connected with people who read my stuff, met new contacts, pointed people to my books, and promoted speaking engagements. All for free and in just a few minutes a day.

Many people ask me about Twitter and it's use in personal branding and marketing. But they immediately dive into stuff like "how often should I tweet", "what should I tweet about", "is it cool to DM people" (send direct messages), and other details of using Twitter. Well, that's all fine, but the vast majority of people miss the most basic (and important) personal branding aspect of all.

What does your Twitter page look like?

Most Twitter pages don't say enough and most have crappy design. While that's fine if you're just communicating with friends, if you care about your personal brand, you need to do better. Much better. And it is so easy!

Here are my suggestions. You make these changes under the "settings" tab in Twitter. Again, this is Twitter for personal branding, so it may not apply to you:

Twitter ID: (mine is dmscott) Use something that is not silly. Something like MrSillyGuy is probably not a good idea for most people. (However it that is your personal brand of course it is fine. As of this writing MrSillyGuy is not taken as a Twitter ID, so go for it if you want to.)

Name: (mine is David Meerman Scott). Use your real name. Don't just default to your user ID. And don't just use a nickname like "Pookie". You can put your nickname in quotes inside of your real name if you want to. You want people to know who you are if you care about your personal brand.

Location: (mine is Boston, MA area) Use the town or nearest city that makes sense for you. Saying something cute like "earth" or "somewhere in Canada" turns people who don't know you off. Besides, the location is a good way to make local contacts.

Web: (mine is my blog URL) If you have a blog, put the URL here. Or maybe a company Web site makes sense for you. This should be somewhere people can go to learn more about you. You can leave this blank if you want.

Bio: (mine is Bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR) This is where you say something about yourself. You only get 160 characters. As a component of personal branding, this is a critical section. Don't leave it blank. And don't make a mini-resume from a laundry list of attributes like: "father, brother, surfer, economics major, world traveler, marketer, and rockstar wannabe." (That would be my list) I see this sort of thing all the time and it is not good for personal branding. Try to be descriptive. And try to be specific.

Your photo is very important! Don't default to the placeholder that Twitter provides for those with no photo. And don't use something clever as a stand in (like your cat). If you care about your personal brand, you should use your photo. Remember, the photos appear very tiny on Twitter, so use a close-up shot.

The background image of your Twitter page is a place where you can really show off. The default blue background is like when you first open PowerPoint - it is a default. Twitter has some choices, but many people use them so you will not be unique. Shoot a custom photo that only you have and you will really shine. I have a close-up photo of a nifty old typewriter keyboard. It’s my personal brand on Twitter.

Don't protect your updates. If you want to meet new people and promote your personal brand, I suggest you make your updates available to the world.

This stuff is really easy and important for your personal brand. If you are on Twitter, take the time to make some changes today.

Comments

[Ron Miller]

I'm relieved. When I read your tease on Twitter, I thought for sure must be doing something wrong, but your advice is all solid and I'm happy to report I have already done everything you recommend. Whew! I feel better. :-)

Ron Miller
By Ron Miller
http://byronmiller.typepad.com

[Kara]

Great tips! I think when people ask "how often should I tweet", "what should I tweet about", "is it cool to DM people" - the answer should be "be yourself." The greatest thing I find with twitter is the ability to connect with multiple people on a more personal level. I don't think there is a science to "being yourself" yet. The personal branding tips are great since they are aggregates to what you tweet and help build an online persona. Thanks for sharing!

[Jeff Cutler]

Breathing a sigh of relief. My Twitter page is just as you advertised, except on a lark I put the FAIL WHALE up as my background. Will change that in a few minutes.

Follow me if you want to hear about journalism, Boston, Jeff Cutler, new media, corporate blogging, scooters, Red Sox or just random tea talk.

http://www.twitter.com/jeffcutler

Good post. Am clipping it to Social Median too.

Jeff

[Simon Salt]

Good post. Its definitely the early steps that trip people up and make them wonder why Twitter isnt working for them. Paying attention to these details is a sure way to make Twitter work for you as either a personal or business user.

[Grant Griffiths]

One item I might add is to consider doing a special twitter landing page. For my visitors from twitter, I have developed a page you can only access from my twitter link. It is on my blog as a page, so they can navigate to other parts of my blog from there. Here is is the link to my "welcome from my twitter" page.

http://is.gd/41xz

[Daria Steigman]

Hi David,

Good, common-sense advice (and, yes, I'm still one photo short of getting it right). I think people also need to think about how what they post reflects their brand. Being self-serving or giving out too much personal information are fast tracks to online solitude.

Best,
Daria

[Alan Nielsen]

David,

Great post. I made a point to update my twitter right away once I signed up. However, you pointed out a few good things to change as well (background).

They'll be updated tonight when I'm not blocked from the site!

[Lou Bortone]

Great point, and so easy to overlook. In fact, I'm going to have to jump over to my Twitter page and make some changes.

If I may add another tip: I grabbed the domain http://www.TwitterLou.com and pointed it to my Twitter page. For ten bucks, why not grab your "TwitterName" if it's available...

I think it's easier for folks to find me if I just tell them to go to "TwitterLou."

[Pierre Fregeau]

I'm a newbie at Twitter and you just confirmed that what I'm doing is OK.

[Mihaela V]

Very good advice for starting up, but there's more to "personal branding" - or self-presentation, as it's called in my (academic) circle.

There are 2 important aspects to self-presentation on twitter:

1) fitting in; this requires getting a hang of twitter culture, of social norms about what's acceptable or not. This is what the questions you mention are about, and they're valid questions. My students, who are used to facebook, are having a hard time adjusting to twitter culture where it's OK to follow people you haven't met in tangible space.

2) deciding how to twitter and what to twitter about. Silly tweets, inspirational quotes, interesting links, breaking news, complaining about first-class seats on airplanes, bragging about finishing a book chapter, etc. ... these all help people project images of who they want to be, and they're more important than the background photo, IMO. Most people use a twitter client, and most photos get tiled unpleasantly in the background, anyway.

[SJ]

I saw this posted on Twitter and came over to check it out!

Thanks for the great tips, I already went to my Twitter page and spruced it up a bit.

http://www.twitter.com/AllTheJonesMen

[Gusf]

Great write up David.

I'm with you on all your points here. What does annoy me on Twitter are users that protect their tweets. I don't get why you would be on Twitter if you didn't want to participate in a conversation. I know I like to see what people are saying sometimes before I begin to follow them; I want to see if they are saying anything of value to me.

[Dan Schawbel]

This is a much refreshing post, especially because I've noticed similar mistakes (it's my job to help people with their brand).

What makes Twitter unique is that you can have more control over your page, than other networks. You can upload your own background and customize it to you, as David points out. It's also important to note that you can build brand by the way you communicate through Twitter.

[Cindy Kim]

This is great David. I follow you on Twitter... and read your posts. I'm careful about the folks I follow because it can get overwhelming with all the updates. I think if you're using this for personal use to connect with friends (only) and want to share every little detail that's great. But if you have a mixture of business and personal where you're trying to build that personal brand, it's important to make the updates as useful as possible to others who are following you. In this day and age of overcommunicating everything, it's important we dissect and communicate the details that would be of value to others. I think before people jump on twitter to connect (which I think is very important), they understand why they're on Twitter and what their goals are.

Thanks again for this insightful blog.

CindyKimPR - Twitter

[Andy - twitAD.com]

Great post David! I think what bugs people is the fact that when you interact on twitter your not sure if they are genuinely interested in you, or marketing to you. With twitAD, we want to make sure people know when people are interacting and not just advertising.

[ToddySM]

Hi David,

Those are really good and common-sense advises and I see that I need to improve parts of my profile on Twitter (I already knew that but lack of nice pictures prevent me from doing it - I just look ugly:)). However I think there is more on Twitter than the profile. People can do all that but still not able to establish good brand if their posts are not catching and if they cannot establish their identity. And they can judge that only by seeing their followers increasing (or shrinking). Also they need to be consistent and patient - very often people think they will join Twitter and have 1000s of followers in a day; when after a week they have only their closest friend and a random newcomer they decide that it is stupid and just abandon it.

[Dianna Huff]

David,

Excellent tips. I still have to change my background photo.

I would also add two more tips:

1. Think about what you're posting and how it affects your personal brand. Also think about how personal information might look to prospective clients or people who can refer you.

2. Add a link to your Twitter profile on your blog, Website, and Linked/Facebook profile.

I actually got this tip from you. You have a "follow me on Twitter" box on this blog. It's how I knew where to find you when I first signed up for Twitter.

[Laura Bergells]

Love what you wrote about comparing a default Twitter background to the staleness of using a default PowerPoint template. That's apt: using templates in design can quickly lead to visual cliche.

However, I use PowerPoint to create my unique Twitter background. After creating my Twitter background in PowerPoint, I "Saved As" a graphic file... and uploaded to Twitter.

And wouldn't you know -- my Twitter background is unique.

So, if you own PowerPoint, you can create a unique, brand-you background for Twitter. If you use your imagination and creative, it can be unique and eye-pleasing.

[Dianna Huff]

That should be "LinkedIn/Facebook."

[Beth from Avenue Z]

Someone on Twitter pointed me to this post. I appreciate your common-sense approach. I've been struggling with how to use Twitter to my advantage. Nice tips.

[David Meerman Scott]

Wow. 15 terrific comments in less than an hour. Thank you all.

Most of you came from Twitter which is very interesting indeed.

I really like the idea of a twitter landing page. Great idea!

The ideas on the content of tweets as an aspect of personal branding are all good. Thanks for that. I didn't try to tackle that aspect in my original post because I wanted to focus on the page setup aspects.

[Keli Whidden]

I was relieved to see that I had already implemented your suggestions! Now, I think a bit of tweeking is in order.
While I think that tweets should be reflective of the tweeters personality, they should also be mindful of the tweeters personal brand unless they are DM's.

[Bernie Borges]

David,
I agree with all your tips. Another consideration is personal branding vs. company branding. We have many friends on Twitter effectively branding their company. All your tips still apply but I think the company should have a Twitter profile with their logo as the photo. Some companies do a good job of this. Hubspot and Apple come to mind.

Another related consideration is how to build your Twitter following. Branding value on Twitter is affected by the size and influence of your following. And, that's a process that takes a little time and effort.

BTW, I found this blog post on your Twitter feed today. Nice...

@berniebay

[Shannon]

Another great post. I am new to Twitter, and I can use all the advice I can get! Thanks for the helpful tips!

[The Botanist]

Im happy to see people concerned with personal branding power, a lot of people are not aware of the power available at their finger tips. It never really occurred to me until I read a blog on http://web.illish.us/. They have a great breakdown called "You are a Brand."