I've already posted about "Death by Twitter" for businesses. Today I want to tell you about what I've noticed good businesses do with their Twitter posts. I hope it's helpful to you as you develop your social media marketing strategy.

Good Twitter Posting for Businesses Includes the following:

"Twitter Jail" Defined by Urban Dictionary

1. Consistent, Reasonable Posting: Staying FAR out of #twitterjail (12-15 posts a day max.)
2. Well- Paced Posting: try not to postmultiple posts in a span of a few minutes--we're all a little guilty of it sometimes...especially if you are using Twitter via the web. I know how it is: you finally make your way onto Twitter for the day, and you see 100 posts you want to retweet or reply to--but you've got to resist the urge to do them all in 5 minutes time. Give everybody else a chance to "get a word in edge-wise".
3. Tweet skimable keyword-rich content -- people who read Twitter are other people so think about what posts you read vs. posts you don't. I know how I read Twitter posts: I'm scrolling fast. If their keywords don't catch my eye, those tweets are ignored. I just don't have time to read non-keyword-rich tweets. (Do you?)
4. B e a real person on Twitter: often the main reason people will do business with you (in the long-term and the short-term) is because they like you. You don't need to be unprofessional in your Tweets by over-sharing, but people rarely reject someone's (inoffensive) sense of humour--nor do they reject a chance to get to know something about another person. (I used to be a teacher, and one of the slogans by a teaching guru was "if you don't tell the kids something about yourself--sooner or later they'll start making stuff up about you!" And yes, this might include using a real photo on your Twitter profile, but it doesn't have to. I don't think there is anything wrong with having your business's logo as your Twitter profile picture--it's nice to know you can talk to a business).
5. Take an interest: being a good business on Twitter also means responding to all of your @yourprofile comments. But also, take a look at what other people you're interested are saying and talk to them. I like Twitter for the conversations that can develop and the sharing of information through keyword-rich tweets.

There's lots of way to conduct good, ethical, friendly business on Twitter, and perhaps you have even more suggestions to share?

Have you read How My Business Benefits from Twitter?
Or, My favourite face-to-face networking event in Melbourne?
Plus, here's how to attract more customers for your company with a powerful 30-second 'elevator' pitch that works every time.