Obtaining a decent twitter username is becoming harder and harder as twitter grows in popularity. All the good names are gone right? As a result you may find that your brand being represented by less than stellar Twitter handle. Don’t despair.
[warning]Put down the gun. We can get through this.[/warning]
I’ve identified 7 elements that impact your twitter brand. These in concert can help make up for a somewhat craptastic twitter username.
7 Ways to brand your twitter profile
- Username
- Name
- Bio
- Location
- Website
- Background
- Picture
1. Username
This is your twitter handle, the part next to the @. Other than killer, consistent, contextually relevant content, getting a good twitter handle is the best thing you can do for your twitter brand. Here are two tools I use to social check a username:
Someone brand jacking you? Here’s what you can do about it.
2. Name
Pretty self explanatory right? But presenting your business name in your Twitter profile is invaluable brand touch point if you get stuck with a crappy twitter username. Using your proper name fills in the gaps where your username might have left off. For some reason, and I’m a bit baffled, twitter only provides you 20 characters for your full name. A 20 character limit for a business (and many individuals) is entirely unacceptable. But hey, twitter is a free service, what can you do? Credit to Svein-Magnus Sorensen for finding a hack – too bad it didn’t stick.
3. Bio
Tell your brand story here. But you only have 160 characters so tell it quickly! You can decide to describe your company, your value proposition or maybe something else. Remember that this is social networking – it’s not just about your brand. As you craft the bio consider what your customer will connect to. What’s relevant to them?
4. Location
Feel free to think out of the box on this. You can be precise or a bit flighty. Consider this a chance to really support your brand. Here are some examples provided for illustration.
- Music band: “On Tour” or “In the studio”
- Life brand: “a better state of mind”
- Retail: “53rd & 2nd”
- Hockey goalie: “in the crease”
5. Website
Pretty simple really. You want to send customers to one of the following:
- main page
- campaign page
- product page
- bio page (e.g. about.me or LinkedIn)
6. Background and colors
Just be brand consistent.
7. Picture
If you want to play is safe use a brand logo. Simple. Clean. However, visual expressions are the best way to capture emotion and therefore brand affinity. The big question for brand managers is what to use. There are arguments for the humanity of using a face and consistency of using a logo.
My current favorite brand logo is Schroders. They are an investment firm, but they’re not afraid to add a bit of punch by putting headphones on their statue guy.
Although not a brand, I personally love Jamie Punshill’s previous picture. It made me want to down tequila shots and it provided a window into his personality.
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So you good? Not quite yet. Run your twitter account through Hubspot’s twitter grader to make sure you didn’t miss anything.
Feature image from Sarah Korf