Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the past nine years has surely heard of Twitter. In fact, today there are very few active Internet users who do not have a Twitter account. This social media tracking is the best of its kind that any sensible marketer couldn’t afford to ignore. However, marketing on social media platforms like Twitter is not an easy task.

First imagine yourself as a regular Twitter user, someone who uses a personal account. Then imagine that you are following a lot of people and some of them are just tweeting and tweeting about ads and links to whatever they are promoting. Sure you would be annoyed by spam on your timeline. So what would you do? Unfollow them, that’s right. That is the only way. So if you’re a dedicated marketer, would you want the same thing to happen to you? If not, here is a guide on how to not only be effective but more importantly successful at what you are doing.

The first thing you need to do is create an account with a name and username that you can trust yourself. There are a lot of Twitter controller names out there today that just don’t make sense. Then put up a decent image that relates favorably to what you want to accomplish on Twitter. Once you’ve set up your account, it’s time to explore the platform. As a marketer on Twitter, you need to understand the nature of this social network. You can do this simply by observing what is going on or you can further your knowledge by doing some reading online. But if you are already an expert in using it, then all the better. Next, you need to attract followers who would be your audience. Now what a newbie would do is follow tons of people at once. That could be a problem for a number of reasons: you won’t gain people’s trust that way, you can get sued, and Twitter can ban you from following people for a considerable amount of time, which could hamper your plans. So what should you do to gain followers? The easiest thing you can do is invite those email contacts. You know most of them and most of them may already have Twitter accounts. So, through this, you can already have initial followers. Then, to make sure you’re doing the right thing, identify your top competitors and study their accounts. What are you doing right? Is there something they are doing wrong? If you think there are flaws, this is your chance to do better and increase the chances of being followed. For example, if there are unanswered questions that you have the answers for, then maybe you can do better than them. The next step is to link your Twitter account with other social media accounts you have, such as Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. In this way, you can attract more followers.

The most important part of establishing a reputable marketing profile on Twitter is the content. As you know, Twitter only allows 140 characters, so use it wisely. When people know that you post good things on your profile, they will follow you just to see your interesting posts. However, the content of your Tweet is an important factor. Posting random links just isn’t enough. The different types of content include links to what you are marketing and content from other sites with compelling text. Another is Tweets that contain inspirational quotes. People love good and close dates. In fact, a large number of users follow accounts just to see the quotes they post. Questions asked via Twitter also increase the amount of user engagement. The last and most important thing to consider for your Twitter content is images. Images like gifs, vines, and memes, especially those that are currently trending, are a very welcome addition. Also, using hashtags is a sure way to make your content stand out. Just don’t overuse them. Only use a maximum of three of the most relevant hashtags that you can think of.

Finally, for someone new to using Twitter for marketing, you should consider automating your tweets. You see, you have fans all over the world and you can’t be awake 24 hours a day. Free apps like Buffer can let you pre-schedule up to 10 tweets at a time.

So those are pretty much the basics. Master them and you’ll be on your way to laying a great foundation for using Twitter as a marketing platform.