Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few years, you will know that using Twitter is essential for today’s modern businesses. Not only does it allow you to engage with your existing customers on a more informal basis, it is also a fantastic way to discover new customers! Twitter really is a social media shaped marketing wonder; however, incorrect use of Twitter can result in a brand alienating and even losing customers! To help stop that happening to you, here are some general do’s and don’ts to help you on the way to becoming a top tweeter!

  Do…

• Have a relevant profile/cover picture. This is the first thing that you should do once you have set up your company Twitter account. Accounts that do not have a profile picture and stay with the default twitter picture of an egg have a much lower chance of gaining followers and you could even run the risk of being reported as a spam account! Having a relevant profile picture (for example, your company logo or a photo of the people in your office) will look more professional to the Twitter community, increase your follower count and increase engagement with your brand. This also applies to your cover picture.
• Follow relevant companies/bloggers/customers etc. Twitter is a community and it is important to get to know your neighbours! Not only will following people/companies that are relevant to your industry (such as fashion bloggers if you are an apparel based business) possibly get you a follow in return, but it will also boost your activity in the relevant social media circles.
• Schedule your tweets. As a company, you want to be tweeting at least twice a day. If you are busy with other engagements throughout the day it is a good idea to use a piece of software such as Tweetdeck to schedule in your tweets for the day. You could always try and remember to do this on your own but you would be surprised how easy it is to get side-tracked and forget (and nobody wants to follow an inactive Twitter account). However, it is sometimes essential to be tweeting in real time, as the next point will explain.
• Keep up to date with trending tweets. Once you are on Twitter, you will see a ‘trends’ section on the left hand side of your home page. This is basically showing you what people are tweeting about the most at that time of day. It is a good idea to try and tweet occasionally using these trending hash tags as there is a higher chance of more people seeing it. Obviously you can’t really schedule these sorts of tweets as they change as the day goes on. However, make sure that your tweet is still relevant to the hash tag (see more about this in the don’ts section!).
• Respond to criticism. Social media is a wonderful tool that is used by millions of consumers to share their opinions and experiences. However, not all of these experiences are positive and it is important to deal with tweets criticising your business in a professional and timely manner. The temptation might be there to simply remove the criticising comment and use an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality. However, this will most likely only infuriate the customer further. Plus, unless you have noticed the comment within seconds of it being posted, chances are a lot of other Twitter users have already seen it, so deleting it will alienate those people as well as the comment’s author.
• Remember which account you are tweeting from! Many of the most offensive and harmful tweets from company Twitters have been put there by accident, with the offending tweeters claiming that it was supposed to be from their personal account and not the company one. This is no excuse and you could seriously harm your company’s reputation if you make this mistake. Get into the habit of just double checking which account you are logged into before you tweet!

  Don’t…

• Use irrelevant hash tags. Back in 2009, a popular furniture store committed one of the cardinal sins of Twitter; they wrote vast amounts of tweets using trending hash tags that were irrelevant to what they were tweeting about. It was blindingly obvious what they were doing and they received a massive amount abuse from Twitter users as well as losing a lot of followers. Why did they receive abuse? Because hash tags should be used when you are tweeting about that specific subject (or you can at least link back to it). Using irrelevant hash tags just to widen your audience can result in your account being labelled as spam.
• Use a trending hash tag without double checking what it is actually about. All too often, companies find themselves in the firing line of the Twitter community due to using hash tags to market their brand. You may think that this is an innocent enough act. However, in 2014, a leading pizza company used the #WhyIStayed hash tag to advertise their products without realising that the hash tag was related to domestic violence. The tweet was quickly deleted and the company apologised, but the damage was already done and the company lost a lot of followers and received abuse from angry Twitter users. Always double check a hash tag before tweeting!
• Get into arguments over Twitter. As mentioned earlier in the post, you will most likely at one point or another have to deal with a less than satisfied customer on Twitter. Now, repeat after me: ‘I will never ever, even if the angry customer is throwing insults around, get involved in an argument over Twitter’. Repeat that five times. Got it? Good. By all means respond to criticism in a healthy, professional manner (we encourage this), but do not get sucked into an argument. Doing this will only serve to make your company look unprofessional and badly managed.
• Tweet your personal opinions. Remember that your company Twitter account is representative of the company and not you personally. Whilst it is great if you can relate your company tweets to what people are talking about (reminding people of a nearing election, for example), it is not so great (and quite often offensive) for you to tweet your own personal opinions on the topic (your political views, for example). This is especially relevant if you have some extreme views. If you absolutely must share your views with the Twitter community, tweet from your personal account, not your business one!

If you follow these do’s and don’ts you should be able to prevent yourself making avoidable mistakes. Before tweeting always ask yourself: ‘is this the kind of tweet I would expect to see from a professional company?’ If the answer is no you should probably bin the tweet altogether!

HAPPY TWEETING!

Starting a new job role can be a nerve –racking and sometimes stressful time for any new employee. A first day at any job is usually an array of new information, introductions and paperwork – and all of this is usually prior to them actually starting their first task! Here are some handy tips to bear in mind prior and during your new employee’s start date (and beyond), to make the transition into their new role as easy and stress-free for your new employee as possible.

Meet & Greet

To make things less complicated for the new employee, it is important to make sure that it is the person who did the hiring who greets them and gives them a tour of the building on their first day. Starting a new job in a brand new team of people that you have never seen before is a huge facing, and being greeted by someone that they have seen and spoken to before will make them feel more at ease. It is also important to stop whatever you are doing to greet and welcome your new employee, avoid keeping them waiting.

Introductions are of paramount importance so make sure you introduce the new employee to the rest of the team prior to anything else. It is a good idea to make your team aware of the new starter prior to their start date. Justin Pettie, a client services manager believes that people are the key to positive onborading. He recalls his first day at a new job and states that ‘I found out that the previous week my Manager had made an announcement regarding my engagement and what I would be performing within my role. I felt valued and respected that this had been already done before I arrived. I felt that the team already partially knew me. It was a great feeling.’

DO: Arrive at work prior to your employee’s start time. Remind your team that the employee is starting today.

DON’T: Ask the new employee to wait outside whilst you finish a task.

Make sure everything is ready for them

It is important to remember that an employee’s first day is all about first impressions, and this goes both ways. Just as your new employee will want to make a fantastic first impression on you, it is just as important that you make a great first impression on them. Make sure that everything is ready for them prior to their start date. This includes a computer and password, email and a desk (this may sound like an obvious one, but I have heard of employees arriving to find that a desk hasn’t even been prepared to them). Making sure everything is prepared is of paramount importance; there are not many things less welcoming than the impression that nobody could be bothered preparing for your arrival.

Sujan Patel, in his article ‘How to create an effective onboarding experience at your startup’, writes that ‘Nothing is more demotivating for a new hire than being assigned to a disorganized, dirty desk that seems like an afterthought. By preparing a great space for your new hires up front, you’re telling them that they matter to you and your company.’

DO: Double check that everything is ready for the new employee. Consider having a welcome card signed by the team waiting on their desk for them.

DON’T: Think it is acceptable for a new employee to be waiting days for their computer logins.

Give them a task to complete

It is important that a new employee feels that they are useful and needed within the team from day one. After you have got the formal induction out of the way (building tour, health & safety etc.), give your new employee a relevant task to complete. This not only means that they will not succumb to boredom, but it will become apparent that they are an integral part of the team which in turn will have a positive impact on their productivity. It will also give you first-hand knowledge of how they manage tasks and responsibility within the workplace.

Jeff Schmitt, regular contributor to Forbes Magazine states that, as a hiring manager, you should ‘Show confidence in your new hires early. Earmark some tasks for them before they even arrive… make sure they have a chance to shine early. That confidence will carry over as the stakes get higher.’

DO: Ensure the task you give the new employee is relevant to their job role and seniority level.

DON’T: Throw them in at the deep end.

Ask for their input & give feedback

If you have any team meetings or discussions on the employee’s first day, ask for their input. Doing this will let the employee know that you value their opinion and will make them feel more involved in the team from day one. If their input is exceptional, tell them!

Jeff Schmitt writes that a great leader ‘provides regular feedback on performance, knowing that the best people crave candidness and loath sugarcoating’. Being honest (but not brutal) with feedback right from the beginning will make your new employee aware that you value their work and are willing to invest in their personal development, which will increase their engagement and productivity within their new role.

DO: Encourage your employee to be creative with their input. Be constructive with feedback.

DON’T: Forget that it may take some time for a new employee to be completely confident with giving an original input, especially in team/company meetings.

This blog post is part of a series on welcoming new employees. Keep your eyes peeled for part 2!