I don’t need to tell you that trust is everything. Marketers, small business owners and freelancers always try to achieve questionable results by exploiting every clever trick they find on the web, or investing heavily in sexy advertising that does not convert.
But at the end of the day, it’s trust that matters and leads to sales.
That is way it is not surprising, that word-of-mouth marketing has now become more important than ever. According to a study, 74% of consumers cite word of mouth as being the most powerful decision factor. They trust more in the opinions of their friends and family members than of a salesman. And this totally makes sense.
So, when it comes to your Twitter profile, trust-building should be your top priority. You do not only need to grow your following base, but more importantly, you want your followers to trust you.
But how to build a trustworthy Twitter profile? Which elements should you focus on?
Twitter Name and Username
There were times when SEO specialists were trying to trick Google algorithms by using a name that included a keyword as opposed to the real name of an individual or a company. For instance, instead of saying the name of the window manufacturer, the Twitter name would be something like “Cheap Windows”. This tactic automatically diminishes trust. So apparently, it is vital to use the real name of the business or the individual behind the Twitter profile page.
Profile Picture
Going for a brand logo or a headshot of an individual is a huge debate at the moment. Many believe that personal brand matters more and becoming an influencer will make wonders for your business. That’s true to some extent, but there is no right way or a wrong way.
The bottom line is quite simple. If the business is well-known, the logo would be a good idea. If you want to build a personal brand, you need to add a good profile picture of that person. It is always a really good move to have the exact same profile picture on absolutely all social networks in order to create fluidity.
Use a branded background image
Thank of it. What’s the first thing Twitter users see when landing on your profile? In most cases, it’s your profile image and the background image. This is the first impression you will leave in your first time visitors so your background should be sweet, appealing and present your brand perfectly clear. It needs to incorporate the same branding elements you use in your logo, on your website, on other social accounts and so on. Having the right pixel dimensions is also very important.
If you are wondering how you can handle this task, DigitalOcto will help you create visuals for social media. It is a simple drag-and-drop tool with more than 1500 free editable design templates. The paint of image creation is a thing of the past. Just give it a shot.
Connect your website
Twitter also allows you to include a link to a website in your profile. This is great for driving referral traffic and can also serve as a trust-booster.
So you want to make sure that you put the right link there. Think about what link would offer more information. In most cases that link is the official website or a personal blog but in others it may be a YouTube or Instragram profile link.
Profile Bio
You are not allowed to write much in the bio section so you will want to make it count. Use this space wisely. One or two sentences can make a huge difference in the eyes of the users. Obviously, you will want to add main keywords in the profile but when looking at a personal profile, you can also add something funny to draw some extra attention.
Think about how you want to present yourself or the business in just a couple of sentences. In some cases you will just want to invite people to learn more at the bio link while in others you want to create some sense of mystery to get people to look at the profile more.
Pin your best content to the top
Just like Facebook, Twitter gives you the option of pinning a top tweet to the top of your profile.
Pick what you feel is your absolute best tweet, and pin it to the top of your profile. This way you will not only increase the trust, but you will also maximize the visibility of a particular post that is important for your business.
Ideally, it would have already received plenty of engagement (e.g., retweets, likes, etc.) because this will make you seem more legit to first time visitors. After all, this is the first post they will see.
Retweet credible sources
Retweets are a big part of Twitter’s appeal. If you see an interesting content you can retweet it to share it with your audience.
But here is the thing. If you’re retweeting epic content from a credible source, people will find you trustworthy. This is going to enhance your image and increase your followers’ sense of trust.
Do not retweet posts from irrelevant sources, because this will diminish the sense of trust in your followers.
Keep a steady posting schedule
Of all the social networks, people tend to post the most frequently on Twitter. 15 tweets per day is recommended, but as we mentioned above they do not necessarily be your own. The most important thing is to be consistent and not have any major gaps between posts.
With DigitalOcto’s Smart Publisher you can easily schedule all your posts for a week ahead and forget about Twitter posting for a while.
Take advantage of hashtags
You know that hashtags are an effective way to increase the visibility of your tweets. However, I have noticed that many overuse them and this is not good. Ideally, two hashtags are enough for a tweet. The maximum of three hashtags is advisable, while using more than three can backfire, especially on Twitter.
Make connections
What you can do is follower people who are relevant to your business in a hope that they will follow you back. You can also go to your competitors and follow their followers. But some of these followers might not be active on Twitter. They do not really take time to put on their headshot and fill out their bio. They might have just a few followers and a couple of tweets. These are all attributes of an active account.
If your followers are not active, they are not going to see your tweets, right? This means that following the followers of other people isn’t a very good model all by itself.
It’s a very time consuming to search on Twitter for really active users that are interested in your product. To make it easier and faster, you can try SocialGrowth tool. It is giving you suggestions for people who are actively tweeting. When deciding what suggestions it could give you, it takes into account things like how many times this person is tweeting, how many people they following and how many followers they have.
If you want your Twitter profile to have a marketing impact on your business, you should make sure that the people who are following you are active and will engage with the content you are going to share with them.
Perfect ratio of followers
The rule is simple: your number of followers should outweigh the number of people you’re following. Your Twitter profile won’t look as legit and trustworthy, if you are following 50K people and has only 10K followers. That’s why your ultimate goal should be to reach a favorable ratio of followers.
SocialGrowth will help you keep a healthy ratio. So it’s definitely worth it to give it a try.
Conclusions
Do not start promoting your Twitter profile until you get the parts above right. If you have no idea how to get more followers, remember that when the profile does not look trustworthy, everything will be much more complicated than it should be.