As Twitter grows past the 35 million user mark (not to mention getting covers on Time Magazine, being mentioned in various publications, tv shows and other media outlets), it  becomes harder and harder for brands to avoid or ignore this phenomenon.

The question is, how do you manage your Brand on twitter. Here is what quick fire overview of what South African Brands needs to know about Twitter:

1. You don’t need to follow everyone.

Keep tabs on Twitter Search and see if anyone is mentioning your brand. If they are then drop them a message or follow them. Randomly following every South African on twitter will not get you more followers, it will only make your Twitter profile harder to manage at the beginning.

2. It’s 2 way traffic (but not sales pitches)

Twitter is about conversations, find Tweets that you can add value and reply to to the user. Remember that it’s not about selling 100% of the time. See your Brand as a human being, not media tool. Would you want to listen someone who says “That’s great, now check out our new product xyx here: http://link.com”.

3. Promotions

Twitter promotions can be  valuable but be sure to only do one or two per week.  More then that and you become a talking direct marketer constantly spamming users with new promotional offers.

4. Measurement

Everything you do should be measured. The more you find out how many people clicked on your links, how many retweets you got, how many non-solicited mentions you got, the more you can optimise your strategy and see how much value Twitter really gives you.

5. Username and Branding

Make sure you grab the most relevant username for your Twitter profile, and then brand it according to your corporate identity. If someone else already has the username you wanted, make sure you mention in your bio that you are the official spokeschannel for the brand so that no one hijacks your identity.

6. Answer questions quickly

Twitter is real time, make sure you get to any questions within 8-12 hours. If you don’t have a full answer, at least recognise the question and let the user know that you are investigating and will get back to them soonest.

7. Deal with complaints discreetly

All brands will have people complaining about them. If you spot a complaint tweet about your brand, reply to the person and see if you can solve it. If it becomes more then a complain, send the user a direct message and take it out the public eye as soon as possible.

8. Demeanour

Remember that you are representing your brand. While it might be funny to make massive jokes, it’s still important to respect your clients, potential followers, advocates and critics. On the internet everything is permanently saved so make sure you represent your brand faultlessly.

9. Build Relationships, build brand advocates

Find key industry players and your key clients on Twitter and engage with them on a regular basis. Send them a few freebies. Get  them buzzing about the Brand and they will give more back to you then you can ever imagine.

10. Use a Twitter application

Tweetdeck, DestroyTwitter, Twitterfox, all of these are application that help you manage your Twitter profile faster and easier. They greatly improve your efficiency and usage of the platform.

11. Be Innovative

While Twitter is easiest used as a customer support service, there are many other innovating ways to use this platform. Be innovative, find other ways to connect to your customers for instance if you are a fast food restaurant look at offering ordering via Twitter instead of the phone.

There are many things you can do with Twitter, and the best is to have succinct plan at the start. Twitter is massively valuable tool and with the right guidelines and planning can add sales, customer service and many more things to your business or campaign. Feel free to contact us if you need more information!

Follow @MaxRover on Twitter.