Coffeemaverick’s Twitter Tips for Retailers

This is an excerpt from an article I wrote coming up in Fresh Cup Magazine, It's a story about social networking for coffee retailers. The article to be published talks about the future of social networking, success stories and ends with 11 tips. Here are the first 5. Basic stuff but often overlooked by retailers, coffee or otherwise


Twitter and other social networking is not the place to blatantly promote your products. It is the place to blatantly connect with people.


1. Always be three things:
Be interesting, funny and a little bit vulnerable. It’s important to come across as real. This is not a place to always be selling. You build your brand on Twitter, one tweet at a time by adding value, humor and a sense of real life to your followers.

2. Customize your background
Twitter has a several stock backgrounds available, but resist this easy way out. Use a photograph or logo of your business as your background. (For effective real life examples, go to this website: http://tinyurl.com/y8kwcqz

3. Complete the bio section
There is a bio section on your Twitter page that allows 140 characters to tell your followers or prospective followers who you are and what you do. Make it count! Also include your website or Facebook fan page address in the space provided.

4. Use the right name in the rights spots
There are two spots to enter your name: one is your Twitter user name. The second is your real name, located above the bio. For example your Twitter user name would be @joecoffeeshack, but your real name would be Joe Johnson, or whoever is doing the tweets. This gives a sense of reality to your page. It tells the customer that there
is a real person behind your tweets and not a robotic computer.

5. Have a great profile picture
This is the picture that everyone sees next to your tweets, even when they’re not on your page. It can be a logo or a real photo of you. Don’t use a generic drink photos or clip art. They have no personality.