Sunday, October 11, 2009

Reinforce Your Brand and Solidify Your Identity With Twitter

http://simoncollister.typepad.com/simonsays/images/2007/09/24/twitter_full_2.jpg


I'm super excited to present the first, in what I hope becomes many, collaborative posts on Food Bloggers Unite!

This post was co-written by myself and Darya of Summer Tomato. Darya is a scientist, San Francisco foodie and advocate of local, seasonal foods. Darya wrote the highly informative Twitter Crash Course For Food Bloggers as a guest post for me a while back.

For more healthy eating tips visit her blog
Summer Tomato and follow her on Twitter @summertomato. You can follow my food photography and cooking tips on twitter @fbloggersunite.

Developing an online identity is one of the most important factors to your blog’s success. A unique and effective identity distinguishes your blog from other blogs and allows you and your readers to forge vibrant and personal relationships. If you’ve done your job right, your readers will walk away feeling like they actually know you and what you stand for.

All your online activity should in some way reflect and reinforce your brand, and Twitter is one of the best tools we have to do this.

In the last year, Twitter has completely revolutionized the way bloggers interact with readers. . Its instant updates and expansive network offers an excellent opportunity to reinforce your brand and solidify your identity, strengthening your relationships with current and potential readers.


All Tweets Should Reinforce Your Brand

-Tweets should connect you to your brand (aka stay on topic)
-Don’t send mixed messages that contradict your brand/identity
-Even Re-tweets should relate to brand. Use @ and DM to hide/disguise more personal or off topic tweets



Below are examples of how our tweets reinforce our brand. Notice how the content of the tweet (food photography for Danny, and healthy eating for Darya) is focused on our respective blogging identities





Twitter Is A Blogging Tool, Not A Promotion Tool


-Tweets should be thought of as an extension of current blog
-Tweet/reply to with other bloggers in your niche. This helps build your niche authority.
-Be helpful and informative with your tweet
-Before posting a tweet ask yourself, “Will this tweet add value to my readers?” e.g. Could I be more clear or descriptive? Could I eliminate any words?
-Don’t forget to be entertaining. My informative tweets get retweeted, but my entertaining tweets get more reader engagement. Humor is good, as are amusing or touching links and stories.


Personalize Tweets To Connect With Readers

-Personal tweets could be entertaining, rather than informative
-Even these tweets should be consistent with your brand however
-Personal tweets help readers form a complete picture of who you are


The power of Twitter is enormous and reinforcing your brand is just one way of harnessing that power. Stay on topic, don’t send mixed messages, and personalize your tweets and readers will get the sense that they personally know you. Ultimately, the most important thing to remember is that twitter is simply another form of interaction, so make that interaction genuine, personal, and meaningful.

If you're new to Twitter make sure to check out Darya's Twitter Crash Course For Food Bloggers!

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