To those of you who understand these things, the title of this article may look strange to you. However, this is a question I get asked a lot.
There are a lot of myths building around Twitter and its use on a business website so I just wanted to set the record straight for my customers and anyone else who reads this article.
The most obvious way of doing this is to have a link, preferably in the header or footer of every page of your website that leads directly to your Twitter page. The other way is to have what is known as a "feed" which shows the last few tweets made under your Twitter account.
The link is a straightforward link that can be put on any website and the feed is very easy to add to the website as the code to do this is provided by Twitter themselves.
So adding Twitter to you website is very easy to do and once you do so, there are some very important rules to follow:
The first rule may seem obvious but so many people make this mistake. Make sure you tweet regularly. This should be preferably be at least every week or so but at the absolute minimum it should be monthly. There is nothing worse than seeing a business website nicely designed with an embedded Twitter feed showing the last tweet dated over a year ago. This makes it look like your business website is neither important nor intertesting to you and if that is the impression you give, neither will it be interesting or important to the visitor to your website.
If you cannot spare the time to tweet regularly, remove the links and delete your Twitter account. It is better to have no Twitter account at all than to have one which damages your website and therefore your business.
I am amazed at some of the things that businesses tweet. Things like "Aah, time for coffee methinks!" or "Today was a great day, we did loads". These sorts of banal phrases show laziness and disdain for the audience. If this is all you are going to Tweet then don't bother.
Tweet about your latest services or special offers with links back to your site. Tweet links to interesting and relevant web pages both on and off your website.
Think before you tweet "would I find this interesting?". If you wouldn't then please do not tweet it because your customers will not find it interesting either.
I am not offended by bad language and I am sure many of you are not. But there is a place and a time. The place is definitely not on your business website.
I once saw a tweet by another web designer who was comparing two pop bands and used an offensive word to show that he did not like one of them. First of all, why would his customers be interested in his musical tastes and secondly, why did he feel the need to swear? Two golden rules were broken in one tweet.
Some of you may found what I have said to be completely obvious, but these mistakes are so commonplace that I felt the need to point them out and have hopefully helped to focus you on what it important if you add Twitter to your website.
The short answer is yes. It not only builds interest in your website and therefore your business. If you follow the guidance given above, then it could be another string to your bow to bring in more business for you.