Twitter Account Setup

Overview

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables people to send and receive text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets." It has been described as "the SMS of the Internet." Anyone can read tweets, but registered users can also post tweets through the website, text messages, or any number of applications for mobile devices. Tweets can include links to images, videos, and Web pages.

For more information on creating a social media strategy, see the Being Social article in the Resources section of this site.

Creating a Corporate Twitter Account

Creating and setting up a Twitter account is extremely easy. Unlike Facebook, you can create a corporate account in the same way you can create a personal account.
  1. Go to http://twitter.com;
  2. Locate the New Twitter Sign Up box and enter the following information:
  3. Full Name field, enter the name of your organization;
  4. Email field, enter a corporate (rather than personal) email address that will be associated with the account;
  5. Password field, enter a strong password.
  6. Click the "Sign Up for Twitter" button.

Updating Your Account's Profile

Once your account has been created, you can update your profile to better reflect your organization's personality and visually coordinate it with your brand.

Photo

We recommend uploading your organization's logo for the account's Profile Photo because it reinforces your brand and makes your account more immediately recognizable to people who are already familiar with your organization.

Header

If you are using one of our professional designs, you can download a Twitter header especially created to coordinate with your site design.

Name

This should be the name of your organization.

Location

For organizations, we recommend entering your city and state so that potential visitors have a better chance of finding you in the real world.

Website

Enter your web site address to direct people back to your site for more information about your organization.

Bio

We recommend using the same search description you wrote for your site's home page in the description text box.

Facebook

For organizations, we do not recommend linking your corporate Twitter account to your personal Facebook account.