Maybe you’ve thought about tweeting on behalf of your brand, or maybe you’ve set up the initial account but aren’t sure what to do with it. Here is a quick checklist of activities to get you started.

Set up your Twitter account

It goes without saying that the first step of creating a Twitter presence is actually setting up an account. We’re going to make the assumption that if you’re reading this blog that you know how to set up an account. If you haven’t already, go sign up for Twitter and then come back.

Define your brand personality

Before you start tweeting, take some time to think about how you’d like your brand perceived on Twitter. What is your corporate tone? How can you incorporate that tone and the corresponding corporate messaging within your Twitter account?

Action items:

• Decide if your tweets will come from the voice of the brand itself, or individuals behind the tweets.
• Tie your Twitter handle to your brand name. If you need to change your Twitter handle, you can do so at any time. See here.
• Develop a background image and profile picture that matches the corporate look and feel.

Use all of Twitter’s account settings

Twitter enables users to include a lot of information on their account. The Twitter wall serves as a one-stop shop for people to learn something about the brand. The best part is that the brand controls what information goes on this page.

Action items:

• Include an informative 160-character biography. You biography should be simple, direct and conversational.
• Include a website on your profile. Think about where you want people to go on your website. Is it your home page? Your blog? A microsite? You can change this link at anytime.

Set up mobile alerts, if you are so inclined

If you don’t have bandwidth to monitor Twitter all day, text alerts are a great way to keep on top of customer inquiries and incoming messages.

Action items:

• Sign up for mobile alerts within the account settings by verifying your mobile phone number.
• Select the types of alerts you want to receive.
• Optionally, silence alerts between specific hours. (This is great if you don’t want to receive alerts while you are sleeping.)
• You can also receive alerts through third party applications such as TweetDeck, Hootsuiteor Sprout Social.

Follow people

It doesn’t matter how many people you follow on Twitter, or how many people follow you. What matters is that you follow relevant people, and relevant people follow you. How will you use your account? Who are you speaking to? Who do you want to learn from? What topics are important to you?

Action items:

• Follow influential people/brands that discuss relevant topics by using Twitter search.
• If you find a relevant follower, and you like their content, see whom they follow to find other relevant people.
• Only follow those relevant to the brand. Don’t feel like you have to follow everyone that follows you.

Stay tuned for part two where we talk about how to maximize your brand’s Twitter presence beyond the initial setup.

What set-up tips do you have for brands setting up new Twitter accounts? Tweet us @brgliving. We’d love to hear from you.