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" Grace Bonney, founder of the award-winning Design*Sponge blog, has close to 345,000 Twitter followers. If that number seems abstract, consider this: The Wall Street Journal has 1.1 million followers; the Guggenheim museum has 469,000; Katie Couric has 296,000; and we at ELLE DECOR have 32,000. Bonney joined Twitter just over a year ago and, now, thousands of readers make their way to her blog via Twitter daily.   At first glance, Twitter might seem like a waste of time\u2014and for many, it is. Even Bonney admits that she was slow to embrace the short-form social media site that allows just 140 characters per tweet. However, once she created an account for her wildly popular blog, Design*Sponge, she was sold. &amp;quot;Now it&amp;#039;s my favorite place to talk to people,&amp;quot; Bonney says. &amp;quot;I love the immediate reaction.&amp;quot; Within one week of joining, she saw a 25% increase in traffic to her site. Clearly, Bonney knows how to build a brand online.   If it&amp;#039;s a business and not a blog that you&amp;#039;re looking to grow, it&amp;#039;s really no different. For designers, Twitter can increase brand visibility, drive traffic to a business website, and help to convert readers into customers. Here, Bonney shares her thoughts on how to master this quirky social media platform and advises on what to avoid.  Stick to one Twitter account per brand. Also known as your &amp;quot;Twitter handle,&amp;quot; the name of your Twitter account is what readers become familiar with. It can be confusing if you have multiple Twitter presences, so even if you have a design business in, say, Los Angeles and New York, don&amp;#039;t create two profiles. Consolidate your efforts.  Create your voice. Have one person run your brand&amp;#039;s Twitter feed. Identify who that will be and, remember, it doesn&amp;#039;t have to be the boss. &amp;quot;Big companies have interns running their feed,&amp;quot; says Bonney. &amp;quot;It doesn&amp;#039;t matter who it is, as long as that person is friendly and helpful.&amp;quot;  Tweet often! Bonney suggests tweeting at least once a day (and preferably more) in order to keep followers engaged. Since many professionals don&amp;#039;t have time to tweet all day long, Bonney suggests using a program like HootSuite to schedule tweets in advance; but don&amp;#039;t leave out off-the-cuff remarks completely. And be mindful of Twitter overload. &amp;quot;If you are tweeting a ton and no one is tweeting back, that&amp;#039;s a bad sign.&amp;quot;  Use the rule of thirds. The key to a successful feed is a mix of content. Bonney&amp;#039;s recommendation is to create equal division between three categories: Promotional (a great new project your firm has completed or an upcoming sale on 1stdibs.com), personal (photos of you and your assistant shopping at a flea market), and resource-sharing content (a great article you read or a link to a favorite shop). And it&amp;#039;s okay to keep things simple; no need to use lists or hashtags unless it comes naturally. (Learn about lists and hashtags.)  Follow people within your niche, including bloggers, websites, magazines, and other designers. Never be afraid to follow people who are famous, says Bonney. &amp;quot;Twitter is this great equalizer,&amp;quot; she notes, pointing out that even successful entrepreneurs like Donna Hay and Martha Stewart run their own Twitter feeds and reply directly to their followers\u2014including Bonney, who has been tweeted at by both women.  Engage in conversation. Talk back to your followers and those you follow. Don&amp;#039;t just say, &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s awesome!&amp;quot; Instead, say something like, &amp;quot;I love that post, it reminded me of this thing I did,&amp;quot; and share a link. If you want to engage someone, loop into something they&amp;#039;re currently writing about, says Bonney. Questions are also a good conversation starter.  Don&amp;#039;t be an egghead. Sure, Twitter&amp;#039;s default egg-shaped avatar is cute, but a personal photo can go a long way. If you&amp;#039;re a large company, use your logo; if you&amp;#039;re a designer with an eponymous firm, go for a headshot. Bonney notes that when she changed her avatar from a logo to a photo of herself she observed more personal interactions with followers. She also cautions that it should be a photo that is relatable, not overly styled or fancy\u2014you want to seem approachable.   Surprise! Design counts. Don&amp;#039;t settle for one of Twitter&amp;#039;s ready-made backdrops; instead create a custom design for your page. &amp;quot;The more you can do to set your page apart, the better,&amp;quot; says Bonney, who notes that, as a designer, your Twitter page is an opportunity to give followers a quick visual sense of your brand.  Followers love photos. Bonney says that readers want to see moments from designers&amp;#039; daily lives: Post photos of wallpaper you&amp;#039;re considering or a chair you&amp;#039;re thinking of purchasing. Download an application like Twitpic and Yfrog to make posting photos to Twitter a snap.  Don&amp;#039;t tweet like a press release. When asked about her Twitter pet peeve, Bonney was quick to say aggressive promotional tweets. &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t use Twitter as a megaphone. It&amp;#039;s a place to have a conversation.&amp;quot; If Bonney sees that a follower has tweeted the same message at her and 20 other bloggers, she&amp;#039;ll block the overly promotional offender.  Listen to your audience. &amp;quot;Twitter is very obvious with feedback,&amp;quot; says Bonney. &amp;quot;Either it&amp;#039;s very vocal or it&amp;#039;s total silence.&amp;quot; If a tweet gets a huge response, make a note of what your followers respond to. If you keep tweeting about something and don&amp;#039;t hear a peep in response, it may be a sign to shift the conversation.  Respond to negative comments. The temptation is to ignore negative comments, but Bonney sees it as a chance for designers to offer help and to have a one-on-one interaction. It shows you care about your audience.   Get personal, but not too personal. &amp;quot;No one will connect with you if it&amp;#039;s not personal,&amp;quot; says Bonney. A feed with some personality is much more likely to gain a following than a distant corporate one. However, she notes, be mindful not to overshare.  Use Twitter as a resource. While Bonney says she has found countless ideas for posts through Twitter, she actually likes it best as a travel guide\u2014really! On a recent trip to L.A. she asked her followers where she should go in Silver Lake; within minutes she had multiple suggestions for where to shop and eat.  Don&amp;#039;t obsess about numbers. Focus on building a loyal following, not just a huge one. &amp;quot;For me it&amp;#039;s the quality of the numbers,&amp;quot; says Bonney, who notes she&amp;#039;d rather have 200 people who are really connected to her brand than 2,000 people who aren&amp;#039;t engaged.   Never write anything you don&amp;#039;t want coming back to you. Even if you delete a tweet, a follower could have documented it with a screenshot.  Mind your manners. Treat people the way you wanted to be treated: Be polite.  * This aritcle was originally featured in the ELLE DECOR Designer Registry newsletter. Learn more about our Designer Registry community here!  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/interior-designers/advice/a3127/twitter-power-a-68710/>