Twitter etiquette for the business professional

Twitter offers near-endless possibilities for advertising your business, and the key is simply knowing what to tweet and what not to tweet.

Inc. magazine explains that while there isn't one "magic formula" for creating the perfect Twitter marketing campaign, there are some Twitter etiquette rules that business owners should heed.

For instance, there's the "we are on top of industry trends" tweet, which displays to your followers how serious you are about staying ahead of the curve and your competition. Links to the latest studies, trends, breakthroughs or advances in your industry will likely be interesting to your followers, and could lead to ample retweets.

One thing you don't want to do is lambaste your competitors in the process. Sure, your business is on the cutting edge, but that doesn't mean everyone else stinks.

"You do not want to start battles with your competitors on Twitter," notes the news source in a separate article. "It will only lead to mutual bashing across a wide range of social media platforms." This can seriously tarnish your company's reputation, as those who Google your business will now find those negative comments sprinkled throughout their search engine results.

Another positive way to tweet is to extend links to interesting articles that don't necessarily plug your business, but will once again be of interest to your target audience. Similarly, sharing humorous content you've found on the web that isn't intrinsically related to your business offers a nice change of pace for your followers, proves that there is in fact a human behind the Twitter handle, and also gives those outside your industry a reason to follow you. Humor sites such as The Onion or BuzzFeed work well here, or old faithful, YouTube.

Another way to humanize your company is to offer pictures of your employees, office (or offices) or celebrations to remind followers that "you are the kind of people they'd like to do business with," explains the media outlet.

However, there's a fine line between off-topic posts and mundane "daily life" updates that your followers should not be privy to. The things you post on your personal account - such as a picture of the wonderful dinner you ate last night - may not be of interest to those looking to do business with you, so try not to be self-indulgent. Avoid pictures of your children or pets (if you have any) as well.