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Social networks like Twitter make it easier than ever to connect with customers and prospects. Once you have launched your Twitter presence, begun posting interesting status updates and started networking with other Twitter users, the final step in your B-to-B Twitter strategy is communicating with other users who are publicly promoting your company – or sending you private direct messages.

Communicating with Other Users
Using Twitter to promote your company and its products – and get readers to visit your company’s website – is the basis of all communication on Twitter. But there are other ways that you can use your B-to-B Twitter account to communicate – and connect – with other users. Three of the most powerful tools available to you are Lists, Favorites and Direct Messages.

Create Lists and Favorites
Creating Twitter lists is a great way for your company to connect with and organize other users. If you’re doing really well on Twitter, other users will list your company too! To see who has listed you, click the Lists tab on your Twitter profile. You’ll see two options at the top: Subscribed to and Member of.

• Subscribed to shows other users’ lists that you’ve subscribed to and lists that you’ve created.
• Member of shows lists that other users have created that include your company.

To create a new list, click the Create List button. For example, Boomm Marketing & Communications has created lists of helpful B-to-B marketing resources as well as our connections from other social networks, our clients and our competitors (which we’ve marked “Private” so that only we can see the list members – and they are not aware that we’ve listed them).

Another helpful part of your Twitter profile is the Favorites tab. You can use this feature to highlight compliments and recommendations that others tweet about your company, which will serve as testimonials.

Use Direct Messages Wisely
Also be sure to check your Direct Messages (DMs) when you log in to Twitter (you can access these by clicking the email icon below your company’s bio). While 99 percent of these messages are spam or advertisements that you do not need to reply to, you will occasionally get a direct message from someone who is truly trying to communicate with your company.

NEVER click a hyperlink in a DM, even if it is from someone you know. Many DMs are attempts to hack your account, which are often from someone you know after their account has been hacked. Hackers send intriguing messages that make you want to click (see the first message below), and then send you to a login page that “looks” like Twitter; however, if you enter your login credentials they will take over your Twitter account.

While DMs can be troublesome, they also allow you to communicate with other Twitter users privately. This can be especially helpful when another user is complaining about your company. If you read or receive a complaint on Twitter, simply send a tweet to respond publicly in a helpful manner and let them know that you hear them and have sent their message to the appropriate area at your company. Then, take the conversation offline using the Direct Message feature. This gives you a private way to provide an email address that the person can use to contact someone at your company directly.