The Savvy Entrepreneur

The Marketing Makeover series is designed to help virtual office professionals avoid common marketing faux pas that interfere with their success, put their professionalism in question and hinder their credibility.

If you don’t use Twitter as a marketing tool to build, grow and sustain your professional virtual online business, you can totally ignore this post!

As I noted last week, the first thing people notice on your Twitter profile is your picture. The second thing people look at is your name. These 2 elements are key to building strong relationships and making a good first impression…

Here’s my list of Twitter-profile-name no-no’s:

• Your company name
• Your Twitter handle (I already know what your bleepin’ handle is…)
• Your initials only
• Your firstandlastnamewithoutspaces
• not capitalizing first letters
• Put nothing (unless your Twitter handle is your first and last name, but even then)

I don’t know about you, but when I see a profile that has anything other than a first and last name in the Name section of a Twitter profile, it comes off as a bit rude, self-righteous and pretentious (You mean I have to ask what your name is?).

It makes me wonder a combination of What are you afraid of? and What are you hiding?

In one word, it’s unprofessional!

Think of it from a networking standpoint (which is what Twitter is all about, right?).

Imagine this scene: You are at a live networking event, and you glance over at someone’s name tag. But all you see is a company name — no real name… What’s your initial reaction? I don’t know about you, but I’m a little put off. It’s just not cool.

No first name = No warm and fuzzy feelings towards you.

Now bring it back into Twitter context.

I get an email notification from Twitter letting me know someone new is stalking me. Eager to “meet” this person, I check out their profile. Imagine my disappointment, when looking for a name, all I see is Professional VA Services.* I feel like I’ve been cheated the opportunity to start building a strong relationship based on trust — being on first-name basis.

* I’m not pointing any fingers. I totally made this name up, so if this is your company name or if it’s your Twitter handle or anything, my apologies…

Even if I’m not your ideal client, you should consider adding your name to your Twitter profile for purely selfish reasons: If I don’t know your real-life name, I’m not going to refer you. (Hey, Jack! Remember you asked me if I knew someone who could transcribe your MP3 files? I just met a VA on Twitter who specializes in that. But… I don’t know her name. You should totally check her out anyways. — Not the kind of thing that builds my credibility, don’t you think?)

So… quit hiding! Put your real name (first and last) on your Twitter profile, for heaven’s sake. Give us the honor and joy of addressing you by name.

Make it easy for potential clients to get gain the know-like-trust factor by showing us you’re a real human being behind that Twitter profile.