When building a professional presence on Twitter, how often should you post? Does frequency vary across social media?

Twitter is the third most active social network behind Facebook and Instagram. Because of the abundance of posts on Twitter, I recommend posting there at least 2-3 times per day. Each tweet should be different and use different hashtags. You should also ensure that you use some type of visual asset to increase engagement on your posts.

Frequency does vary across platforms. For optimal exposure, I recommend 2-3 post per day on Twitter, 1 post per day on Facebook and Instagram and 2 posts per week on LinkedIn.

What are your top 3 tips for entrepreneurs and small business owners to balance both a company account and personal account on a single platform?

1. Focus on your personal account. This is the account where you will get the most engagement and where people will connect with you. Think about providing value and engage by starting conversations and asking questions.
2. Your company account is also important, especially if you have two or more employees. Use your company account to describe the products or services your company offers and how your company gives back to your community. Use videos and podcasts to differentiate from your competitors.
3. Have all employees share the content that you share as a company. The more of your employees that are active on social media, the better your reach and opportunities for engagement and lead generation will be.

If you want to transition from using Twitter for personal use to using it professionally, how should you go about it? Do you need to prune your followers?

It depends on your personality and comfort level in sharing personal hobbies or details with your business contacts. I use my Twitter account both for personal and business purposes because it helps me make connections with other business professionals who may share a hobby I enjoy or team that I root for. Some people don’t feel comfortable with this approach however, so if you feel that way, start a separate account just for business.

And no, you do not need to prune your followers. If you create a new business account, just post the information about the new account on your personal account and let your followers know that if they are interested in your professional content, they should follow the business account.

Do hashtag usage strategies differ depending on the social media platform? If yes, how so? 

Yes, hashtags strategies are different for every social network. As a best practice, never use more than 2 hashtags per tweet on Twitter. LinkedIn posts should use 3 hashtags every time. Hashtags aren’t used on Facebook, so don’t place any on your posts there. On Instagram, use as many hashtags per post as you can -- but make sure they’re all relevant. Always conduct hashtag research first to determine which are the most popular hashtags and use those. That will enable more people to discover your content.

Guy Alvarez is the Founder & CEO of Good2BSocial. He is a leading consultant in technology, marketing & business development for the legal industry. A former practicing attorney, he advises companies & law firms on social media, SEO, content marketing, paid search advertising and digital strategy.