Last year, I wrote "Tweet It Right: A CEO's Guide to Twitter" because I've had so many conversations with leaders in organizations that simply don't get the 'why' of Twitter.

Getting started on Twitter can feel like a daunting challenge. It can especially be a struggle if you haven't taken the time to become familiar with twitter.com. If you intend your brand to have a presence on Twitter, then you must take the necessary steps to complete your profile.

This is true for your personal Twitter page as well as your company or organization page. If you aren't telling people who you are properly, you'll find that those that follow you don't matter and you'll have less influence than you think.

Below are the first four items that you should take care of in regards to properly branding your Twitter account. If you take the time to do this when you set up your account at first then you should be set. However, too many people often don't.

• Profile Photo: Your profile image should be immediately identifiable with your brand, and can be your logo or some variation of your logo. Dimensions for your Twitter logo should be 73 pixels x 73 pixels.
• Bio: Your bio is the first thing you want people to know about your brand. You get 160 characters to introduce your brand to the world.
• Header Photo: Header photos are the newest introduction to branding on Twitter. Twitter recommends a ratio of 2 to 1, (e.g. 626 x 1252). Files cannot be larger than 5MB. Because your profile photo and bio are in the header, this one is not as important as the others; not as important if the rest of your profile is set up well.
• Background Photo: Your background photo can be used in a number of ways, including sharing additional information about your brand or sharing a strong image that you feel represents your brand. Make sure you use something unique and not one of the stock backgrounds that Twitter provides.

Understand that failing to set up your Twitter profile can signal potential followers that you look like a spammer. It may cause people to ignore or block you.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to properly utilizing twitter. Don’t be afraid to dive in and start tweeting!