Most people think about social media in terms of socializing and don’t realize that Twitter can be a powerful tool for SEO. Your Twitter account can be optimized for search engines so that you get the best possible value out of your profile. There are a few very simple tricks and a few not so simple tricks that can help you to get the most out of your Twitter account in Google searches.

Here are 10 ways to turn your Twitter account into an Internet searchable masterpiece:

1. Choose an Actual Name and a Relevant Username

Use a Twitter username that includes the keyword you want to rank high for. If you want people to find your Twitter profile when they search for Real Estate, make sure that ‘Real Estate’ is in your name. For example: @EGrealestate.

Do not use dashes, and make it short and easy to remember. You can use your actual name for this or include the keyword again (this does not help with personalizing your account, though).

For current users, you can fix this in your Twitter account by going into “Settings”.

2. Shorten Your Website URL

To accommodate Twitter using only the first 20 characters of your URL, shorten it with bit.ly and get rid of the www. This will allow people to see the link before they click on it. For example: http://bit.ly/BETArealestate.

To change this, go into your Twitter account, click “Settings”, then go to the “Account” page, and then scroll halfway down the page.

3. Write a Short Bio

Create a bio that is short and to the point, but also shows your personality. With only 160 characters to make your personality shine, you can’t waste your time with words that have no search value. Your bio should represent who you are and how you want others to perceive you. This will affect peoples’ decisions for whether to follow you or not. Include your location because sometimes Google will include this.

To fix your location in your Twitter account, go to “Settings” and then change your “One Line Bio”.

4. SEO Your Profile Photo

Although you can’t add tags to your profile picture, you can rename the photo before you upload it. That way, when it shows up in the URL it will have your specified keywords. Do not add spaces. For example, rename your image beta-real-estate.jpg, and then you have a keyword-rich URL right inside your avatar photo! It is a sneaky but effective way to get image indexed better in Google’s image search.

Instead of changing your profile photo, change the name of it and re-upload it. You can do this in Twitter by clicking on “Settings” and then “Picture”.

5. Use an RSS Feed for Twitter

Not only can people subscribe to your tweets and receive instant feeds, but you can increase your popularity and draw more traffic to your Twitter account. One way to set up your Twitter RSS Feed is via GoogleFeed Burner:

1.    Go to FeedBurner. You can sign in using your existing Gmail account or set up a new one.
2.    In a separate browser window, open your Twitter account and click on the RSS Feed icon.
3.    At the top of the page, copy the URL and paste it into FeedBurner.
4.    Add your Username and Password.
5.    Click next and your RSS feed is now live!

You can now go through the dashboard and select the options you want for your feed. You can share widgets, add pictures, set up a title for the feed and make sure that it connects with search engines.

6. Use Keywords and Hashtags

Your Tweets (Twitter updates) should contain keywords and phrases that you want search engines to pick up. Occasionally use Hashtags (e.g. #betarealestate) as search engines are already ranking these and it will help Tweeps find you in a Twitter search.

7. Twitter Favorites with Keywords

Make sure that some of your favorite tweets contain keywords, key phrases and relevant links.

8. TinyURL.com Your Links

When you use a hyperlink shortener like TinyURL.com, search engines will still recognize the link and rank them. For example: http://tinyurl.com/yd3t4m3

9. Grow Your Twitter Following

The more people you follow on Twitter and the more others follow you, it will increase awareness with search engines.

10. The MOST Important Tip of Twitter SEO – Submit Your Twitter Profile and RSS feeds to Directories!

This is by far the most effective and easiest way to improve SEO to your Twitter profile, because it links back to your website and gives it an SEO boost there as well. This is an often forgotten aspect of SEOing Twitter, and not many people know about it! The more you have out there, the more you will get noticed. This will result in larger and more diverse followings and higher page ranks.  And don’t forget to add your Twitter Username to blog posts and forums.

Next: Learn how to SEO your Facebook Fan Page.