When I first start talking to people about Twitter, some people have at least heard of it, others have no clue what I’m talking about. I usually describe it as less intrusive than chat, less formal than email, yet enabling you to hear and learn from a wider audience where everyone is on an even playing field.
Also, it’s good to think of Twitter as a party, or networking event – You can walk around, schmooze with people on topics of interest – engage in conversation, ask questions, answer questions, and more. It’s about conversation. It’s about meeting people. It’s about learning. It’s about sharing. It’s about connecting. In a nutshell – It’s a free web and sms social networking service.
It’s called “micro-blogging” because of its simplicity and because your blog entries/tweets are limited to 140 characters or less. From the beginning. For those of you who haven’t used Twitter (the rest read anyway)…
Get an account. Pick a username consistent with the rest of your social networks. You can scan your email address books for people and/or take recommended tweeps. Upload a photo (please don’t leave the default avatar), also upload a background picture. Add a basic bio – nothing long and keep it comical and/or informative. Add your website. Set your Profile to Public (everyone can see) or Private (just people you personally approve). Find people to follow through http://search.twitter.com or http://twellow.com.
Get used to lots of things starting with a TW sound. Just tweal with it Some Twerms: Tweet – Verb or noun, depending on usage. The micro-blog post you enter.
Retweet – Repeating someone else’s Tweet – Mentioned in detail below. DM (Direct Message) – A private message.
Device – Refers to your phone (SMS/Text). Click Settings/Devices and add. Followers – Readers who follow (subscribe to) your Tweets.
Following – The Tweeple that you are following. Follow People. Listen to them. When you are ready, reach out either though a DM or a @Reply. @Replies are flagged to the recipient and viewable by the public D (direct) messages are only viewable by the intended viewer.
So, to send a message just to me, privately you would put D williger in the message box. Make sure to read your @Replies and Direct Messages (you can see this from your ‘Home’ navigation on Twitter. People may be reaching out to you and expect and deserve your reply. Well, usually – some people have automatic DM’s; it’s not a bad thing – just makes you weed through your inbox.
Be Cool – I can’t stress this enough. You may razz your friends in person, don’t do it here – especially when starting out. Micro-blogging, SMS, email, they all lack inflection – remember this. Don’t Worry – Don’t be afraid to start talking about what you are doing or engaging in a conversation. It’s just like any other type of communication, get used to the medium and run with it.
Promote It – Add your Twitter URL everywhere – Email Signature, Facebook, MySpace, Business Cards, etc.
To follow-back or not. This is a tough question with varying answers. It’s not an easy one to address as neither is right. Personally, I follow back everyone who follows me (well except spam bots and the like). Basically reciprocals, like myself look at this as good etiquette, a way to increase follower numbers, and give you more people to learn from. Discriminators focus on following very few people, which limits the variety of people they communicate with. Discriminators argue they have tighter relationships, and reciprocals argue they learn from more people. No way is ultimately right – start slow and see what works for you. Yes, it’s really easy.
Some Useful (and did I mention FREE) Tools HERE!
The ReTweet – I have to touch on this. A RT, R/T, or Retweet is a way to compliment someone’s Tweet by forwarding it to your Twitter follower stream. For instance, if I posted a useful quote or a link you could take that quote or link, type RT @williger (and paste my post here). What this does is 2 things – it gives credit for the Tweet to the original author, and it introduces people in your stream to the author. It’s considered generous to RT. I will be putting together a separate article about this soon. This should be a solid reference to start with, and I will be adding more articles here to help.
Please feel free to @darrenwilliger me any questions along the way. I’m learning more every day, just like everybody else. Come back for my next Twitter articles about integrating other sites, making backgrounds, RT etiquette, and hash tags. I have met some amazing people so far who I really enjoy communicating with. This is why I keep encouraging everyone to Tweet it up already!




