Many people have heard about Twitter, but may not understand how it can be effectively used. So, what exactly is Twitter? Is it just a website where you can tell the world what you are doing second-by-second every day? It must be more than that, right?
The short definition of Twitter is that it is a form of social micro-blogging. What this means is that Twitter provides a way for you to connect with people from around the world who share your same interests and goals. What happens after you "connect" is usually a mutally-beneficial exchange of information and ideas.
1. Your first step is to create a twitter account. Go to Twitter.com and click on "Sign up Now".
The sign up process only takes a few minutes. You'll need to provide your full name, create a username, provide your email, and create a password. That's it!
Your username appears in your twitter URL (mine is twitter.com/lauracatherineo). For this reason, try not to pick a username that is too long or difficult. For many people, their twitter username is their first and last name. For you, it may be your business name. I felt like my first and middle name was a great handle, and it allowed me to be a bit more private.
2. The second thing you'll want to do is enter a bio (click on settings and then account, scroll down for bio). Try to be descriptive and include terms that people may be searching for if you offer these things. For example, if you are a furniture store, your bio should clearly state that. Be descriptive! By this, I mean instead of saying "we are a furniture store", say "Upscale shabby chic furniture store with free design services". The reason you'll want to include this niche kind of information is that people who are searching for shabby chic furniture or design will be more likely to find you on Twitter when you've included this in your bio.
3. Pretty your background (click on settings, then design). By this, I mean you'll want to add some personality to your Twitter page. It is, after all, a representation of yourself or your business. If you are handy with photoshop, spend some time creating a sleek background. Many people on twitter actually make the left hand portion of their background a virtual business card (like this). Others opt for an artistic, striking background. There are many websites that feature a variety of backgrounds to choose from, such as TwitterBackgrounds.com. Twitter also has a few background templates you can choose from if you are lost. :)
4. Upload your profile pic (go to settings and click on the picture tab). You'll now want to upload your profile pic. If you are a business, the best use of this space may very well be your logo. If it is a personal page, you may want to opt for a photo of yourself or something more artsy. Remember that your profile pic appears on your followers pages in a scaled down format, so try not to cram too much into this small space. Less may be more.
5. Tweet First, Friend LaterWhen you have completed all the steps above, it's time to start tweeting! You want to tweet first and friend later because the first thing most people do when they are making the decision about whether to “follow” you back is pull up your twitter page. Essentially, they are checking you out (smile). When they see you’ve made only one “hello, world!” tweet, that isn't always good. The chances of them following you back, unless they are personal friend, decrease when this is the case. As much “give” as you’ll find in twitter, there is equal “take”. What I mean by that is quite simply, people don’t want to waste their time “following” your tweets if they don’t think you have anything to contribute. My advice (from personal experience) would be to spend several hours or even days tweeting before you attempt to build your connections. Make sure your tweets are well-rounded and a good representation of who you said you were in your bio. Not sure where to start? If you have a blog, linking to blog posts in a conversational-style can work. Such as "New post up about how to create an online form using Google Docs" or "New design in shades of blue - read about what inspired me on my blog" etc.
6. Speaking of Tweeting, URL shortening is a "DO"! With only 140 characters, you need every last one you can get your hands on! Posting long blog-style URLs is sometimes a waste of that limited space. I recommend using bit.ly to shorten your links. A fun bonus is that you can then track how many clicks each of your shortened links gets (if you create and login to your account when shortening URLs).
7. Now you're ready to Make Friends (Follow Others)
Quick housekeeping note...it's a great idea to create "lists" before you make tons of connections. Lists don't seem necessary at first, but totally help out later as your circle grows. Lists are essentially ways to group those you follow. For example: artists, marketers, inspiration, scrapbooking, poetry, FIRL-Friends in Real Life, etc. On your homescreen, look for "lists" on the right. Click "new" and create your first list. You can add people to it later.
There are a few ways to find friends. Twitter can connect to your email contacts (via gmail, yahoo, etc) to locate your friends for you. If you are like me and haven't added all your contacts into your email account, I found a handy tool on Yahoo that actually exports all your friends from Facebook INTO your yahoo contact list. From there, you can go back to Twitter and pull contacts in from your yahoo contact list. :) Totally worth the time and helped me find 60 of my friends on Twitter! (When you are logged into Yahoo, click on "contacts", then "import" and click on the Facebook logo). If you prefer, you can manually begin looking for friends by clicking on "find people" from your homepage, then typing in the person's name.
Although you certainly want to connect with friends on Twitter, you also want to grow your circle! If you are interested in graphic design, search Twitter for "graphic design". You'll typically find many (possibly hundreds) of results that you can quickly scan through to make friends. When you search this way, you'll just need to click on the profile pic or username to pull up their twitter page. Then click on "follow" and you are now a follower of this person or business. During the same time that you "follow" someone, go ahead and "list" them if they fall into one of your list categories. To do this, drop down the "lists" button when you are on the friend's profile. Click one of the list boxes to add them to that particular list. Now that you've found your "lists" option, you'll notice it pops up in various places around twitter, making listing people easy!
Typically when you follow a person or business with mutual likes/interests, he or she will follow you back. Not always the case, but often this happens. This is where things start to get fun.
8. Let the Fun Begin!
What next? Well, each post from the people you follow will appear to you in realtime after you login to Twitter. You can follow the stream of "tweets" (posts) from your friends and do a few things....
1. You may choose to re-tweet the post ("RT"). Re-tweeting means you like what that person said so much that you want to pass it along to all of your tweeps. Typically a retweet will look like this: "RT @GuyKawasaki How to grow your YouTube audience http://om.ly/RpzU".
2. You may choose to reply to the tweet. This is by clicking on the reply arrow to the right of the post. Be aware that replies will be seen on your page and your followers will also see that you have replied. This is usually a good thing, but something to keep in mind.
3. You may do nothing with the tweet. This is also OK. You don't need to reply or RT every tweet.
4. Set a goal for yourself to tweet at least once a day initially, it will grow later. I used to tweet every morning as a part of my routine. I didn't understand what I was really going to do with Twitter yet, but I'd try my best to share a tip, link to a blog post, RT something a friend had tweeted that was especially helpful, etc.
5. Be sure to click on the "@YourUsername" on your "home" Twitter page. This is where you will find mentions of yourself. For example, a friend might retweet something you wrote, or ask you a question. By clicking in the "@YourUsername", you'll find all these goodies and more. Note: many newbies (including myself) missed this for the first few weeks.
6. Another place to check is the "direct messages" link on your "home" Twitter page. You may find that your inbox gets spammy messages from time-to-time. Direct messages (also called DMs) are helpful, though. If you have a message for a friend that is better sent in private, such as "let's meet at 2 at Basil on X street", then sending a DM is great for that. You may also find that you get DMs as "Thanks for the RT" type messages.
9. Twitter Management Tools
I have found that to really learn/understand Twitter, it helps to spend your first few days/weeks on Twitter.com, using the tools first-hand. That said, before long, you may be ready to take things to the "next level" (smile) with some of the more advanced Twitter management-type systems. This is especially true if you are active on other social networks, like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Here is a rundown of my favorite Twitter management tools
~ Hootsuite - a real "social media dashboard" that allows you to track your activity, post to multiple social sites at one time, and much more. Note: you can even schedule tweets using Hootsuite. Super cool. ~ Tweetdeck - another fave. This one's a desktop application, also avail for iPhone and iPad. I actually used Tweetdeck before moving over to Hootsuite. I liked that it was a desktop application at first, but found it wasn't as convenient later when I was going from computer to computer. Tweetdeck also allows you to add your Facebook account into the list of accounts you can manage using its tools. ~ Twitter for Blackberry is on my list, because I have a blackberry. There are apps for Twitter for nearly all smart phones/devices, so be sure to look for it. One of the things that's neat about Twitter is it's all "real-time". You don't have to respond to a mention or DM right away, but it's handy to have the option at your fingertips while you're on the go.
10. Be sure to read my more recent post on Twitter (Top 10 Mistakes Made/Lessons Learned on Twitter) here.
