by Rebecca Spencer
It’s claimed that 1/3 people understand Twitter straight away, 1/3 people understand
Twitter after revisiting it a few times and a 1/3 of people never understand it at
all.
We’re increasingly seeing the value that the Twittersphere is able to offer and wanted to share this with you. Regard this as a 101 for beginners.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a form of micro blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips. You can send quick snippets of information about what you’re doing. Equally, you can reply to what other people are doing in small snippets. It is a bit like Instant Messaging with the world!
Twitter differs from blogging in that you can have real time conversations with people. Additionally, you get little glimpses into people’s lives that you might not see just from their blogs. This video provides a good overview of the service:
Tweets
Updates are called ‘tweets’. A tweet is limited to 140 characters or less, a bit like a text message. Shorthand has been developed in order to make the limited text work harder – we’ll come on to this shortly.
How to Get Started with Twitter
Setup a Twitter Account
Give yourself a user name and easy to remember password.
Customise your profile
Use the settings tab found on the main dashboard to add an associated email address, website, location, time zone and biography. You have 160 characters to provide a description of who you are and what you’re interested in. Make it brief, make it interesting and avoid sales pitches! Stand out, share a fact that could create common ground, show your sense of humour.
Add a picture.
Your photo will be a tiny avatar appearing on people’s Twitter feeds so pick a head and shoulders shot to ensure you’re clearly visible. A full body shot will be very small!
You can use your company logo but it depends on how you’re tweeting. If you’re tweeting on behalf of your company, then perhaps a logo is a better representation of your Twitter feed. If you take this route, make sure you’re not hiding behind your logo - people buy from people!
Customise your background
There are pre-existing templates that you can choose from or alternatively create your own by uploading an image or photo. If you’re doing this for a company then maybe aim for something that fits with your brand.
“Hello world”.
At this point you might like to experience the (tiny) thrill of posting your first tweet. But don’t get carried away yet as you only have a couple of followers!
To do this just type in the main box underneath where it asks ‘What’s happening’? and click return.
Browse and follow
Search for friends and colleagues and other interesting people. Twitter increases in value and becomes more useful the large your network becomes.
There are a lot of people who will follow you automatically if you follow them. There’s an unwritten rule – ‘I follow you, you follow me’. Each time you elect to follow someone they’ll receive an email informing them you’re following them and asking if they’d like to follow you back.
There are a multitude of ways of following people a couple of these to get you started are outlined below:
1. From twitter.com directly click on ‘follow people’ in the top right. Here you can add specific people/ brands
2. Click on someone of interest and explore who they’re following – add from their network any you deem relevant
3. Search.Twitter.com provides advanced search options
Familiarise yourself with the terminology
If you attach the @ symbol to a username in a tweet it will appear in that person’s Twitter feed (a public reply / citation, eg ‘@Livingwands’). You can send private messages to people who follow you (‘D’). You can also ‘retweet’ other people’s tweets (RT). Meanwhile ‘hashtags’ are a way of creating searches, by placing the # symbol before a word, such as #pmqt #fail
Hashtags were developed as a means to create "groupings" on Twitter, without having to change the basic service.
Start tweeting
You're now ready to go!
Remember to engage with people - think of it like a party, no one wants to hear from someone who just talks about themselves! Promote other people with retweets and keep it frequent.
Finally….
Getting followers
Just like with any other website or blog, just because you build it, doesn’t necessarily mean people will come. You should publicise your Twitter name wherever possible to help you acquire new followers.
Showcase it on your Email signature, website/ blog, email newsletter, presentations, business cards, articles, online networking profiles.
