Twitter General Basics June 2009
- 1. Twitter 101 Getting Started Molly Sly @mollysly http://www.linkedin.com/in/mollysly
- 2. What is Twitter? A free microblog – a moment in time You have 140 characters in which to “tweet” It’s not REALLY just “What are you doing right now?” It is about: What you are learning, reading, attending Who you’re listening to and what they’re saying Breaking news And yes, sometimes it is about what you ate for lunch
- 3. Twitter is a Tool Like other social media tools, you can: View content from others Create content for others to view YOU MUST DO BOTH Much like LinkedIn you have to work at building your network The more you put in the more you get out It’s a free and easy distribution method and more people are joining daily It grew over 700% last year!
- 5. Setting up your Account Pick a user friendly Twitter ID @yourname It’s your personal brand – make it easy to find The longer your ID, the less characters you have for your tweets Write your profile What do you do? What are you about? Link to a URL, even if it’s your LinkedIn profile If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile come see me after class!! Use a face shot for your avatar
- 7. Start Following People Use Twitter applications to find your people www.twellow.com AND www.tweepsearch.com These apps search through bios You can search for titles, companies, industries, etc. www.summize.com This app searches ALL twitter conversations It offers real time search Run a search on any topic to see who’s talking about it. You can search company names, products, locations, etc. As you find people to follow, see who they are talking to and follow them as well Follow the social media gurus Use tools like http//twitterati.alltop.com
- 8. Jump in – The Water is Fine! Build your brand Start getting engaged in conversations Answer people’s questions Post links to blogs or articles Use a URL shortener like www.tinyurl.com to save some characters Retweet posts you think are relevant Don’t be a lurker Don’t tweet every three seconds
- 9. Learn the Lingo Tweep: a Twitter user Tweet: sending a message on Twitter @: use to reply to a specific tweep, but visible to all DM: direct message sent to someone They must be following you #: hash tag, used to track a topic Tw + any word: a staple with twitter (tweeple, tweetup, etc.) Careful, people can get annoyed if you talk like Tweety Bird too often!
- 10. Third Party Clients There are several and they make utilizing Twitter much easier (http://twitter.com/downloads) TweetDeck I use this and I HIGHLY recommend it Allows you to organize your tweeps into groups Alerts you to new tweets, DMs, replies Tweet, RT, DM, shorten URLs all from here