You’ve heard the name “Twitter,” and probably thought to yourself, “Great, another form of Internet communication I don’t need.”  Honestly, that was my first thought as well when a co-worker of mine brought the service to my attention just over a year ago.  In the year that’s passed, I finally dug deeper into the power of the Twitter network, and with the help of another co-worker, learned to manage Twitter activity so that it’s actually useful.  Actually, “useful” is an understatement . . .

Twitter???

Twitter is a microblog / social media application that asks, “What are you doing?”  While a few people might use it simply to post what they’re literally “doing,” the general population uses it for sharing links, providing opinions, and a huge emphasis on helping out members of the Twitter community.  Twitter is a completely free service, and the adoption rate is simply phenomenal.

Twitter asks - "What are you doing?"

Each Twitter post (called a “Tweet”) is limited to 140 characters (thus the “microblog” tag) – essentially very short, and to the point.  After you establish a FREE account, before you have any “followers,” create a few test posts so that you can begin to get comfortable with the character limitations you’re working with.  To share most any web site address, you’ll need a way of truncating the URL down so that it takes up less space.  There are many free online sites that do this, but I feel that bit.ly actually does the best job.  That site can actually take a URL that’s 300+ characters long and truncate it down to about 20 total.  Bit.ly is your friend in the Twitter space!

Twitter "Bio" Example

Before fully engaging the Twitter universe, you’ll want to complete your bio (also limited to 140 characters), note your web site address, and upload a picture to act as your avatar / icon that will appear next to every post you make on Twitter.  Actually, before you begin posting like mad, your next step is to gain some followers.  I.e. you don’t want to make posts solely to yourself!

Making Contact

“Followers” on Twitter are people that follow your posts.  I.e. they receive them in their Twitter-stream.  If you follow someone on Twitter, you become one of their “followers.”  The easiest way to get started with engaging other users of Twitter is to search Twitter.com for things that interest you.  For example, you may want to learn more about social media – simply type “social media” in as your search query, and many results will be returned.  Each result will have a link on it.  Clicking on the link will take you to the page of the individual that made the post.  As you read their profile page information and past Tweets, you have an easy mechanism to follow that user – click the “Follow” button under their avatar.  Twitter will update, and show that you are now following that person.  Congratulations, you’re now a stalker.

Twitter Followers

Be aware that there are spammers on Twitter.  Spammers are easy to spot as they will be following many people and have next to no followers themselves (and often make only a single Tweet before being removed from the service).  As you increase your activity on Twitter, you’ll begin to have followers coming out of the woodwork.  They are following you because they have placed a value on your contributions to the network.  Consider the same criteria when you have a new follower and you view their profile.  Do they post subjects you’re interested in?  If not, it is perfectly ok not to follow that user.

If you’re new to the idea of Twitter, you may already be overwhelmed by this post.  And on that point, we’ll close here – but I would like to provide insight into what we will be covering next:

Part 2 – Tools to Manage Twitter
In closing, I’d love feedback on your opinion and uses of Twitter.

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Matthew Brown
@MarketNet
http://www.marketnet.com