Become a Tweeter
What is Twitter?
So what is Twitter? Well, in short, Twitter is a social micro-blogging community. Yea, those are technical terms for it; a way I tend to explain it to people is like this. Twitter is a community that is based on things like Facebook status updates, and that is it. I generally get the question “If it is just staus updates, then why not just stick to Facebook?” Twitter is much more than a bunch of “Trae is having a long day…” or “Trae hates this class.” Posts on Twitter are generally much more useful than this, although they don’t stray completely away from the very personal element of those sorts of updates. So, basically, Twitter is both a way to keep in touch with friends and a way to learn new things that interest you, as well as meet new people from all over the world. What kinds of things, specifically, can you expect to see on Twitter? Well let’s take the most followed user on Twitter, Kevin Rose. Kevin Rose is the founder of Digg.com, a social news site, and he tweets (e.g. Posts Twitter updates) frequently. These posts vary from a link to his new blog post to what kind of tea he is currently drinking.
A Snapshot of Kevin Rose' Twitter Page
While Kevin Rose generally tweets mostly about technology related things, as his life is highly based in technology, you will find people from all different fields and with all different interests. In the beginnings of Twitter the community was densely populated with the geek type person, but recently has started to become more mainstream with people such as Jimmy Fallon and Barrack Obama now tweeting.
Why Should I Tweet?
Why should you tweet? Well, the simple answer to that is because everyone is doing it. That may sound like a dumb answer, but heres something to ask yourself. Do you have a Facebook account? If you do, then why did you sign up for Facebook? Was it because you randomly browsing the internet and stumbled across the site and thought it looks neat? I doubt it, the reason I first signed up for Facebook was because most of my friends were getting them. As popularity of Facebook spread, the more common place the idea of the site became. This is the sort of place Twitter is at right now; yes, the site was primarily made of of geek types, ut like I mentioned earlier it is quickly becoming mainstream. A few other good reasons for why you should be tweeting is to easily and quickly keep up with your friends and interests. As well as contribute to the social community that is rapidly expanding all across the world. When I began using Twitter, it was no more than a way for me to learn about new sites that taught me more about my interests. Once I began to start actively tweeting, first off it was addicting, and secondly I began to meet people I would have otherwise never met. The people I follow on Twitter range from some of the best web designers in the world to a kid in China who blogs about technology to Lance Armstrong
Ok, Let’s Get Started… How?
Ok, so you convinced me… Now what? Well first things first, head over to http://twitter.com and make an account. Remember your username is what everyone will see and use to communicate with you, so don’t make it hard to remember. Here is a small list of things to remember for your initial registration:
- Make your username memorable
- Fill in your bio accurately and be descriptive, many services that recommend people to follow will only display your username and bio to potential followers. With no bio, or a bio that makes no sense, you could be limiting your followers.
- Be sure to enter your location, just the city and state will suffice. Be as descriptive in your location as you feel comfortable with, generally city and state. This will help people find you that are nearby your location, and can lead to potential business leads, friendships, or just an outlet for local news.
What’s next? Time to start tweeting. Go ahead, it’s very simple just go ahead and type in what’s on your mind. Something like “Just starting to use Twitter, and it’s awesome.” will be great. Once you’ve posted your first tweet, then it’s time to start finding some people to follow. You can use Twitter’s “Find People” tools to find people by email address, name, or location. It also has the option to analyze your current list of people you follow and suggest others that are similar, but you already have to be following some people for this functionality.
One of the questions I get most from my friends that are new to Twitter is “How do I get more followers?” and “How do I know who to follow?” My answer is relatively simple, there are a few tools that will assist you in finding people to follow, such as Mr. Tweet. But, one of the best ways to get followers is to follow people yourself. Go to http://search.twitter.com and start searching for topics that interest you, or search for your location to find people that talk about interests you have or who are in your same area. Many people on Twitter will follow you back, if you follow them. While some people will blindly follow anyone that follows them, there are also a lot of people like myself who will only follow someone if they look like they are active in the community and have interesting things to say. If I pull up a page and see that you have never replied to anyone you follow, or are only posting links without any sort of personal feel to your tweets, then I generally won’t follow you.
Replying is one of the best ways to be active in this community. To reply to someone you simply place the ‘@’ symbol before the username of the person you want to reply to and type the message after it. Here is an example of how you could reply to me “@trobrock How is your day going?” I try my hardest to keep active in this community, so I frequently reply to people that I follow, and it is a very good thing for you to do the same. People who are not responsive in the community tend to get boring and I start to stop really even paying much attention to them, it’s much like having a one-way conversation, it gets boring.
Another excellent way to stay active and benefit the community is by ReTweeting. I find that the majority of people on Twitter either don’t have the slightest idea what ReTweeting is, or they know but choose to never do it. I ReTweet all the time, basically, ReTweeting is what you do when someone you follow posts something you find interesting and you repost it for your followers to see. There are a few different formats to ReTweet something, but the most popular is by typing “RT @UserWhoPosted: Their Posted Message” This helps in the spreading of useful information throughout the community and can help others to reach people they normally would not have, because it reaches into your group of followers.
Now below I am going to list some rules for Tweets, these are not rules where Twitter will suspend your account if you don’t follow them, but they are basic etiquette to follow when Tweeting.
- Keep it personal, do not only post about articles and websites you find. Let people know whats going on with your life, we want to know.
- ReTweet and Reply as much as possible, but make it useful.
- Don’t Spam, this is the number 1 no-no, noone likes a spammer. This is a great way to lose followers.
- If it isn’t something everyone needs to see, move it to Direct Messages (DMs). Maybe after 2-3 Tweets between you and another person. (Thanks @ABroyles)
Those are the basics to being a successful Tweeter, go get started. The community is always happy for new people, the things you can learn are endless.
This is Awesome, What Else is There?
Ok, so you love Twitter, and want to know what else you can do. I’m going to go over something called hashtags, basically marking Tweets for others to find easily. And, I will cover some tools that will make your experience in the community better, and potentially get you even more addicted, I know it did for me.
Hashtags are things you will see other place inside Tweets that are single words that begin with the ‘#’ symbol. These tags are for marking tweets into certain categories, which makes for easier searching and following of topics. If you go to HashTags.org it will show you all the trending and popular hashtags currently on twitter. Use these to join in on conversations that interest you, or create new ones. Hashtags are incredibly useful in situations like when tornadoes were getting close to the town I live in (read more here: CourtDevan’s Blog).
What are some other useful tools for Twitter?
ReTweet Tools
These tools count the number of people who have ReTweeted what you, or anyone else, has said and rates the users.
Retweetist (http://retweetist.com/)
RetweetRank (http://www.retweetrank.com/)
Twitter Statistics
These tools are for getting statistics on how often you, or anyone else, tweets, when they tweet, who they reply to, etc…
TweetStats (http://www.tweetstats.com/)
TwitterCounter (http://twittercounter.com/)
Twitter Grader (http://twitter.grader.com/)
TweetBurner (http://tweetburner.com/) – This one is different from the above, it is a link shortening service, like TinyUrl, but it keeps track of how many people click the links you distribute
Pictures and Video
These are tools for posting pictures and video to Twitter from almost any location, including wirelessly from your phone.
TwitPic (http://twitpic.com/)
Twiddeo (http://beta.twiddeo.com/)
12Seconds (http://12seconds.tv/)
Search Tools
These are tools that help you perform searches on Twitter, and can help you find people you may want to follow, or find information about a topic that interests you.
Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com)
Monitter (http://monitter.com/)
Lastly….
If you have any other questions, please feel free to message me on twitter @trobrock
Enjoy the Twitterverse!
If anyone current Tweeters have anything to add please comment…
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