10 February, 2009 | Written by Amber Naslund 20 Comments

Social Media Starter Kit: Twitter

If you’re already on Twitter, you know it’s more than just talking about what people have for breakfast. It’s more like “conference call IM” to me. Link sharing, conversation, personal connections that break the ice before in-person meeting, professional networking. For me, it’s become the equivalent to having another phone on my desk in a different form.

If you’re just getting started on Twitter, you’re probably a bit overwhelmed and looking for a few ways to help optimize your experience. So here’s my take on Twitter, how I use it, and what I think you should pay attention to.

Getting Set Up

Use your real name and a picture on your profile. It lets your followers know that there’s a real person behind the profile. I’m not a big fan of business names for handles (i.e. your Twitter name), but they can work if you have a real picture. In general, I’m of the mind that you should use something related to your real name if not your name itself, and stay away from things with tons of numbers (they can smell spammy to the casual observer).

Let your bio be a little fun, but have it there regardless. We want to know who you are. I encourage people to use their bio they way they’d introduce themselves in person, not as a 160 character “elevator pitch”. That turns off followers that might like to connect with you, especially if they think they’ll get pitched if they follow you. (Unless it’s a purely business account, in which case a description of your company is probably the best approach.)

Following and Being Followed

When you’re just getting started, you can search Twitter for people you know by entering their name. Twitter also has an option to search the contacts you have on Gmail, Hotmail, AOL and some others. Also, there are tools like Twellow, Twitter Grader, and Mr. Tweet that can help you get connected with people with similar interests or that are local to you. Use Twitter Search to plug in topics that interest you and see who’s talking about them. As you get more followers, check out who *they* follow and connect to others in their network that you see them conversing with on Twitter. To me, that’s the most organic way to build your network, and the way that I did it (I didn’t use any of the aforementioned tools).

Be aware that if you run out and follow a slew of people out of the gate, Twitter is very likely to mark you as an account with spam potential and suspend you. It’s not a race. Follow a handful of people, start talking to them. Grow from there.

A note about follower numbers: I don’t subscribe to the philosophy that more is better. I have a large network personally, but I built it connecting to people slowly over time, and it matters much more to me that I’m having a conversational, interactive experience. I don’t put much stock in ranking/scoring/grading tools that claim to say who’s a good follow and who isn’t. Ultimately, I tend to follow people who are personable, talkative, and multifaceted, meaning that they do more than talk about their business or drop link after link. And I don’t fret if someone unfollows me; again, it’s about each person’s personal experience, even if I’m not their cup of tea.

I encourage you to consider following people as reaching out and shaking hands, connecting individually rather than just an accumulation of numbers. It’s not a popularity contest. It’s a communication experience.

Participating

The best advice I can give here is to treat Twitter like a conversation (because largely that’s what it is). Start with 30 minutes, twice a day (say morning and after work). There’s no “right” way to use it and your own feel for it will emerge over time, but there are a few guidelines that seem to be generally accepted, and some tips I have that mirror the way I’ve used Twitter to date.

90% of what I do on Twitter is conversing with other people. If you look at my profile page, you’ll see that @ replies comprise the bulk of my interaction. The other 10% is sharing links I find across the web that I think are interesting or useful, and about one out of a dozen times, I’ll drop a link to my recent blog post or something else “me” focused. The important thing is that your links are much more likely to get attention – yours or otherwise – if you’ve spend the time to build the relationships behind the connections before you ask people to Click Your Junk.

The best way to build relationships and a community on Twitter: participate. Don’t beg for followers – trust me when I tell you that if you’re interesting and interested in others, they’ll show up. It’s really that simple. Talk, share, contribute. And above all, have a little fun.

The Lingo

Twitter has it’s own lexicon of sorts. Here are a few terms you might see tossed about.

@ replies: This symbol precedes people’s “handles” or screen names on Twitter when a tweet is directed at them. Want to reply to someone’s comment? Start your tweet with @<their twitter name> so they’ll know your reply is meant for them. You can track your own replies in the “@ Replies” tab on your Twitter page, or many of the Twitter clients will do so automatically for you.

RT: Stands for “retweet” and means that the tweet is being reposted from someone else. If I retweet something of yours, that means I’m passing it along for others in my network to see. When you see a tweet that starts with these letters, it means that the person is passing along something that someone else wrote. Many of the third party applications have a one-click button to retweet a post.

hashtags: You may often see tweets that end with a hashtag, or a pound sign followed by a term, such as #conference. The purpose is to keep track of tweets that are all part of a single subject, event, or topic. If you head to Twitter Search and type in the full hashtag, you can track all the tweets related to that term. You don’t need to do anything special to use a hashtag, just make one up and tell folks to use it if you want them to tag their tweets for your event or discussion.

link shorteners: Twitter’s 140 character limitation makes posting big links impossible. So you’ll see shortened urls from services like TinyURL, Bit.ly, is.gd among others. They take a long URL and condense it down to a short version. Again, clients like TweetDeck have this built in, but you can use the web versions as well, many of which have a bookmark button you can use in your browser.

DM: This stands for Direct Message and is Twitter’s version of a private message. If you DM someone, you send the message directly to them and no one else can see it. To send one, type the letter D and a space followed by the person’s Twitter name (or use the Direct Messages tab on your profile page). The recipient of the DM needs to be following you for the message to go through.

Favorites: If you “favorite” a tweet, it’s like your bookmarking it for yourself. You can see your favorites on a separate tab on your profile, and others can see them too.

Is this helpful? That’s the basic overview of Twitter as I know it, aimed at the beginners. What other tips would you share, and what other questions do you have?

Tomorrow: LinkedIn.

This is a post from the Social Media Starter Kit Series. To see all the posts from the series, click here, or click here to download the PDF e-book version. Like this what you’ve read? Consider subscribing to the feed and never miss a post.

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20 Comments »

Comment by Ronald Earl Wilsher

2009-02-10 09:16:27

Great info, Miss A!

Thanks for sharing.

Keep the faith and keep being you!

~Ronald
TrueBeliever & HopeDealer

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Comment by Swami K

2009-02-10 09:24:23

Hi Amber:
Great article…I planned to write one like Twtitter for beginers..But yours is the best

Looks like I have drop that idea or have to write a better one than yours

Cheers

Regards,
Swami K

Swami Ks last blog post..What catches your eye in Google Logo?

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Comment by noelbaklavas?

2009-02-10 09:26:29

it looks plain and simple thanks

noelbaklavas?s last blog post..noelbaklavasi: Police use Wii to create wanted poster http://ff.im/-Ygxy

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Comment by John Carson

2009-02-10 16:31:21

I would also say go easy on the RTs; too many and it looks like you have nothing to say yourself. You become a parrot over time.

Cheers,
John.

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Comment by Warren Sukernek

2009-02-10 17:00:02

Twitter can be very confusing for beginners, so you have provided a lot of excellent information to help guide them. Here are a few of my favorite Twitter 101 resources:

- Dell’s Social Media Facebook Page where you can download a very comprehensive Twitter guide, http://www.facebook.com/dellsocialmedia

- Jordan Levy’s excellent flowgram, Using Twitter for Business, http://www.flowgram.com/p/39kv8p5gbtpiyu

- Pistachio’s Twitter for Dummies Community, https://na5.brightidea.com/ct/s.bix?c=3194D4B1-9DE3-4EC5-834C-9787F413EA51

- And over 200 Twitter101 posts that I’ve catalogued on Delicious, http://delicious.com/wss23/twitter101

Warren Sukerneks last blog post..Twitter Delicious Tags on Wordle

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Comment by Richard Arblaster

2009-02-10 17:55:21

Good post.

I tend to follow people that interest me.

Richard Arblasters last blog post..6 Nations – My Predictions for next week

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Comment by Howard Kang

2009-02-11 00:38:32

Amber, really great content for helping people get started with Twitter. I’ve already forwarded out the link to several friends getting started on Twitter.

I would also add one more note on finding interesting people to follow: http://www.twitterrati.com/2008/11/26/five-tools-to-find-people-on-twitter-to-follow/

Howard Kangs last blog post..Howardkang.com is Up!

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Comment by Mike Henry

2009-02-11 21:13:11

Amber, thanks for the helpful info. This is concise but info-packed. It gave me a couple of ideas quickly.

Mike Henrys last blog post..Jump Start Your Job Search Part 3

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Comment by Global Patriot

2009-02-15 08:45:42

A great review of what twitter is and how to use it for maximum benefit! On the topic of building your list of followers, the suggestion of reviewing who you already follow and checking out who they follow will result in the highest quality list of friends.

While search tools can get you jump started based on a key word or phrase that applies to you and your mission, the best “friends” are those with the most authentic conversations.

Global Patriots last blog post..Doctors Without Borders – Part Three

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Comment by Mahesh Patwardhan

2009-02-16 05:08:59

Hi, I’m new to Twitter and found your blog really useful. I do have a question though…(and I did ask this on Twitter also). I am not clear on who exactly can see my ‘tweets’ – only those who are following me? Both those who are following me as well as those I am following? I mean once I am on twitter can i speak to both the ones i am following as well as my followers?

Mahesh Patwardhans last blog post..Pigs That Glow In The Dark

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Comment by On the MOney

2009-02-19 17:48:17

I still can’t get my head round Linked-In … don’t know why …

On the MOneys last blog post..Money News Round-Up 19th February 2009

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Comment by Amber Naslund

2009-02-20 04:04:14

@Mahesh Terribly sorry that I missed answering your question.

The answer is that only the people following you can see your tweets. You can only see the tweets of those you’re following (unless you view the public timeline).

If someone isn’t following you back, you can still direct a tweet to them using an @ reply. Whether or not they’re following you, that tweet will show up in their reply stream.

hope that helps?

Amber Naslunds last blog post..I am a Material Girl and want to live in a Twitter World

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