Twitter for Dummies

If you have a business and haven’t hopped on the Twitter train yet, it’s never too late. Twitter is a micro blogging platform that allows you to engage your (unlimited) audience. It is very easy to use and effective if used properly. Most people however use this service incorrectly and don’t ever get to reap the plentiful benefits of the Twitter world. Let me help you.

Let’s start with a glossary of terms:

• Tweep is a person who uses Twitter

• Tweet is a 140 character or less sentence from a Tweeter

• Followers are people who have clicked to follow you, and who therefore will see your tweets

• Friends are people you have followed and you will see their tweets

• @replies are public tweets aimed at you (but everyone can see them) and responding to you

• Direct messages (DM’s) are private messages that only you can see

• Hashtags (#) are sometimes used to identify a topic so people can search easily for it

• Fail Whale is the whale logo Twitter uses when there is a problem on the system

• Retweet (RT) is when you pass on to your followers somebody else’s tweet

Steps to a successful profile:

1) Choose a Twitter name that reflects your brand and is easy to remember. For example, I am the CEO of TriFame.com and my initials are NZ, so my Twitter name is @trifamenz.

2) Upload a clean, customized background picture as well as an avatar. You are likely to get more followers if you put effort into your account.

3) Fill out your bio because it is the only place you have to tell people who you are.

4) Tweet about your passions in life and link them with hash tags (#).  This way your are getting the quality content to the people who care. Use URL shortening services like bit.ly and upload pictures using TwitPic.

5) Follow people who you share similar interests with and follow back those who follow you. Engage your current followers by responding to their tweets and DM’s.

Don’t:

1) Be boring.

2) Tweet very seldomly.

3) Send out auto DM’s (that has to be the most obnoxious form of spam I’ve ever seen and will only hurt your brand).

4) Consistently tweet about what you are selling or linking your own stuff. After a while you will dilute the attention you have gotten (if you still have it).

5) Be unprofessional. Many people have lost their jobs over tweeting negatively about their boss. Remember everyone can read your tweets unless you make it private which wouldn’t be good for your brand anyways.

Some other Twitter Tools I’ve found useful:

Twellow – List yourself in different categories and follow those of similar interest.

FriendorFollow – A tool you can use to follow people who follow you and unfollow people who don’t.

One Forty – A directory of over 2,000 Twitter applications for you to try out yourself.

If you are feeling ‘hip’ and would like to speak Twitter then check out this post by Business Week.

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