subject: Condensed Beginner's Guide To Twitter [print this page] There are literally thousands of guides with this selfsame title out there today. Why? Because Twitter is popular. Its social medias biggest fad. Its also a great marketing tool that has proven successful for many online businesses.
Whats the point?
The main point of Twitter is to get more followers. When someone follows you, your updates will appear in their home stream, like the News feed feature on Facebook. The main point of having lots of followers, of course, is to get them to click on your stuff. The more followers you have, the greater exposure you can generate.
What to tweet?
So, what are you supposed to tweet about, anyway? The basic rule of thumb here is: Dont be an idiot. If you think what you are about to post may be inappropriate, dont post it!
Keep in mind that you are to be identified by Twitter users as an official employee (or employer) in your company. This doesnt mean you need to tweet only about things related to your job, you can tweet about anything as long as it does not fall into the STUPID category. Tweet news, interesting activities you might be doing, promotions from your company, and so on. See some examples here. You dont need to let people know that youre running errands or having waffles for breakfast.
Okay, now that weve covered the most basic information about Twitter, its time to talk about the best practices that will help you be successful.
1.Frequency
Make sure that your Twitter account is updated at least once a day. This will make sure that people will not unfollow you! I would recommend tweeting more than once a day! In fact, you should tweet whenever you want to whomever you want. However, just be aware that you can overdo it. Think: how often would I like to get updates from someone Im following?
2.Interaction
The more you interact with others on Twitter, the better. You can do this by replying to tweets, retweeting, and sending direct messages.
Reply
Placing an @ sign in front of someones username is how you can reply to or mention someone in your tweets. This makes the persons username a link that your followers can click on. The more people mention you, the more likely people are to follow you.
Once some mentions you using an @ reply, the tweet will appear on your Twitter home screen. On the right hand side, there are filters for @(your username) and Direct Messages. Click on these periodically to see who is trying to connect with you.
Retweet
A retweet is like a forwarded email, with "RT" at the beginning of the message. For example, if @johnsmith sayes "Look, #giantiphone is trending and #ipad isn't", you could resend or retweet the message as "RT @johnsmith: Look, #giantiphone is trending and #ipad isn't". You could even add a little something, like "RT @johnsmith: Look, #giantiphone is trending and #ipad isn't
