Getting Started With Twitter

A practical guide

March 24, 2010

SocialMediaRevolutionary.com

Getting Started With Twitter

Overview

2

Why Twitter?

Things to do on Twitter

Sign up for Twitter

Set up profile

Common actions

Getting organized

Get followers

Dos and Don’ts

Why Twitter?

3

Instead of Facebook/LinkedIn/MySpace

Because:

Fast – Only 140 characters

Interesting people talk there

Fun!

Sharing interesting information draws followers. More followers mean more reach and more influence.

Connect with people you wouldn’t normally meet

Public – what you talk about is picked up by search engines

What Do You Want To Do On Twitter?

4

Build personal brand

Find friends with similar interest

Show your expertise

Drive traffic to my business

Find new readers for my blog

Share my passion

Communicate what I’m working on with colleagues

Meet my future wife/husband

Sign Up For Twitter

5

Go to Twitter.com and click the Join the conversation! Box

Select a username

Use the shortest version of your name possible (ccondray vs.

collincondray) to free up more space in Tweets.

Avoid underscores (reduces retweets)

Find connections in your email http://twitter.com/invitations

Set up your profile

6

Name – Use your real name

Location – Can help other local people find you

Web – For longer posts try using Posterous or Tumblr

Bio – Should be related to your goal

Picture –use a real picture. Gives you a human face that’s easier to relate to.

Design – Change from the default one to make you unique

Common Actions

7

Tweet - Individual messages

Messaging Other people

@ Reply - Public

Direct Messages -Private

RT – Retweet

#hashtags

Trending News –#nwastorms

Lists – groups of related users

@ Replies DMs

Organizing Your Activity With Hootsuite

8

Post to all major social media networks from one place (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

Organize using Twitter lists based on location, topic, personal friends, etc.

Set tweets to be posted during the day when more people might see it

Link with other networks

9

Facebook

LinkedIn (or by using the #in tag)

Others: MySpace

MrTweet.com

Twello.com

Adding Relevant Followers

10

Now that I’ve got it, what do I do?

11

Tweet, often and honestly.

Follow friends and interesting people

Don’t Tweet just because you want more followers!

Show people cool stuff.

Re-tweet – share other people’s knowledge

Respond to questions in your area of expertise

Block annoying people and spammers and move on

Use hashtags to organize your content

Monitor How You Are Doing

12

Cool Twitter Tricks

13

Link Shorteners – bit.ly, is.gd, tinyurl.com

Bit.ly lets you see how interesting your links are to other users

Post pictures or videos with sharing services

(TweetPhoto.com, TwitPic.com, Yfrog.com)

Twitterfall (watch this during your favorite sports event)

Keep up with trends –WhatTheTrend.com

Do’s and Don’t

14

Do

Fill out your profile completely

Be interesting

Answer questions

Follow interesting people

Don’t

Talk just about yourself. Help others.

Dos and Don’ts

15

Don’t just say what you’re doing “I’m having breakfast” or

“I’m looking for a job.”

Do show a picture of your breakfast or a link to an interesting

article about job hunting.

Other things that can make a Tweet more interesting

Picture (Cute kids are better than actual content)

Link to a website or news story with interesting content

Location sharing (Check out Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, and

the mobile version of Twitter for bonus points)

Homework

16

Follow me at @ccondray, I’ll put you in a Joseph Project

group and I’ll tell people to follow you

Collin Condray

Twitter.com/ccondray

SocialMediaRevolutionary.com

collin@SocialMediaRevolutionary.com

Thank you!