Twitter 101A Guide to Getting Started

By @KellyeCrane

New to Twitter?

Twitter grew 1,551% betweenJune 2008 and June 2009

Source: Compete.com data for June 2009

From David Griner, Luckie & Company, http://www.slideshare.net/Griner/the-twitter-tutorial - Slide 3 (used with permission)

In fact, Twitter grew 43% with the addition of just one user.

From David Griner, Luckie & Company, http://www.slideshare.net/Griner/the-twitter-tutorial - Slide 4 (used with permission)

From David Griner, Luckie & Company, http://www.slideshare.net/Griner/the-twitter-tutorial - Slide 5 (used with permission)

But why?

BenefitsNew influentials

Build RelationshipsEarned media

Gain customer and market insightsGoogle friendly

Ambient awareness

Each little update — each individual bit of social information — is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait… like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting.

Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html?_r=1

70 Percent of Journalists Use Social Networks to Assist in Reporting

(up from 42% last year)

If that’s not enough….

Source: Survey from Middleberg Communications and the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), reported in PRWeek

From Connie Bensen, Community Strategist, http://www.slideshare.net/conniebensen/twitter-for-lead-gen - Slide 2 (used with permission) )

Social Anthropology

Getting Started

What to Say?

• Share links• Amplify others• Give tips• Be a resource• Show expertise

Ask Questions

“You can’t take something off of the Internet. That’s like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.”

- Joe Ragan, NewsradioAs quoted in “Groundswell” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

Twitter Glossary

• Tweet• @replies• Retweet (RT)• Direct Message (DM)• Twitter tools• #Hashtags• h/t • Tweetup

Etiquette

• Converse, don’t just broadcast

• Be transparent/authentic

• It’s not about follower numbers, it’s about connecting

• No auto-Direct Messages (DM)

• Avoid TMI

Who to follow?

• Import contacts from other networks (Gmail, Yahoo, AOL)

• Search by name• Find someone with similar interests and see

who they follow• Tools like MrTweet.net, Twellow.com• “Return follow” someone who follows you

(with caveat)

Finding Time

Tools

Tweetdeck

Twitter Search

delicious.com/KellyeCrane/twitter+tools

Questions?

Kellye CraneE-mail: kellye@cranecom.com

Twitter: KellyeCraneBlog: Solo PR Pro

Web site: www.cranecom.com