The Twitter Tutorial

By now, we all know that ! Twitter is a social network! where you post short bursts ! of thoughts and information.

It has become the single most talked about Web site since Facebook ! and grew 1,382% in the past year.! Source: “Twitter Now Growing at a Staggering 1,382 Percent” Mashable, March 16, 2009

Then Twitter grew 43% with the addition of just one user.

Source: “Oprah effect: 43% jump in Twitter trafﬁc,” USA Today, April 21, 2009

But why is Twitter such a big deal?

This is the future of human contact?

Probably not. But it has its uses. Like ﬁnding a job. Or new clients. ! Or garden tips. Or mufﬁn recipes.! Whatever.

Twitter revolutionized social media by making it simple for the world to communicate in real time. Think of it as a cross between ! text messaging, instant messaging and blogging.

Where did Twitter ! come from?

Founded in 2006 by three men: • Biz Stone & Evan Williams, creators of Blogger.com • Jack Dorsey, software architect

Although it was ﬁrst, Twitter at one point had more than 100 competitors. It has since crushed them.

Why did Twitter come out on top? • Originated the concept • Kept things simple • Lots of venture capital • Consistent buzz • Better name

Getting started:

Before you get too far… 1. Consider using a simple name close to your own. 2. Upload your photo. 3. Fill in your bio, home page, etc.

A few more tips for beginners: • Talk ﬁrst, follow later • Start with friends, expand slowly • Don’t bother going ‘private’ • Post consistently and you’ll get it

What should you write about? News in your industry Helpful tips Links to your new blog posts What’s going on in your life

Try to avoid writing about: What you ate for lunch Politics Your travel schedule ‘Figuring out Twitter’

How do you ﬁnd people to follow? • Search by name on Twitter • Find existing users in your e-mail address book • Look for common interests on WeFollow.com • Just look at your friends’ friends

Once you’re up and running, it should look like this: (assuming you’re Little Debbie)

Where you post quot; your next update. Most recent updates by people you follow.

Ignore this question. Reminds you what you last posted. How many characters quot; you have left (max is 140).

The number of people you’re following and are following you. Click to see recent quot; posts mentioning you. Private messages sent quot; to or from you.

Posts you’ve marked quot; as favorites. Click to see every tweet quot; on the planet. Random pictures of quot; people you’re following.

A few Twitter terms quot; you’ll want to know:

@ reply: A comment aimed at one user, but visible to the public.

@ reply:

In fact, just mentioning a user’s name with an @ will help ensure that user sees your note.

Wait, was that Kathy Ireland? Oh yes it was.

(More on Twittering celebrities in a few slides…)

DM: A direct message sent in private to another user. Goes to your e-mail inbox.

Retweeting: Sharing someone else’s post. Often abbreviated “RT.”

Retweeting:

Retweeting is a common way to praise another user, spread awareness or curry favor with inﬂuential users. That said, if all you do is retweet, you’re not adding much value.

Tinyurl: A service that shortens Web addresses, making them easier to ﬁt in a tweet.

(Twitter automatically shortens your links to TinyURLs if they’re too long.)

But alternatives to TinyURL are catching on. Bit.ly – Shorter, and offers stats. Is.gd – Shortest links SnipURL – Easy to use and share

Hashtags: Words beginning with a # to help you track speciﬁc conversations.

You can follow a speciﬁc hashtag in real time through Twitter Search.

Popular hashtags: #FollowFriday: A weekly chance to recommend people to follow. #JournChat: A live, open discussion of journalism and PR, 7–10 p.m. CST o Mondays #NoPantsTuesday: Speaks for itself.

Fail Whale: The universal sign that Twitter is having serious problems.

Apps: Applications that make using Twitter easier, more productive, etc.

TwitterFon A great way to use Twitter from your iPhone.

TweetDeck Powerful, customizable way to use Twitter on ! your desktop.

And don’t miss… TweetLater: Schedule posts in advance. TwitPic: Post photos to Twitter. Twitbin, TwitterFox, etc: Lets you update Twitter from your Firefox Web browser.

The most powerful Twitter site is actually Twitter Search which has become a scarily useful tool ! for monitoring global conversations.

So who’s using Twitter?

Twitter demographics: Gender Age 53% female 47% 18–34 47% male 31% 35–29 21% 50+ Education 46% College Ethnicity 37% No College 82% White 17% Grad School 7% Black 5% Asian 5% Hispanic Source: “2009 Twitter Demographics and Statistics Report,” iStrategyLabs.com

Twitter is quite popular with: • Bloggers • Moms • PR practitioners • Consultants • Pyramid schemers • Corporations • Celebrities

Celebs on Twitter: Ashton Kutcher: 1.4 million followers Britney Spears: 1.1 million Ellen Degeneres: 1 million Barack Obama: 943,600 Jimmy Fallon: 778,800 Shaquille O’Neal: 770,000 John Mayer: 724,100 Demi Moore: 719,600 (As of April 24, 2009. By the time you read this, Oprah will probably have 7 billion.)

Businesses on Twitter o  Starbucks o  Ford o  Whole Foods o  Southwest o  GM o  Dunkin Donuts o  Dell o  Honda o  Kodak o  Zappos o  Comcast o  Red Cross o  Little Debbie o  H&R Block o  Rubbermaid o  Hertz o  Home Depot o  Nationwide

Twitter helps businesses: o  Raise awareness o  Offer proactive customer service o  Answer questions o  Promote events, products, services

Businesses should: o  Be conversational o  Jump in the discussion o  Pay attention o  Pace themselves

Businesses should NOT: o  Be sales-oriented robots o  Be repetitive and dull o  Follow too many people at once

While consistent, earnest use of Twitter is still best, some marketers are really pushing the envelope.

‘Mad Men’ fans, including PR pros unafﬁliated with AMC, built a full online life for the show’s characters on Twitter.

Skittles turned its entire home page into Twitter search results for the word “Skittles” — obscenities and all.

So what’s next for Twitter? • A revenue plan would be nice • Continued mainstreaming • Lots more celebs, journalists, CEOs • Become a standard customer service • Probably keep crashing a lot

Thanks for your time. david.griner@luckie.com Twitter.com/griner TheSocialPath.com

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The Twitter Tutorial

by David Griner on Apr 29, 2009

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