What is Twitter and How to Use It

What is Twitter and How to Use It 1/1/2010

What’s will I learn?
What is Twitter
Why Twitter
Key Twitter Terms to Know
Getting Started with Twitter
Twitter Management and Monitoring Tools
Twitter Limitations
Twitter Guidelines, Dos & Don’ts
Additional Resources
@EkaterinaWalter

What is ?
Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows users to post or publish brief messages of 140 characters or less (“tweets”).
It is a communication tool by which users can post short messages to the Internet.
@EkaterinaWalter

is:
Relationship-builder
Source of latest information, accelerator and amplifier of news
Real-time social search platform
Real-time focus group
Real-time warning system
Online traffic driver
@EkaterinaWalter

Why Twitter?
Build your professional and personal network
Meet new people, stay connected
Stay on top of industry trends and news
Find answers to your questions
Track conversations on multiple topics
Provide information to your followers, drive traffic to your other online properties
Grow your personal thought leadership
Participate in discussions
@EkaterinaWalter

Key Terms to Know @EkaterinaWalter

Tweets : users’ Twitter messages/posts.
@EkaterinaWalter Examples of tweets

Following – choosing to receive messages from the people you “follow”. People get your messages by “following” you.
.
@EkaterinaWalter Following: # of people you follow Followers: # of people who follow you

RT – ReTweet is to repost others’ messages to give them credit, a way to share interesting ideas/info/posts on Twitter.
@EkaterinaWalter Look from the web browser Look from TweetDeck

DM – Direct Message is the way to send a private message to a specific person via Twitter (it does not appear in the public stream or search results). A person has to follow your feed to get your DM. You have to follow that person to get a DM back.
@EkaterinaWalter The way to type it Look from TweetDeck D livepath Sure!

@username or Handle – the way to communicate with a specific person (or people if you type in multiple usernames), this way of communication is public, displayed for everyone to see and searchable
@EkaterinaWalter Look from TweetDeck Look from the web browser

Mentions – when someone includes your Twitter handle in their post it is called a “mention” or a “shouts out”. If you are using 3 rd party application (example: TweetDeck), those posts will show up in your Mentions column.
@EkaterinaWalter

via – similar to RT, used if you changed person’s original message and still need to give that person credit
@EkaterinaWalter

cc – used when you want to ensure a specific person sees your post
@EkaterinaWalter

Lists – you can organize users you follow (or even users that you don’t) into groups, or “lists”. See how to here .
@EkaterinaWalter

Hashtag – hastags are used to associate messages of the same topic and are a term prefixed by a “#” mark and usually create a hyperlink directly to a Twitter search for the term used.
@EkaterinaWalter Search results for hashtag #IMSSTL Use of a hashtag

#FollowFriday or #ff – example of using a hashtag to track recommendations by one user for another on a Friday
@EkaterinaWalter Recommended format

Getting Started @EkaterinaWalter

Your User Name
Keep it short since you only have 140 characters to work with in any given post.
Your username = your brand, so choose wisely.
I highly suggest using your own name either in the username or in any other field of your profile so people know who you are.
Even though you can change your username later, I suggest you choose one and stick with it not to loose the equity you built into it from the start.
@EkaterinaWalter

Your Profile Image
Choose your profile image or “avatar” carefully, this is how your followers know and recognize you.
I suggest using your own photo and not a generic image. Use a recent photo of yourself.
Use the image that is easy to identify.
Don’t change it often.
Don’t use a default avatar! Personalize your profile from the start.
@EkaterinaWalter

Your Profile
Biography field is limited to 160 characters. It should be a statement unique to you.
It is your first impression on the followers that don’t know you and their decision to follow you.
Make sure your profile design matches your brand and other presence on the web.
Search Twitter and see examples of other people’s profiles.
Be creative!
@EkaterinaWalter

Protected Tweets
If you have a reason to only wanting specific individuals to receive/see your Twitter updates, you should be aware that there is an option to protect your updates.
This option may be set by clicking “Settings” and then checking the “protect my updates” checkbox at the bottom of the page.
Once you save the settings only the people you approve to follow you will see your tweets.
@EkaterinaWalter

Sample Twitter Management and Monitoring Tools @EkaterinaWalter

Tools and 3 rd -party Applications
Purpose - help you get organized on Twitter (track terms, organize your followers by creating your own Groups). It is hard to group your “follows”, “mentions”, “DMs”, etc. in the web browser.
Some of the applications allow management of multiple Twitter accounts (e.g. TweetDeck and HooteSuite). Some allow to schedule tweets in advance (e.g. HooteSuite).
Note : There are a ton of different tools out there, the ones listed in the next couple of slides are the ones I recommend you try out.
@EkaterinaWalter

TweetDeck (Requires that you download and install it to your machine) @EkaterinaWalter

HootSuite (Runs directly from the browser) @EkaterinaWalter

Other
CoTweet – allows multiple people use the same Twitter accounts
Twitter for Facebook – app that directly posts your tweets to Facebook
Refollow – helps you manage your Twitter social circle (filter, batch, group your followers and followed)
Tweetake – backs up your tweets
TwitterAnalyzer – analyzes your Twitter presence
OneForty.com – complete directory of Twitter applications
@EkaterinaWalter

URL Shortener
A URL (web address) shortening service is an invaluable tool for fitting a long web address into the short 140 character limit.
Most third-party Twitter applications (like TweetDeck) has this tool built in, but if not you can use a bit.ly service.
Advantage of using bit.ly is that it will track your uniquely created URL and provide aggregate traffic or click-through report.
Tip : Paste any bit.ly link into your browser and add + on the end to see bit.ly stats on that link.
@EkaterinaWalter

Twitter Limitations @EkaterinaWalter

Public message limits : there is an hourly public message limit, including standard updates and mentions, of 100 messages per hour. There is additional cap of 1,000 public messages per day
DM limits : 1,000 DMs per day
API limits : 150 requests per user per hour across all third-party applications. But in “settings” you can set the update intervals longer and manually refresh the data when you are ready.
@EkaterinaWalter

Twitter Dos and Don’t and Best-Knows Practices @EkaterinaWalter

Watch what you tweet, it is public. Even if you delete your tweet it may still be found in Twitter searches and archived tweets.
Always attribute content to the originating sender either through “RT” or “Via”
If you want to be RTed by others, make it easy - start with a shorter message (less than 140 characters) and leave space for RT info
There are multiple services which will allow you to send an automated direct message to each new follower on your Twitter feed. This practice is discouraged, I recommend you customized your “thank you for following me” DMs.
Auto-tweets from an RSS feed can turn off your followers
Too much of “me” in tweets is not a good thing
Manage your own Twitter account, do not hire people to do that for you. Do not hire interns to manage your brand accounts for you.
Don’t send links with no explanation – tell people where your link sends them and what to expect if they click it
@EkaterinaWalter

Display knowledge of the community and promote your followers – follow interesting people and check out what your followers have to say. Retweet the most interesting things to show you are engaged with the community and not just interested in broadcasting your own message. Add value.
Listen - track the topics of interest through using Groups functionality in TweetDeck (or other tools) and/or hashtags
Post frequency – to drive customer engagement do not go more than two days without posting and don’t overwhelm followers with a lot of daily posts (1-5 a day is best).
Don’t stack a bunch of tweets together - space them out as appropriate throughout the day unless linked by theme
Don’t retweet messages with links you have not read
Hashtags:
Before using a hashtag, ensure no one else is using it already – double-check at hashtags.org
Don't overuse hashtags in your tweets - save room for content
Keep them short
@EkaterinaWalter

Additional Resources:
Twitter Help: http://help.twitter.com
Book: “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends” by Mark Murnahan (@murnahan; http:// tfbtff.com )
Your fellow Twitter users – do not be afraid to ask for help/advice!
OneForty.com – complete directory of Twitter applications
@EkaterinaWalter

Twitter: @ekaterinawalter LinkedIn: http:// www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterinawalter

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What is Twitter and How to Use It

by Ekaterina Walter on Jan 01, 2010

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What is Twitter and How to Use It — Presentation Transcript