Twitter 101
Brian Wallace,
President, NowSourcing, Inc.

Overview
• What is Twitter?
• Do I have time to use it?
• How to use it
• Do I need to use it?
• How often to Tweet
• How to reach people on Twitter
• How to get followers
• How to connect to LinkedIn

What is Twitter?
Allows short posts, up to 140 characters
• Leads / Conversation / Discussion
• Sales (hard sell is a no-no)
• Customer Service
• Competitor Analysis / Info Gathering

What is Twitter?
• 23 million unique visits
• Off web visits
• 26th largest site in the world (source: Alexa)

Do I have time to use it?
• Yes
• If you have time to write 1 email, you have
time for 5 tweets

How to Use Twitter
• Not just you
– Be helpful
– Help others
– Don’t spam
• Retweeting
• Tweetmeme Buttons

How to Use Twitter
• Web
• Text
• iPhone/Blackberry
• Desktop apps
• Images
• Video

Twictionary
• At Reply or @reply - a reply to another user
• DM – direct message
• Failwhale – graphic that appears when Twitter is over capacity
• Hashtags or # – using a symbol at the end of a tweet to follow messages in a
series. #followfriday, #musicmonday
• Retweet (or RT) – repeating another’s tweet
• Tweet – posting a Twitter message
• Twitter Chats – becoming more popular – real-time discussions on a topical,
regular basis – see #prchat, #agchat
• Twitterverse – the Twitter community

Don’t Do This
Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty
paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.
Fedex sent email to Board of Directors

Do This
“We were able to get a good idea of Kevin's skills
and interests just by conversing over Twitter
for several months. While it doesn't remove the
need for interviews, it makes the interview
process more like hiring a friend than hiring a
stranger.” -Peter Waldschmidt, CEO of Gnoso

Do I Need to Use It?
• Only worth doing if you’re willing to learn
and put in the time
• Still worth getting a profile to protect you &
your company’s identity

How Often Should I Tweet?
• Average across Twitter is 4 per day
• Others day 22 is optimal
• Your own pace
• Weekdays
• Times of Day

How to Reach People
• Polling
• Search
• Retweets
• Apps
• Tweetups
• DM’s
• Hashtags

How to Reach People
• Search is your friend
– Saved searches
– Keyword/keyphrase search
– Search by location
– Twitabs
– Refreshes for you

How to Get Followers
• Not a magic trick
• Consistency and relevance is key
• Import your contacts
• Look across your other networks
• Often overlooked: signature block

How to Connect to LinkedIn
• Company Buzz Application

Questions?

Contact
Brian Wallace
bwallace@nowsourcing.com
502.442.7914
nowsourcing.com
@nowsourcing
linkedin.com/in/nowsourcing