Kick Ass Institute - Twitter Guide

Learning About The Internet Com e kick read ou KICK ASS INSTITUTE assi r bl nsti o November 2009 tute g at .com CJ@ E TW PUB MAIL KIC ITTER LIC KAS REM SIN IX.C ST OM Step by Step Instructions On How To Set Up Twitter CONGRATS! YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY TO BEING PART OF THE TWIBE Welcome to the Kick Ass Guide for Twitter. This is a fun little guide to get you started Tweeting. It goes step by step and hopefully also makes you laugh a little along the way. Before you can use Twitter, you obviously need to set up a Twitter account. Weʼre going to dive right in and do that. However, before we do, letʼs talk about you. • Do you currently have friends on Twitter that you are interested in connecting with? • Are you the type of person that likes to be the ﬁrst to know about whatʼs happening in your line of work or in your community? • Do you feel comfortable sharing some Kick Ass Women stories of your personal life with people are not afraid to try at work? new things. Like These questions are to help you decide sending out a “tweet” whether Twitter, and social media in general, are a good ﬁt for you as a marketing tool. Many people get into Twitter thinking it is a good way for them to Kick Ass Institute | kickassinstitute.com | photos courtesy of Vintage Scans

KICK ASS GUIDES! PAGE 2 promote their business because they what is our there already. This plan on sending out lots of headlines requires you to search on about what their product/service can Twitter.com. Go to the Search bar do for the world. This is the and type in a word or words related equivalent of standing on a street to what you do and letʼs see what corner with a megaphone shouting at people are saying. people walking by about how great you are. And we all know how tiring For instance, if you type in “Building that gets. Eventually someone calls industry”, you get people talking the police to take that person away. about free building, architects, CAD resource libraries and What you want to be instead is the development. If you type is friendly business owner on Sesame “hotels” you get people talking Street giving out cookies to the kids about hotel sheets, hotels that and helping monsters that are accept pets, and hotel guides looking for the letter “O”. Then for different cities. everyone will come to you and tell their friends about you because you Deciding on a Username are such a helpful person with great stories, and you always know whatʼs Now itʼs time to choose your happening on your street. name. Letʼs look at some good ideas based on the searches You talkin to me? And thatʼs the power of Twitter. It we just did. Take a look at each helps you build up your own little of the messages and pay community where people want to get attention to the usernames of the to know you better. Someone said people that are at the beginning of that Facebook is where people in our the message. Which ones are easy past find us. Twitter is where we find to remember? There may be other the people we want to know. symbols and abbreviations in the messages that do not make sense Facebook is So letʼs get started on Twitter. right now (RT and # might be two where people in mysteries), but weʼll get to those in a our past find us. Go to Twitter.com (if youʼre having minute. Right now weʼre ready to go problems here, please go read our back to the main page and set up our guide on Internet basics) account. Twitter is where we find the people I know I told you we were going to we want to know. set up an account, but I lied a little. Before you can set up your account, you need to choose a good name for y o u r s e l f (username). In order to do that, I want you to see The Search Bar Kick Ass Institute | kickassinstitute.com | photos courtesy of Vintage Scans

KICK ASS GUIDES! PAGE 3 Signing up computer knows you are a human Gossip Girl living on my block. and not a mindless robot gobbling Property values might go down. But Click on the “Sign up now” button at up usernames. Once you type in take a look at the list and see if the top of the page. the characters, you will get there is anyone you want as a congratulated on being human. neighbor right now. Remember, we The page it takes you to asks you Way to go! It will then ask you to can always move them off the block to type in your full name, username, click on the Create My Account by “unfollowing” them at any point. password and email. For your button. username, choose something that Hit the ﬁnish button. The next is short and easy to remember Congrats - you have created your screen may take you directly to since your friends may have to account! The screen will come back your account or it say something retype it sometimes. Remember, with a short message asking you if like this: you only have 15 characters to use you want to use your phone before it cuts you off. The people at directories to search for friends. I What to do now: Twitter will tell you if that username would recommend skipping this is available. Keep trying until you step. We want to go look for new 1. Tell us what youʼre doing in the get something that works for you business contacts. If you decide box above and describes your business. you want to follow your friends - we 2. Find some friends and follow can search your phone book later. what theyʼre doing The good news here is that if you 3. Turn on your mobile phone to want to change your username Take Us to Your Followers update your friends on the go later on, you can! But it will confuse your friends - just like if you The next screen will give us a list of Okay, letʼs forget the mobile phone changed your real name - so try people that we can “follow”. What thing for now. And before you send and choose a name now that you does this mean? out your ﬁrst message, letʼs set up want to stick with. Using our Even if you donʼt plan on using S e s a m e Twitter anytime soon, it is good to S t r e e t reserve as many of your business example, names as possible now so that no Tw i t t e r h a s one else gets them. Each Twitter just set up a account has to have a separate store front for email address. Usually, you can set you and up multiple emails with most email suggested providers or with the free services. about 20 Choosing a Username and setting up your account If you plan on reserving several neighbors, or “followers” that are Twitter usernames, just plan in going to be telling you what they advance so that you have a are doing. Most of these people different email for each of the a r e e i t h e r f a m o u s o r h a v e your storefront so that when people accounts. Lately, Twitter has been thousands of people following them stop by, you have a sign out front cracking down on people that are (the equivalent of living in a New and it looks like somebody is home. holding onto names without using York high rise). You may or may not them, so try and start tweeting as want them to be your neighbors. Setting up your look soon as you can. Personally, I would uncheck the “Select All” button because I really Click on the Settings button at the Next you have to type in those donʼt want G o v e r n o r top. You will see a menu across the funny looking words so that the Schwartenegger, M.C. Hammer or top that says “Account, Password, Devices, Notice, Picture, Design” Kick Ass Institute | kickassinstitute.com | photos courtesy of Vintage Scans

KICK ASS GUIDES! PAGE 4 option. If multiple people are going to Letʼs look at the Account tab. be sending out headlines under your Twitter name, then go ahead and use a Here you see all the information you logo. Recently Twitter originally entered and then some. If created it’s Twitter your business has a webpage, enter Letʼs try out the Design tab. At the very 101 guide. the address here. Give your storefront a least, choose a theme to give your little personality by saying what you do page a little more personality. If you do in the One Line Bio area. Also type in weddings, you might choose the little http:// your location so people know where bird background. If you offer real estate business.twitter.com you are. Do NOT click the Protect my services, maybe a nice tree motif. Go /twitter101/ Tweets button. The whole reason you ahead and choose your own colors - be moved to Sesame Street was to make crazy! friends - so why would you want to lock (It’s very useful, but the door right off the bat? You can experiment by loading a photo not nearly as fun or for your page background. You will see easy to understand Click Save. quickly that the only areas that show up are the sides, so most photos will not as the Kick Ass Skip over the next three boxes and go work. For now, I would go back to the Guides!) to Picture. Upload a photo of you. It themed backgrounds. When you are has to be less than 700k in size and feeling comfortable with Twitter, you must be in JPG, GIF or PNG formats. can really go crazy with the Letʼs be tasteful here! No one wants to backgrounds and use 3rd party look at a photo of your naked hairy butt software to create your own crouched on top of a giant foot. Itʼs best personalized graphic with your photo, if the photo is you, a drawing of you or logo, business card information - your logo. Notice that I put your logo whatever you want. But letʼs not go last because Twitter is really about your there right now. Weʼre still learning how personality. People are connecting with to stock the shelves at our Sesame you - so a photo of you is the best Street store. Kick Ass Institute | kickassinstitute.com | photos courtesy of Vintage Scans

KICK ASS GUIDES ! PAGE 5 "We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men." ~Herman Melville “Initially inspired by the concept of people that are the bird poop of The Sidebar an 'away-message' merged with the Twitter and people that we will now freedom and mobility of SMS, block and move out of our Hit the Home button at the top of Twitter began as an experiment in neighborhood. These are the the page and letʼs talk about the 2006. When value as an instant Twitter telemarketers. sidebar with all those words. Blah communication network during blah blah. Whatʼs it all mean? shared events like earthquakes, You can tell who they are because conferences, and festivals they usually follow several There is some good information emerged, Twitter began to grow— thousand people and they have a here and also ways to find out what Twitter, Inc. was founded in 2007. handful of people following them is being said about you. At the very Today, Twitter is a privately funded (and those are probably other top we see your photo and your company based in San Francisco, telemarketers). These people may name. So far, so good. Right below CA.” be selling themselves, get rich it are statistics on the number of software, or just hoping that you will people you are following, the Yawn. click on one of their links in their number of people following you, tweets or their profile web address and how many message (or tweets) Translated, this means that there so that they can make some that you have sent out. were a bunch of people in San Google ad money. Please donʼt. Francisco sending email text The question here might be - why messages to each other at a Once you have determined that do they call them tweets? concert and it was getting really they are bird poop, click on your confusing. They had to come up Tweets relate back to the name with a way to talk with everyone at Twitter, which relates back to birds. once to find out who had the weed Twittering is the sound birds make and where they were, and thus, when they communicate with each Twitter was born. other - get it? So all of us are little birds sitting on a telephone wire waiting for other little birds to sit Telemarketers - the bird poop of down beside us so that we can Twitter have a personal little chat. Not a bad thing to do if the birds that So letʼs get back to our side panel lands next to us has some good and talk about our followers. Since info we can use. you set up your account moments ago, you probably have one or two The next question might be - how people following you. How did they did Twitter get started? Here is find you and why are they following what Twitter has to say about itself. you in you havenʼt sent out any messages yet? These are usually Kick Ass Institute | kickassinstitute.com | photos courtesy of Vintage Scans

KICK ASS GUIDES! PAGE 6 Followers tab and then click on the Once you have a few messages, An easier way is to click on the little tab that gives you options to then go up to the Find People tab aggrieved personʼs photo next time Mention, Direct, Follow, Block or and do a search on your keywords you see them on your page voicing Block and Report as Spam. Click again. If you are an auto garage, I their latest pearl of wisdom. When on Block and Report as Spam. would type in mechanic and see you get to their page - there will be Twitter will ask if you really want to what you get. You might get people a “following” button under their do this and you do. Go ahead - named Mechanic, people looking name. Click it and it will tell you the move them off your street. You for a mechanic, or other auto obvious “You follow blahblahblah” - have no compassion for self shops. I would follow the auto but wait! There is Remove button serving scum. shops that look interesting. Always next to the statement. Click on it good to know what the competition and kiss them goodbye! Letʼs move on to finding people you is doing. To follow them, you click want to meet and follow. Before you on the Follow button. A start following people, you need to little green check mark build up a few messages to reflect will show up telling you who you are so that if people click everything is a go. Now your profile, they donʼt assume you your stats bar shows are a telemarketer and start you are following one blocking you before they even get person (or one more to know you! person). Yeah! Keep going until you are Create a message. following about 20 people. Add more by Itʼs finally time to start tweeting! To looking at who follows create a message, you go to the your friends. Birds of a Searching for the words “small business” and then Home page and start typing in the feather flock together. following some of the people talking about this subject. little box that says “What are you Later on under doing?” You should do this for a few Searching, I will talk days - type in something pithy ( a about how to find people favorite quote), something useful that live close to you. Moving down the sidebar - (best hot dog place in your town), Home, @yourusername, direct and one or two messages about At any time, you can unfollow any message and favorites your company and what you do. person and move them off your For example, when I set up the block by a variety of ways. Home - obvious. Duh. account for the 1906Lodge in Coronado, we talked a little about How to unfollow. The @ sign is how you know when the history of the building, said “hi” people are talking about you and to the new people following us, and To unfollow someone, click on the want you to know that they are retweeted - or sent out again - Following tab under your photo on talking about you. They will put that articles from other people related to the right, and you will see all your little sign in front of your name travel. (We cover how to retweet followers. Click on the little box at whenever they forward (retweet) later) This is how you start to build the top to change it to List view. one of your messages or if they your community. Scroll down and find the person you want to tell the world (and you in donʼt want to follow, click the little particular) whatʼs going on. By How to find others to follow. wheel symbol and unfollow them. clicking the @yourusername sign, you get to see all those messages at once. How cool is that? Kick Ass Institute | kickassinstitute.com | photos courtesy of Vintage Scans

KICK ASS GUIDES! PAGE 7 Never question authority. It doesn't know either. - Twitter User Dean Oram (deanoramynb) You should return the favor when before shortening it. If you change it - talking about others. Add the little @ they will lose all that info and it will sign when you respond to a question make them mad. they have put out into the universe or when you are forwarding their Also, be sure and include the source message. that gave you this great link. Here is an example from Direct message shannatrenholm : This just means you put a “d” and then Hello and thanks, CJ :)@KickAssInst their name (no @ symbol) and they, and only they, will get the message. Retweeting Here is an example of someone using it to get clients: This seems like a good place to talk about how to forward other peopleʼs D KickAssInst Hi CJ, I'm Trina and I messages. You retweet them by putting want to thank you for following me on a capital RT and then an @ in front of Twitter. Please feel free to sign up for a their name. If there is room, you can Free Basic Membership on my site, add onto their message or change it http://www.WomenAboutBiz.com. slightly to fit your audience. You may have to shorten it because you took up Now, I did click on her link because space including their name. Here is an when I chose to follow her, I knew she example of how to retweet: was legitimate and wasnʼt sending me to an ad site. What she didnʼt know is Twitter is used Original from Ebilflindas that Kick Ass Women donʼt do Free Check out this review of my friends, the Basic Memberships. If we canʼt have for business Dreyer Family's CD, "Family the deluxe membership, weʼre not purposes by Photograph" http://bit.ly/xjHiF An album chipping our nail polish clicking on this about 50 about families, for families site. Now, this is a pretty aggressive percent of its pitch for Twitter, but I included it to Retweet by KickAssinst show you what you can do with the tool. users. Modern Partridges! RT @ebilflindas: I might have been more inclined to go Check out this review of my friends, the sign up if the pitch had been something Dreyer Family's CD, "Family about a nonprofit supporting breast Photograph" http://bit.ly/xjHiF cancer research. So if thatʼs what you do - consider sending out “hello” Please make sure to use the web pitches to everyone that follows you - address they sent instead of re-creating just like Trina. it. (http://bit.ly/xjHiF) Often, when businesses are trying to determine how Please notice that in this message, effective their Twitter campaign is - they Trina chose to keep the web address will add certain information into that link the real one and not shorten it. She Kick Ass Institute | kickassinstitute.com | photos courtesy of Vintage Scans

KICK ASS GUIDES! PAGE 8 If you are a restaurant offering a happy hour special, don’t just send people to the front page of your web address. You are creating avenues for them to get lost! SEND THEM DIRECTLY TO THE PAGE LISTING THE HAPPY HOUR SPECIALS used up extra characters in her a link, I download the document, conversations. One way is to jump message - but did get her URL out which is usually an Adobe .pdf file, into a trending topic - which means t h e r e . Yo u r c h o i c e . h t t p : / / and then I canʼt remember where it understanding what a hashtag is www.WomenAboutBiz.com. came from because there is no and how it is used. contact info on it - just the 2 for 1 Web addresses dinner special that night. Some trending topics are organic - Later on, we will learn about how to when a celebrity dies, a panda shorten web addresses in order to Favorites gives birth, an earthquake happens put more information in our Here is what the Twitter guide says: or a Kick Ass woman comes to message. Both tactics are OK to town - those key words keep do. Just decide if you need people “Some twitter updates are just too showing up in tweets again and to know your name - or if you want good to be forgotten. When you again. The Twitter people are smart them to go directly to the stumble upon such a gem, mark it and can track those words - and information. as a favorite by hovering over the they let us know what the hot topics update and clicking the star that of the day are by posting them in Here is an important tip about pops up at the far right. It will turn the right hand column. If you want including web addresses: make yellow when you click it so that you to be part of the action, just click on sure to use the most accurate and know it is now a favorite.” Hey - any of the words and you will see direct link you can find. So if you thatʼs really helpful! what people are saying. Feel free to are a restaurant offering a happy throw your opinion into the mix - hour special, donʼt just send people Search Box just be sure and use the keyword to the front page of your web Twitter now includes a Search box (election, superbowl, p an da , address. You are creating avenues on the right bar. This originally was earthquake) that got you there in for them to get lost! Send them on a different page, but like I said the first place. directly to the page listing your before, those Twitter people are happy hour special. And if you are smart. Type in any word or hashtag Other trends are driven and are doing that, then shortening the web and word in this box - and see what shown with a “#” tag. So if I want to address makes sense because you get. Weʼll talk later about how start people talking about #butter, I they wonʼt remember a long string to do Advanced Searches and cool can send out a message and of characters. What they will stuff like finding people that live include that hashtag in the remember is the great food and close to you. message. If enough people follow drink specials you had to offer, and me - eventually it will show up as a theyʼll find you. Trending Topics (What is a trend. If you want to see what all Hashtag?) this #butter fuss is about, you either One more thing - make sure your Now we get to something really do a search on “#butter” or you business name, address and phone useful - what are people talking click on the word in the Trends number are on any documents you about? One of the mysteries about column, and you can see all the link to the web. This is another pet Twitter is trying to figure out how messages related to this trend. peeve when someone sends me to people meet each other and have Kick Ass Institute | kickassinstitute.com | photos courtesy of Vintage Scans

KICK ASS GUIDES! PAGE 9 There are jokes on Twitter too. One was #3wordsaftersex and one person’s response was, “My husband, hide!” GET IT - IT’S 3 WORDS SOMEONE MIGHT SAY AFTER SEX There are other, more practical that you know on Twitter that you Finding People Close to You ways to use a hashtag. Letʼs say think they should follow. Itʼs a nice This is where Twitter really shines. you are at a conference for the way to make friends. Donʼt just list If you are doing marketing research World Wrestling Foundation with a bunch of names though. Choose for your company - then take the 3,000 other people. You each are in one or two and tell us why they are time to read this section. different sessions and you want to special and we should follow them. know what other people are ﬁnding Letʼs talk about the “near” function. interesting. If the conference Following This function lets you search for organizers are smart, they will tell They put another link here so you messages from people in a speciﬁc everyone ahead of time to use can see the people you follow. We geographic area. There are two #wwf2009 as a hashtag. Then, as covered this a few pages ago. very powerful uses of this: people at the conference send out messages, they can include that RSS Feed 1. Find locals hashtag and even if you donʼt know There are several ways to get your 2. Follow an event or follow the other people using messages from Twitter. One way is Twitter at the conference, youʼll be to come back to the webpage every Start by typing in the word near and able to experience part of learning day and see what is happening with the place you want to search, such through them by searching for all your friends. Another way is to have as “near:sandiego” (without the comments that have “#wwf2009” in certain updates from your close quotation marks) into the Search their message. friends go directly to your phone. If box. This will show you messages you choose this option - make sure from people near San Diego and Letʼs say your looking for a job. you have unlimited text messaging!! give you a total number of potential One way to do a search is to look Or you might be really surprised to friends at the top. If you are for “#job” and see what comes up. get an expensive phone bill the planning a meet-up somewhere (a You might be surprised what people following month. party or event for your Twitter will use as a hashtag - so give it a friends) - this will give you an idea try. There are some hashtags that RSS Feed is a way to get updates of what your “reach” is in that area. surface for a while as a way to have without having to come back to the fun. An example would be site all the time and check on your The other use of the near function #3wordsaftersex and one response messages. Itʼs called a Feed is to see whatʼs going on at an was, “My husband, hide!” (Get it - 3 because you can make the event. words someone might say after information show up in various sex). places - like on your Google Monitoring Twitter Through homepage, or on your blog, or on TweetDeck (Say that 5 times fast One of the more well known your phone (if your phone has that with crackers in your mouth) hashtags is “#FollowFriday” or cool option). “#FF”. You see this hashtag on There are many different third party Fridays a lot. It is a way for you to More on Searching softwares out there that let you do a tell people about the great people Kick Ass Institute | kickassinstitute.com | photos courtesy of Vintage Scans

KICK ASS GUIDES! PAGE 10 Kicking ass and having fun! lot more with Twitter than the simple might seem strange - it is because Twitter.com website. Baum wrote the Wizard of Oz while on Coronado and because the Lodge has “A thousand One is called TweetDeck and you can a special “L. Frank Baum Room” where words will not download it by going to: the grandson has stayed. I also leave so deep an TweetDeck.com researched aviation since Coronado was the birthplace of aviation in many impression as one Business Stuff - How Effective is respects and some of the earlier ﬂying deed” Twitter? pioneers stayed at the Lodge in 1906 Figuring out how successful your when it was a boarding house. marketing campaigns are through Henrik Ibsen, 19th Twitter keeps getting easier and easier. I began sending out tweets for them Hubspot has some wonderful and until they got the hang of it. The ﬁrst century Norwegian comprehensive software that runs ones talk a little about the history of playwright between $250 - 500 a month that is Coronado and include a link back to the invaluable for businesses. Check them hotel website. One of the ways that out if you need some in-depth analytics Google measures business success is for your company. There are also many the number of links back to a website - free options including ... so whenever possible include a link back to your website in your tweet. Itʼs Case Study: 1906 Lodge OK to shorten it to save space. If you I recently set up a Twitter account for a are using a service like TweetDeck - it historic bed and breakfast in Coronado will include the actual long link in the called 1906 Lodge. After setting up their background so that you get “credit” for Twitter page, I searched for people for the inbound link to your site (as them to follow by looking for the search opposed to Google just picking up the terms weddings, travel, gay travel, little URL address and giving credit to a luxury travel, aviation, historic middleman!). preservation, Coronado, L. Frank Baum and Wizard of Oz. The last searches Kick Ass Institute | kickassinstitute.com | photos courtesy of Vintage Scans

KICK ASS GUIDES! PAGE 11 More Advanced Stuff - When On the right sidebar it shows the follow them back, and then they Youʼre Ready! the number of followers that dump you. They are really only in it for the followers - they just donʼt particular list has received and Twitter Lists care about being your neighbor. So the number of people the list has dump them back automatically with followed (these are the number this tool. According to Twitter,”Lists are of people included in that list). timelines you build yourself, You’ll also see other lists that Tools: consisting of friends, family, co- twitter user has made and an workers, sports teams, you name Finding people in your area: option to block the Twitter user it.” TwellowHood and Localtweeps. entirely. It’s flattering to be included on a Some good articles among Following and Unfollowing hundreds: list and can be helpful for people looking for specific groups - like There are several third party 100 Amazingly Insightful People marketing people in Cincinnati. programs that will let you know You Can Learn from on Twitter You can create or subscribe to a when someone follows or unfollows By Emily Thomas list without following the you. Some current options are Qwitter, Tweetlater and SocialToo. person(s), so that can be time You may use Twitter purely for They send out daily emails about social networking or to boost your saving as well. who is moving into the blog traffic, but Twitter is also an neighborhood and who just gave excellent resource for learning new To set up a list, click “create you the boot. Personally, I think this things, exposing yourself to new new list” item in the right is too much information to have. I ideas, and challenging yourself to sidebar. Name it and choose have unfollowed extended family be more innovative. For a daily whether you’d like the list to be members because they send out stream of business tips, life more than three tweets a day and private or public. You can then lessons, personal finance help, tech then gotten a tweet from them that tips, and more, check out these visit your following page and they were a little indigent that I incredibly insightful Tweeters. from there, alongside each dumped them. Sorry sistah. A Kick username you’ll notice a drop Ass Woman only has so much time. http://onlinecollegedegree.org/ down menu allowing you to add 2009/07/30/100-amazingly- that person to a particular list. Most people I know use SocialToo insightful-people-you-can-learn- because of their “unfollow from-on-twitter/ preferences”. You can choose from: You can also do this from the individual’s profile page. “Unfollow everyone who unfollows Top Twitter Etiquette Techniques me” By Christopher Null, PC World Once you’ve created a list, assuming you’ve made it public, “Donʼt unfollow anyone for me” Because itʼs just a messaging you’ll be able to share the URL “Unfollow if users unfollow you platform, Twitter is far less complex with whomever you please. With within ___ day(s) after you follow than Facebook. Nevertheless, them”. one click you can follow the misuse and abuse seem at least as entire list. common on the former as on the This is what author Matt Singley latter. Some of our favorite Twitter calls the pump and dump strategy etiquette rules follow. of others. People follow you, you Kick Ass Institute | kickassinstitute.com | photos courtesy of Vintage Scans

Kick Ass Institute - Twitter Guide

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