Following on from my Webinar on Social Media, this is to help those who want to get into Twitter but are not overly familiar with social tools.

1. Get Twittering

2. A few helpful tips and tools to get you on your way… Twitter can often be a bit of a mind field for first timers getting to grips with social media. The following is a brief introduction to the tools you should be using and how you should go about setting things up. Setting up a profile… Many usernames are now taken, but try and pick one related to you. What are you trying to achieve from your social media strategy? If it’s to inform your customers or generate new ones, being personable is important. Use a picture of your face, everyone prefers talking to a real person. Social media is about being open, if you need to hide behind a brand name, people will move along. I try to keep my profile picture and username constant across all my social media tools. It keeps things simple and should drive traffic between the differing audiences.

3. Editing your profile… Change your profile to reflect you, again, it’s about not being boring. If you don’t have the software to design something, use one of Twitter’s standard designs that most reflects you, or even better use a picture you like. My Twitter profile uses a concept we had on our website for sometime, I’ll probably change it soon to match the new website for 2010, but it keeps it relevant and quirky. Try a cool graphic… Or simple pattern… How about fireworks!

4. Getting started… Ok, so you have a profile and you are ready to go, but what should you say? Do not be afraid of saying the wrong thing. That’s a great advantage of having a personal profile, we all get things wrong, and to start with people probably won’t pay you much attention anyway. Chat about anything, but always bring it back to your field of experience. That’s why people will be interested in you, because you have something interesting to say that they do not know. Keep to these simple rules and you won’t go far wrong. The Twen Commandments… Tweet regularly, but not too often. Tweet valuable information and insight into your area of expertise. Retweet (RT) other’s useful information, and add your thoughts to it. Only auto-tweet blogs and other content you have written, be real. IF someone Direct Messages (DM) you, reply. Try and be conversational. Do not be afraid to ask questions, although it may take time for people to start responding. Tweet at work more, and at home less. Try and be funny, to an extent. Keep it interesting. Avoid being rude or swearing, it’s social etiquette. Tweet “Thank You” for Follow Fridays (#FF)

5. Keep it mobile… 80% of Twitter usage is via a mobile device, because it means you can actually Tweet in real time, you don’t need to wait to be at your screen. If you have an iPhone try an app like Twitterific. Easy to use and free! Now there are no excuses for not keeping your customers in the know. If you are on another phone, see if there are alternative applications or go online using 3G. Direct messages appear in orange, so you’ll never miss them. Your Tweets appear in green, with everyone else’s in grey, definitely my favourite Twitter app.

6. Keep in the mix… There are so many tools for the purpose of Twittering now that it makes sense to use one which can integrate your social tools in one place. TweetDeck allows you to follow multiple social tools and update them all from one place. You can also follow trends to see when someone is talking about something you may be able to respond to. Leaving a comment can update individual tools such as Twitter, or all of them at once! Various colums allow you to follow updates on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Keep on top of them all!

7. Or keep it simple… If Twitter is too much as it is and the multitude of social tools out there give you a headache - use Twitscoop. It has a real time feed of global “buzz”, or in other words what everyone is Twittering about, and you can still view direct messages and trends. Use the tool bar to see trends over the past few hours and see who has sent you a direct message. A great feature is the ‘shorten URL’. Click it when posting a link to another website. The real time Buzz feature has the most used words being Tweeted right now. The bigger the word, the more it’s being used at that time. Click to see what the Twitters are.

8. Integrated social strategy… Drive people from one social tool to another using links. Twitter is a microblog, so if you really want to inform people, link a Tweet to a blog article on WordPress or Posterous