I’m On Twitter, Now What?
Apologies & Thank You’s
First I would like to apologize for the length of this post but I wanted to be as thorough and as detailed as possible in order to present a new Twitter user with as much information as possible to help enhance their Twitter usage.
Second I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this and please feel free to email me at chad.egeland@gmail.com or send me DM on twitter @cegeland for any questions you may have about this guide.
Lastly if you do not feel like reading this entire guide on your monitor feel free to skip to the end and download the PDF version of this guide for easy printing and offline reading.
Thanks,
I’m On Twitter, Now What?
After months of pleading and begging and with the starting of her mommy blog I was finally able to convince my wife to join the Twitter community. I had sold her on the fact that she would be able to connect with other moms and with others who have the same interests as he and she would be able to promote her blog using Twitter once she had built up her community. But minutes after signing up she asked “Okay, I’ve signed up. Now what?”
To a new user understanding what Twitter is can be a daunting task and after my wife asked me what to do next on Twitter I decided that after helping her get started I would write up a quick guide that may help to guide new Twitter users on how to get the most out of their Twitter experience.
No where in this guide will I try and sell you anything, teach you how to spam other Twitter users in an attempt to sell your product nor will I guarantee that you will gain thousands of followers. Instead I intend to try and instruct new users on the following:
- A quick overview of what Twitter is
- First steps to take after creating an account
- A quick overview of some Twitter acronyms and jargon
- Tools to help you become more effecient when using Twitter
- How to find other users on Twitter and who to follow
- Who you should block and why
- Your next steps
Twitter Overview
Twitter has been labelled as a micro-blogging platform; essentially it is a permission based social networking site where you share bite sized pieces of data that consist of 140 or less characters with others in your network that are following you. You decide who you want to follow and you also decide who is allowed to follow you. Twitter can be used by both individuals and by business for self-promotion, community engagement and as a communication tool but these are just but a few of the many things you can accomplish while using Twitter.
Everything you do on Twitter is public and you need to remember this when using the service as bad mouthing your employer or an ex may come back to haunt you. The only privacy Twitter offers is the direct message or to make your tweets private in the options settings.
First Steps
With your freshly created and sparkling fresh Twitter account you should now login to your account, click on the Settings link, once taken to the settings page you will be presented with several different fields that you should fill out including:
- Your real name or company name
- Your proper time zone
- Your more info URL (this can be a link to your website, blog etc…)
- Your bio which can also include a link to your website or blog
- Navigate to the picture tab and upload a real picture of yourself
- You can also navigate over to the design tab and change your Twitter background or if you are good with design or wish to hire a designer you can create a custom Twitter background
Now that you have filled out your basic profile information it’s time to start actually using Twitter.
Twitter Jargon
Twitter like all things is full of jargon and acronyms that would be foreign to anyone upon their initial glance into the micro-blogging platform. Here are a few examples of some of the more well used jargon and acronyms you many encounter during your time on Twitter:
- @ or Mention – If you see an @ followed by a user name such as @cegeland this is Twitter user directing a tweet at a specific user. This is public and everyone can see this.
- Tweet – this is the name of the 140 or less character status update that you are sending out. Think of it like a micro-sized blog post
- DM or Direct Message – A DM or direct message is a message sent from someone you are following and who is following you. Only you and the sender can see the message. In oder to send a DM to another user you must be following them and they must be following you.
- # (Hashtags) – Hashtags are a way to categorize or group tweets. For example one popular hashtag is #FF or #FollowFriday. This is used every Friday to list people you follow that you think others should follow and a tweet would look like: #FF @username @username2 @username3
External Twitter Tools
The Twitter web interface found at Twitter.com has com a long ways since it’s initial launch back in 2006 but it still pales in comparison to some of the desktop and web based tools freely available. Here are a few tools that I have personally used that you may want to check out to help you get the most out of your Twitter experience.
TweetDeck – Tweetdeck is a free multi-column adobe air Twitter application that divides your Twitter usage initially into columns for All Friends, Mentions and Direct Messages. TweetDeck can be customized to also show your LinkedIn data and your Facebook wall. Some of the features that I love about TweetDeck include:
- Multi-columns allow you to easily sort through your mentions and direct messages
- Ability to see new followers and follow back or block
- Ability to block and report spammers
- Integration of URL shortners such as bit.ly and Twitter picture services such as twitpic
- Ability to view twitpic and other picture links from within TweetDeck
- Ability to view Twitter profiles from within TweetDeck
- Click on user profile images to be given the option to DM or @ them
- Automatic completion or usernames
- Shortened URL preview so that you don’t get tricked into going to a malicious site
TweetDeck is my Twitter application of choice and is easily the most popular application currently available.
Seesmic Desktop – Another Adobe Air application that allows you to see your tweets in single or multiple columns much like Tweetdeck. Seesmic also allows you to see your Facebook wall and interact with it from your desktop. Like Tweetdeck you can also use Twitter photo services and URL shorteners from within the application. Seesmic is a nice alternative to Tweetdeck but I find still is a step or two behind in the feature department.
Brizzly – Is a web based client that allows you to view and post to not only your Twitter account but to your facebook account as well. Brizzly has many cool features that I like including:
- Pictures posted to Twitter using twitpic or another similar application are shown inline without having to visit the site
- On the sidebar you can view trending topics & explanations on what the trend means
- Direct messages are displayed in the sidebar
- You can sort your mentions and view only them
- Perform and save searches
- Post to Facebook and read your wall
If you are looking to replace the Twitter.com site and are looking for a web only solution Brizzly is a great alternative.
There is a multitude of other Twitter applications and websites available for different mobile phones and for different operating systems. You can check out http://oneforty.com/ to help you find some of the best Twitter apps and tools currently available.
How To Find Other Twitter Users Or Who Should You Follow?
Twitter is community based and without a community is useless. So how do you find others to follow and more importantly who should you follow? Finding people to follow on Twitter is the easy part and here is how I do it.
- First decide if this Twitter account will be used for business, personal or a mixture of both.
- Do you currently have any friends, co-workers, family or business associates already on Twitter? If so you can start following them.
- Next visit search.twitter.com and enter a search term either:
- Related to your business if this is a business account – If your business sells pens enter the search term pens or pencils
- Something that interests you – If you enjoy hockey enter the search term hockey
By entering search terms that are related to your business or to your interests you will be able to find Twitter users that are currently discussing items that pertain directly to your interests. You can then read through some of the users past tweets to see if they are someone that you would be interested in having a conversation with and if they are you can start following them. Try to follow only users with similar interests as yours and only follow those who aren’t spamming products or excessively self promoting.
- Visit WeFollow and in the search box enter a term you are interested in and follow a similar course of action as when you visited search.twitter.com. After entering your term look through the user lists and again read through some of their tweets to gauge if they have similar interests as you or if it’s someone you would be able to have a conversation with. Follow as many of these users as you wish.
- Visit Listorious and again perform a search for a person, tag or list that you are interested in. After finding a list browse through the users within that list and once again see if their past tweets are of interest to you and to make sure they are not spamming.
- You can also search for celebrities, public figures, sports stars, sports teams and politicians that you are already familiar with and can follow them as well. Many famous celebrities such as Oprah and Ashton Kutcher are on Twitter.
- Twitter is about quality not quantity. You can not have a meaningful conversation and build any sort of relationship with someone who is simply interested in spamming you with viagra or sex site links.
- If someone is following you and you follow them back you are leaving yourself open to DM spam. You can not receive a direct message on Twitter unless their is mutual following between individuals.
- By blocking and reporting spammers you help to get rid of unwanted users in the system much the same way you create rules to filter and block spam from hitting your email inbox.
After following the above steps you should be following anywhere between 10 – 100 other Twitter users depending on how aggressive you were in following during the process of searching for interesting people to follow on Twitter you also need to be participating by sending out tweets yourself.
Your tweets can be anything from letting others know you are a new Twitter user, to what is happening at your job that day, to something interesting you seen during your lunchtime walk, you could share an interesting link or even try using a Twitter picture site to upload and share an image but most of all be honest and be yourself. Twitter users are very good at identifying spammers, phonies and those who just aren’t being honest and will tend to avoid those types.
Try to avoid the mundane tweets like what you are eating for breakfast and definitely do not spam out links to your own site. Spamming out your own links will do nothing but cause those you have followed to not follow you back and could possibly cost you followers. It is OK to be self-promotional by sharing links to your site or your new blog post but try to limit the number of these tweets and make sure along with being self promotional you are also providing quality content to others in your social network.
Who You Should Block And Why
If you have been following the above steps you should be following close to 100 other users, have tweeted out quite a few interesting links and tweets and have started gathering some followers. The problem is you may have also started following a few spammers and some spammers may have started to follow you and you should take the time to trim the spammers from your list for the following reasons:
- I Have Followers And Am Following Others; Now What?
Now that you have begun to build your social network and have acquired followers and are following others you need to continue in community engagement by joining in on the conversations happening all around you. If someone you follow says something you agree or disagree with let them know and why it is you do or do not. If you feel up to it participate in #musicmonday or #followfriday, continue to share links to great content and help others who are new Twitter by answering their questions.
Another thing you can do is see if your blogging software or your CMS can be enabled to auto-post your newest content to Twitter just remember not to aggressively over promote yourself as this may seem spammy and may cause you to lose interesting and relevant followers that you didn’t intend to lose. Self-promotion is one thing, spamming is a completely other issue.
Try and tweet several times a day to keep building your social network and keep using the above steps to find others you can follow.
If you are a business you may be interested in a previous video post of mine that I did that lists off about 17 different ideas you can use to help build your Twitter community. You can view that here.
The most important thing is to remember that Twitter is a community and that the more you put into Twitter the more you will get from Twitter.
Questions Or Comments?
If you have any questions or comments about this quick start Twitter guide you can send them to me via Twitter @cegeland or send me an email at chad.egeland@gmail.com and I will answer each and every question personally.
If you would like to download this guide as a PDF please click here
