Twitter Basics

Many people think that Twitter is a collection of ‘Facebook updates’ and, therefore, pointless. This is not true. Twitter is an invaluable tool for sharing and gathering information. Twitter is open to everyone. You can follow who you want and be followed by people you don’t know. In fact, most people don’t “know” any of the people they follow on Twitter. But over time you will develop relationships with some of your followers. You will find like-minded people locally and afar, who are not only interested in the same things that you are, but who offer information of interest to you. Developing these types of friendships can be invaluable, but knowing Twitter etiquette is very important.

First Considerations

Before signing up for Twitter, you first need to consider why you want to utilize this particular social media tool. Understanding your goals first will help the direction you take. Simply following a bunch of random people can create a lot of unnecessary noise, causing frustration.

Things to consider:

• Do you want generate more followers for your blog/website?
• Do you want to advertise your business?
• Do you want to seek out new sources of information?
• Is there a particular type of person you want as a follower? Ie., Moms, travellers, foodies, small businesses, etc
• Do you want to be considered an expert on a particular subject?
• Do you want to meet new people in your community? Outside of your community?
• Once you’ve figured out what you want to use Twitter for it will be much easier to know what to do

* Remember: Twitter is searchable by Google. If someone knows your handle, they can search and read everything you have written. Since the entire world can read your words so don’t write something that you might regret later.

Twitter Etiquette

These tips will help make using Twitter easier and more rewarding.

• Make your Twitter handle memorable.
• Fill in your profile so people will know a bit about you. This helps to generate more followers
• It is considered courteous to thank others for #FFs
• Thanking people for following you can get REALLY annoying, especially if you attach a generic message to the thank you. This makes you appear insincere, even if you aren’t. Ie. Thank you for the follow. I look forward to tweeting with you in the future!
• Don’t use Twitter simply to generate followers. This becomes blatantly obvious very quickly
• Generate interesting conversation and respond when people have spoken to you
• Shorten URLs so that they don’t take up all 140 characters
• Keep your post short enough that there’s room for a response. If someone wants to RT what you’ve said, they can do so without deleting part of your message.
• Being too verbose on Twitter will get you deleted
• Don’t bore people with personal updates. No one really cares if you’re currently at the mall or really enjoying this particular episode of Glee.
• Following people helps generate followers. This works in the reverse, as well. Follow your new followers to see what they have to say. If you’re not interested, you can always delete them
• Make your words count – each time you post something make it interesting enough to generate a click

Twitter is without a doubt an amazing tool. If you’re having a hard time finding a voice in all the noise, take some time to just watch. Look at how other people are using Twitter. Ask yourself what you like and don’t like about what they are doing. Take what you like and use it. Once you get the hang of it you’ll be glad you did.