Getting Started on Twitter

What is Twitter? How does it work? Here’s a video by Common Craft that explains “Twitter in Plain English.”

Join Twitter:

Think about what you want your Twitter username to be. Make sure it reflects your personal or business style. If the Twitter account is for your business, make sure that it’s something people who know your company can easily recognize. Go to www.twitter.com, and click “Sign up now.” Follow the instructions and click “Create account.” You’re on!

Once you’re logged in, click “Settings” at the top of the page. If your twitter account is for your business, make sure that your name, username, website, description and location reflect your business. When others view your twitter profile, they will be able to see all of this information. Go to “Mobile” to enter your mobile phone number. This will allow you to send text messages to Twitter, which will then be posted as an update that all of your followers can see. Although mobile updates may not be for everyone, it works well for those who feel the need to update when they can’t get near the internet. You can also choose to have text messages sent to your phone from the people that you follow. Go to “Design” to modify the basic design Twitter gives you. Having a great Twitter background better presents your business.

Then, go back to your “Home” page. Start tweeting! What do you tweet about? Decide whether you want your Twitter account to reflect your business through tips & ideas, presenting sales, networking (constantly mentioning others and playing a part in a conversation), or just answer the question “What are you doing?” Here’s an entertaining article about Twitter Etiquette.

As for how to attract followers and increase the rank of your page, click here to read a wonderful post by Productive Dreams that will tell you more about Twitter than I can.

Manage Your Social Networks

Okay, so you’ve got your Twitter account(s), your Facebook account(s), your company’s Facebook page(s), your Linkedin account, your wordpress blog… not to mention your two-dozen e-mail accounts. How are you supposed to manage all of those? There are tons of platforms out there, but here’s information about my top 2 favorites.

Digsby

Digsby comes with tons of customizable features and supports for Instant Message clients (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber and Facebook Chat), Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Linkedin and E-mail accounts (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP). My problem is that I wanted to be logged in to all of my accounts, without having a internet browser constantly open.

Some Benefits:

- Instead of occupying your Windows Taskbar, Digsby disappears nicely into your systems tray with a button for each of your social networks so you can access them quickly and easily.

- Get pop-ups when new e-mails arrive without downloading them to your desktop.

- You can stay logged in, without logging in!

- Loads of customizable options. Meaning you can customize not only how your chat text looks, but the entire appearance of the chat along with different options on pop-ups and sounds. I’ve put my pop-ups in the bottom right corner to match Windows 7 new unobtrusive system-tray notifications and I only hear a sound when someone starts a chat with me.

- Read about Digsby’s other benefits.

The Downside:

- Well, the biggest downside to Digsby is the update process. Usually the updates are done as you open the program, causing a delay before you can access your accounts. However, the updates are beneficial because they allow the developers to let you know about any problems and fixes in the program – the developers are great about keeping users a part of the Digsby experience.

HootSuite

As I logged onto WordPress the other day, I saw a notification that sent me to a blog post about how HootSuite now has a WordPress Beta ability. I’ve noticed tweets sent from HootSuite, so I thought I’d check it out myself. Hootsuite has already become my favorite web application for managing the social networks I use most. HootSuite connects with Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Pages and Linkedin and now WordPress Accounts and makes them easy to interact with.

The BEST feature by far of HootSuite is that you can send tweets into the future! This fantastic feature is highly beneficial for small businesses to manage their business’ Twitter, WordPress blog and Facebook page. By sending updates into the future, you only have to sit down once to remind your followers of upcoming sales and ideas for the rest of the week. Or, at dinner time you can let your followers know how great your coffee shop is at 8AM!

As far as downfalls, I haven’t been playing around in Hootsuite enough to find any. It’s not a desktop application, so it hasn’t replaced Digsby’s place in my opinion, but it has made it easier to switch from computer-to-computer without downloading a program.

You’re definitely not the only one who is desperately trying to figure out how to manage your new lifestyle. Whether you like it or not, your life now revolves around your social networking accounts, especially as someone in the small business industry. You are your marketing and public relations representative, so represent your business wisely! I highly encourage you to check out both of these programs and discover others. You won’t know what is out there until you try it.

Contrary to traditional business practices, the internet is all about change. In order for your business to continue to succeed, you need to be willing to change with it.

Good luck!!

Google “Live Search”

Here is EXACTLY why you need to be on Twitter and why Twitter is so great for business. Can you just imagine…. you tweet with key words (“buzz words”) and next thing you know, you show up on someone’s live search and they decide to follow you because your interesting tweet! Oh, how cool would that be! AND THEN because they found your tweets so fascinating, that person decided to check out your website. *Poof* NEW CLIENT. The dream of all dreams.

If nothing else, this video may explain some of the Google search results that you’ve been confused about why they keep showing up on your search results.

I found this video thanks to a blog of a fabulous marketing professor I had at Champlain College. Elaine Young has been by far the best college professor I’ve encountered yet.

Twitter Tips – Abbreviations You Should Know

Abbreviations are commonly used on twitter. Here are some that you should know! (For your sake, I’ve tried to put them in alphabetical order!)

@ = Reply/Mention. Users can “reply” or “mention” a tweet or user publicly by putting “@username” (no spaces) before a tweet. Make sure to check tweets that mention your username and reply to stay interactive with your followers!

B/C = because

BR = Best regards

BTW = By the way

DM = Direct Message

FTF = Face to face

FTL = For the loss

FTW = For the win

IMHO = In my honest opinion

IMX = In my experience

IOW = In other words

IRL = In real life

JV = Joint venture

JW = Just wondering

LMK = Let me know

OH = Overheard

PRT = Partial Retweet/Please Retweet

RT = Retweet. Users can “retweet” information from another user.

YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary

I found most of these on yet another blog that you can view here. You can look up other Twitter words on Twictionary.