Chapter 1
What is Twitter?
Today, Twitter is a social website used by absolutely millions of people to
send messages to groups and friends every day. It has become one of the
hottest social networks on the Internet today with thousand of new people
signing up on a daily basis. This new phenomenon, ranks right up there
with Facebook and LinkedIn for social contact and social media marketing.
Today, companies are using this information to keep their friends, families,
and customer base up to date on what is happening in their lives, families,
and business ventures.
Twitter has long since considered itself to be one of the top
systems for exchanging quick little “blurbs” of information with those you
wish to keep in touch with. This short and direct communication has
become known as “Tweets”, or short form messaging system, that allows a
connected individual to share and listen to what is happening to and with
the people their surround themselves with.
As Twitter has evolved it has become a communication device that
provides many platforms for communication, but mainly communication on
Twitter is done through posts, or “tweets”, which are restricted to less than
approximately 140 characters in length. Using Twitter, members can keep
people updated, as well as follow updates from other members. Today,
tweets are used for more than just updates; they are also used to discuss
hot topics, videos, music, and events happening in the daily news.
One of the bonus features of Twitter is the ability to “Retweet”. This
enables users to share things like tweets, links, and other little gems that
they pick up from others who also use Twitter. New users often do not
understand the benefit of retweets, but after a little time on Twitter they
soon learn the value of retweets and set out to share as much as possible
..To retweet the user has a special set of tools available that make it easier
to do. Some of those tools include copy and paste so you can share
tweets themselves with others. When users do this, because they are
using someone else’s information, the retweet is usually followed by an
“RT”, short for retweet, as well as the original creator’s name. So, if you
were to retweet the following sentence from “SueSmith”, your retweet
would look like this:
The ipod I bought was great and I would recommend it RT@SueSmith
As a rule people track, or follow, the most popular retweets on Twitter by
using one of the following methods:
Retweetradar – a tool for tracking and bringing to the forefront the most
popular content on Twitter – right now, today, or yesterday.
Retweetlist – this tool lets you track the most popular links that are being
retweeted by other users on Twitter. You will note that it also keeps track
of the accounts that are retweeted the most.
Tweetnmeme – this is a tool that records and keeps score on the number
of retweeted Urls and stories on Twitter and then places the ones that
receive the most retweets on the front page of Tweetmeme, which if
selected can be broken down into categories – i.e.: business, sports, etc.
Another great thing about Twitter is that all your friends and tweets can
appear on your desktop and retweets only take two simple clicks – one to
create the retweet and one to post it.
Chapter 2
How to Customize your Twitter Experience
As a Twitter member you will notice that the site has some great user
friendly tools that will help in making your experience on Twitter a
completely customized one. However there are some steps you should
initially take when creating your profile that will further enhance your
customized experience.
First to ensure that you get the best possible results on the site, starting by
creating your Twitter log in using your real name or company name this
makes it easier for people to search for and find you. Also, using your real
name makes it easier for fellow tweeters to follow and recognize you or
your brand. Including a personal photo or company logo on your profile
page is always the best way to give your customized notability.
Your photo should be a good quality one; the picture should be clear, well
lighted and you should have a friendly appearance the more approachable
you appear the more people will follow you. If you are using a company
logo make sure it is professional looking and represents your company’s
brand you will want a pleasing image that people will remember and
associate with your specific product or service.
Next you should work on customizing the settings on your profile page
using the settings tool. Twitter does have built in themes that have
predesigned backgrounds that use preset color schemes which is fine if
you prefer it but you can also use the theming tools offered on the site to
create your own theme and use your own personally designed color
schemes.
Another customization tool available is language preference you can
customize your profile to appear in your preferred language; there are
several global languages to choose from. You can also change your privacy settings from public where anyone can
view your tweets to private where only your followers can share your
tweets.
Another way to customize your Twitter page is to share your personal
media whether it is photos, videos, music or documents there is a tool
available to help share your personal media. Grooveshark seems to be the
most popular and user friendly music sharing application. You can tweet
about a song you are listening to it.
Feature wise the most popular, free and easy to use file sharing application
for sharing documents and videos is FileTwt. If interested you can find out
more about this application by visiting
http://mashable.com/2009/05/25/filetwt/.
A newer file sharing application available is Twitgram; It is a file sharing
application that offers some great features such as : file sending, sending
and sharing messages over Twitter in complete privacy, create chat rooms,
organize your chats and the 140 character limit for tweets is not an issue
with this application.
This application however, costs to use. To find out
more about Twitgram you can visit http://techcocktail.com/twitgram-sharefiles-send-private-messages-http://techcocktail.com/twitgram-share-filessend-private-messages-Twitter-2011-08#.TkbuGWvlx5w
Also, Tweeters now have mobile access to Twitter. Now you can Twitter
using most currently used mobile devices. Now Twitter is a mobile
companion for the tweeters.
Chapter 3
How to Build a Personal Brand on Twitter
On Twitter the Twitter handles have become an important aspect of being a
part of the community. Your handle represents you who you are and what
you represent. As a matter of fact the Twitter handles have actually
become a commodity on the site; there has been a need for an aftermarket
to be created for the handles. The aftermarket is where Twitter handles are
constantly bought and sold.
It has become a necessity for any member of the community whether
business related or otherwise to claim their Twitter handle for their full
name or full business name. If another member claims the name first it
could lead to confusion when people are looking to contact you or your
business on the site. It is very advisable to also employ this action for future
business or personal prospects.
To gain followers a good way to attract people to you is to have your profile
completely filled out and do so accurately. A word of warning, don’t claim
expertise at something when you are not - create your brand based on your
interests and your skills.
Your Twitter profile page should have a background that is related to your
particular brand. When someone looks at your profile they should see an
extension of who you are and what your brand represents. You should use
the same logos, themes and color schemes as on your company website.
Furthermore, there are three different methods that can be used to brand
you or your business on Twitter:
Leading with your company - Use your company as the beginning part of
your account name and use your personal picture as your avatar.
Mutual branding – using your employees to subtly advertise by having their
photos accompanied by the business logo as their profile avatar
Personal branding- create everything completely about you.
Using Twitter to establish that you are an expert in a particular field works
very well to create an expert image for your brand and garner followers by
constantly tweeting about the subject. Also, If you have a blog you can use
Twitterfeed to create an affiliation between your blog and Twitter. You can
also host question and answer forums on Twitter with your followers about
your field of expertise.
By creating a marketing scheme you can also build up your brand. Some
elements that can be employed as a marketing plan are:
Adding your Twitter handle to your email signature.
Promote your Twitter address on your company website.
Promote your Twitter in you blog or articles
Use your Twitter address in your company newsletter.
Mention your Twitter address in company presentations.
Place your Twitter handle on your business cards.
Using the @ symbol referencing someone specifically in your tweets
possibly engaging a response.
Use promotional items to advertise your Twitter handle.
You can additionally use third party applications to stay connected to your
industry
Chapter 4
How to build a Twitter community
The methods that you use to build your Twitter community depend on what
you expect to get out of the community. Are you interested in casual
communication or are you trying to build a business brand and empire?
Once you establish why you are joining the community then establish your
Twitter handle appropriately. Your Twitter handle is an important part of
your personal brand; it is part of how you will gain followers and how
people will locate you on the site. When choosing your handle, make sure
you use your real name so that people may easily find you in the
community. Also using your real name gives a friendlier appearance; it
shows a willingness to share the real you.
Once you gain friends and followers on Twitter you will need to maintain
the many communications you will have, using the tweetdeck application
will help manage your tweets.
In the Twitter community finding people to follow is encouraged and it is the
best way to build relationships. By searching for people with common
interests, hobbies or businesses to follow you will increase your
community.You can use several applications to seek out people to follow
on the site:
Twitter search which is the only search function sponsored through Twitter.
Twellow which is an application that is like Twitter search but you can
search through categories.
WeFollow which is an index of people on Twitter.
An important aspect of building your Twitter community is to learn the
Twitter vocabulary. Frequently new words are added to the vocabulary
used by tweeters and to have a viable Twitter experience you will need to
know the language of the community. Some frequently used terms are:
DM - This means direct message
@ - this is used to reply to a tweet and comes before the Twitter handle in
a reply.
RT- which means retweet.
Tweet – This means that you are sending a message on Twitter.
Also you may see “tw” preceding many other words used on the site; these
are terms created by people.
Another way to ensure that your Twitter community continues to build is to
let others know your handle by adding it to your written works in the byline
or by adding it to your signatures.
Participation is important in social networking sites, let people know you are
around by indicating your presence with a “hello” tweet.
Getting to know your followers by reading their profile bio makes it easier to
engage in conversations and shows you are interested in your followers.
Another way to increase your community is to pass on viable information to
others and publicize your information source.
Ensure that you are following the community etiquette so that you do not
offend members of the community – you don’t want negative publicity.
It is also helpful to find out who some of the top Tweeters are and engage
in communicating with them and follow them.