eNilsson

Twitter for complete and utter beginners

A client of ours who is not very "new media" savvy wants to jump into the Twitter pool without looking like a total rube. They asked if we could jot down a few notes to help them get started.

If you are halfway familiar with Twitter, you can stop reading now. If you are new to the Twitter world, the following notes may help you get started. Note that these thoughts were pulled together from a bunch of folks in the office so if there is any plagiarism here, please be flattered ;)

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1. Twitter Basics
Twitter is a free mass text-messaging service that allows you to send out 140-character messages to a group of followers.  It is used by friends, family and co-workers to stay connected. Twitter utilizes real time updates (referred to as Tweets), which are posted on your web-based Twitter profile and sent to your Followers’ (other Twitter users) mobile phones.

Twitter is like a casual digital diary and is used for publishing fun facts, useful tools, thoughts, questions, etc.  The 140-character space limit emphasizes a large number of short posts. Twitter posts traditionally consist of:
 

• Status Updates: “Off to the store for some milk”
• Musings: “The construction on 95 in Stoneham is driving me insane!”
• Interesting Links: “Peggy Noonan’s comments today on the economy hit the nail on the head: http://online.wsj.com/peggy-noonan.html”
• Questions: “Is anyone else having problems with their GE fridge freezing up?”
• And much more.

It is not necessary to make each Twitter post substantial. Twitter followers are most interested in what you are interested in or what you are doing now. Twitter should be treated as a fun, slightly self-indulgent broadcasting toy that can lead to a deeper connection with your audience.

Note that Twitter is not just a way to broadcast messages, you can also reply, “@replies” in Twitter-speak, to your followers. Replies are not necessary but are considered good form in the Twitter world.

2. Glossary

• Tweet – a short (I40-character) message.
• weeters/Tweeple - People who use Twitter.
• Twoosh - A perfect 140-character tweet.
• Followers - Tweeters who are following your tweets. Followers will see any updates you make on their homepage of Twitter.
• Following - Tweeters you are following. You will see any updates (tweets) on your homepage from anyone you are following
• TweetUp - An ‘in person’ meeting between Twitter users.

3. Getting Started
All you need to use Twitter is a computer with an Internet connection or a mobile phone.  Go to http://twitter.com and sign up.  Take a look at who is using Twitter by using the Find People tab.  Some successful tweeters include:
 

• eNilsson - http://twitter.com/enilsson (we couldn't not include this one)
• CNN Breaking News – http://twitter.com/cnnbrk   
• Stephen Fry – http://twitter.com/stephenfry
• Barack Obama – http://twitter.com/BarackObama   
• Anderson Cooper – http://twitter.com/andersoncooper

Once you are comfortable with the experience, you can take advantage of all Twitter features.

4.  Things you should do

• Post tweets that add more value than the attention it consumes.  Instead of posting “just had a great burger”, post something like “great burger specials today at Joe’s Burger Palace in Cambridge”.
• Be aware of how often you tweet. Post enough to keep followers interested (at least once a day), but not so much that you flood their feeds with 50 new tweets a day.
• Use Twitter to provide updates when a new blog post or press release is posted on your website. This can be done automatically provided the content is already in an RSS feed.
• Use services like tinyurl.com and is.gd to shorten links. Tweet real estate is important because of the 140-character limit.  Tweeters use these services (often built into desktop and mobile Twitter applications) to shorten links like https://www.freestrongamerica.com/contribute to http://is.gd/kHdP.

5.  Things you shouldn’t do

• Do not post just news updates. News updates are important, but including personal content in your tweets allows for that human feel that makes social networking and media work.
• Don’t post and read at the same time.  What happens is that you are all set to make a post, but you see updates from people you follow so you stop to read those.  After a while, you have forgotten what you intended to post, as well as your to do list.  Schedule time to twitter.
• Do not use an @reply to send a message to someone that you would like to be private. This will show up on the public timeline.

6. Mobile Tweeting

• Text Messaging/SMS: You can send updates to Twitter by linking your mobile phone number to your Twitter account and then sending a text message to 40404. You can also elect to receive Twitter updates of other users by allowing Twitter to send their updates to you in a text message. Important: Twitter is limited to 140 characters while most mobile carriers set the text message limit at 160 characters. If you go over 140 characters then your message will be curtailed.
• Smart phones: Popular devices like Blackberry’s and iPhones have applications that can be downloaded to improve the user’s experience with Twitter.  For the iPhone, try TwitterFon at http://twitterfon.net or Twitterrific at http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific.  Each device and application has its pros and cons, but the general principals of Twitter remain the same.

7.  Twitter applications for Blackberry users

• TwitterBerry – The most widely used Twitter application for Blackberry phones, TwitterBerry has its legions of loyal followers. With all applications, TwitterBerry can only pull from the Twitter api less than 70 times an hour. A complete FAQ can be found here: http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/faq.php.  The supported devices and system requirements can be found here: http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/.
• Twibble – The second most popular Blackberry application for Twitter. Twibble will function on any JavaScript enabled mobile device. Pros for Twibble include keyboard shortcuts and minimal amounts of data transferred. A huge draw for most Twibble users is that Twibble can be configured to be ‘geographically aware’ on some devices – this includes updating your latitude and longitude coordinates with each Tweet. For obvious security reasons we would not recommend enabling this feature. More information here: http://www.twibble.de/twibble-mobile/.
• TinyTwitter – TinyTwitter succeeds in that it will work for any phone that is JavaScript enabled. All of the basic functions are the same, including a number of settings to customize the user interface and data displayed. More information can be found here: http://www.tinytwitter.com/about.html.

8.  Actions/Features

• @replies - By using “@username” at the beginning of your tweet, you can direct that tweet at a specific user. It is intended to support back and forth communications. This type of messaging is publicly visible.
• ReTweet - To re-send a previous tweet or to resend someone else's tweet so it reaches a larger audience. Proceeded with “RT @username” with the username being the original author.
• Direct Messages - You can send a direct message to another user by using the message link on their profile page, the reply icon from your own direct message, or using the command “d <insert username> <insert text>” message. Only you and the person you are direct messaging will see the contents of the tweets.  You can only send a DM to someone who is one of hour followers.
• Favorites - You can store any of your favorite tweets by clicking the star icon by the message.
• Tags, hash tags, and #’s – You enter a tweet that reads: #golf Augusta National GC opening soon.  The #golf is a tag. Users will often include a tag somewhere in their messages if they are relevant to a popular topic. The tags can be searched at http://search.twitter.com/. The search result for #golf is http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23golf.  All tweets with the #golf tag will be listed.

9. Recommendations

• Acquire your name, fore example: twitter.com/DavidBeckham: As in domain names, a Twitter account name is important. The more personal you can keep it, the better. Example: WarrenBuffett is a better username than BerkshireHathaway.
• Use mobile tweeting, but use an application and not the text message service. If someone were to gain access to your account then that individual would be able to access your phone number. Also, an application can allow you to browse tweets easily – the SMS/text message option would require you to subscribe to a user and would also open yourself up to a plethora of text messages.
• Consider using a service like TweetLater.com to track relevant keywords and hash tags, automatically post pre-written tweets at scheduled intervals, and automate a host of other actions.

 

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