1. 1
twitter guide

2. contents
■ What Is Twitter?
■ Effect Of Twitter
■ Why Use Twitter?
■ Setting Up An Account
■ Sending A Tweet
■ Searching Twitter
■ URL Shortening
■ Replying (@)
■ Direct Messages (D)
■ Retweeting (RT or retweet)
■ Hashtags (#)
■ Trending Topics
■ Follow Friday
■ Promote Your Page
■ Twitter Etiquette
■ Minimise Risks
■ Tools
■ Useful Links

3. what is twitter?
■ It’s an instant messaging or micro blogging service
■ 140 characters to tell friends or followers what you are doing
■ 3 ways to send a tweet
■ Web browser
■ Mobile phone
■ Twitter application
■ Your tweet is shown
■ On your profile page
■ On the homepage of your followers
■ On the Twitter public timeline

4. effect of twitter
■ Twitter has amplified the amount of conversations about brands
■ More connections
■ More conversation
■ Unlike Facebook, Twitter has also made those conversations publicly
accessible
■ Twitter provides powerful insight for brands

5. why use twitter?
■ Twitter’s own site attracted 73.5 million unique individuals in January 2010
■ Twitter is a valuable marketing tool
■ You can use it to:
■ Drive traffic to your website
■ Raise awareness of your brand
■ Promote your news and content
■ Monitor brand conversations
■ Provide help and feedback to your customers
■ And find new customers
■ Amazon, o2 and Lastminute are just some of the major companies using
Twitter to build their brand online

6. setting up an account
■ It’s free to sign up
■ Go to http://twitter.com
■ Follow instructions on how to set up your profile
■ Use your brand name
■ Add a brief bio
■ Add a recognisable logo
■ Include a link to your website
■ Create a customised wallpaper with your website addresses

7. sending a tweet
■ 140 characters to use
■ Type your message
■ Click update
■ Simple as that!

8. searching twitter
■ To see what conversations people are having about your brand (and
keywords) enter them into http://search.twitter.com

9. URL shortening
■ As you only have 140 characters to use you may need to shorten the URL
you want to share
■ Bit.ly and tr.im are just some of the URL shortening sites available
■ Paste in the URL and click shorten
■ These tools have the added benefit that they track click numbers

10. replying (@)
■ Any Twitter update that begins with @username is considered a reply
■ Starting your tweet with @username means you’re directing your tweet at a
specific person
■ To reply to someone’s tweet click the swoosh button
■ Or put the @symbol at the front of their username and start typing
■ Even if they are not following you they will still see your message, along with
everybody else
■ Click @username on your homepage to see if someone has directed a
tweet at you

11. direct message (D)
■ In addition to public updates and @replies, Twitter allows you to send direct
messages
■ You can only send private message to a person who is following you
■ There are 4 ways you can send a direct message
■ The message link on the profile page
■ The reply icon attached to messages in your direct message inbox
■ The drop down box on the direct message inbox page
■ The status update box by typing D+username+message

12. retweeting (RT or retweet)
■ Retweeting is taking a message someone else has posted and repeating it to your
followers
■ Click the Retweet icon to do this (see below)
■ Retweets indicate quality
■ Retweeting someone can increase their reputation and followship
■ If someone retweets you more than once you should thank them

13. retweeting (RT or retweet)
■ To see if you have been retweeted click the Retweets button on your Twitter
homepage
■ See what they are retweeting - is it a funny comment, a link to a serious
article?
■ Think about doing more of these popular tweets

14. hashtags (#)
■ # tags help group and share information around particular conversations
people are having
■ Just add the # symbol anywhere in your tweet
■ They are used to discuss events, movies, new technologies etc
■ People can then search Twitter for tweets related to a particular topic, such
as the G20 (see below)

15. stay on topic
■ If you abuse hashtags your account could get suspended
■ Don’t add lots of hashtags in an attempt to gain attention in search
■ Don’t repeatedly tweet the same topic / hashtag without adding value to the
conversation in an attempt to get the topic trending/trending higher

16. trending topics
■ Trending topics are the most tweeted-about topics on Twitter
■ From news stories, to the latest buzz about movies, music, video games
and more
■ In addition to trending topics worldwide, Twitter can now display the most
tweeted about topics near you
■ To change views, click ‘Set Location’ in the sidebar and choose from the
countries/cities

17. follow friday
■ Follow Friday is a Twitter tradition carried out on a Friday
■ You recommend people your followers should follow
■ You can use Follow Friday to get people to notice what you are saying
■ Just include #FollowFriday+username/s to your tweet

18. promote your page
■ It’s important to promote your Twitter page on your website, blog, mailing list
■ Add a ‘Follow us’ badge
■ This will get you noticed and increase membership
Website Blog Email

19. promote your page
■ Add your page to Twitter directories (e.g. Wefollow.com) for everyone to see
■ Use a Twitter directory to find new people to follow
■ Search by relevant category, e.g. Travel agent, property, environmental
■ Search the web for people to follow e.g. ‘Property people on Twitter’
■ Follow someone and they are likely to follow you back
■ Interact with people to gain new followers

20. twitter etiquette
■ Post a variety of tweets
■ Post links to your site and blog
■ If someone is following you follow them back
■ Interact with other people
■ Tweet when you have something valuable to contribute
■ Don’t use Twitter only for self promotion - it’s a conversation!
■ If you’re going to criticise make it constructive
■ Remember tweets cannot be deleted from the timeline and could come back
to haunt you

21. minimise risks
■ Keep tweets clean and professional
■ Be careful about making negative comments about anything
■ Restrict the amount of people who tweet to a few
■ Avoid tweeting from multiple Twitter clients
■ Check which Twitter account you’re in (work / personal)
■ Double or triple check your updates
■ Be professional with personal Twitter account at all times

22. tools
■ Desktop Application
■ Twhirl http://www.twhirl.org
■ Firefox Plugins
■ Twitbin http://www.twitbin.com
■ Twitterfox http://twitterfox.net
■ Mobile
■ Tiny Twitter http://tinytwitter.com
■ TwitterBerry (Blackberry) http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry
■ Twitterific (iPhone and iPod Touch) http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific
■ Powerful Twitter Organisation Application
■ Tweet Deck http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta

23. tools
■ Monitor Twitter Keywords And What’s Hot
■ Twitter Search http://search.twitter.com
■ Monitter http://monitter.com
■ Tweetscan http://www.tweetscan.com
■ Twitscoop (What’s hot) http://www.twitscoop.com
■ Monitor Trends
■ Twist http://twist.flaptor.com
■ Share Pictures & Video
■ Twitpic http://twitpic.com
■ Twitvid http://www.twitvid.com
■ yfrog http://www.yfrog.com

24. useful links
■ http://help.twitter.com
■ http://mashable.com/2009/01/21/best-twitter-brands
■ http://www.webanalyticsworld.net/2009/02/ultimate-guide-to-twitter-marketing.html
■ http://caffeinatedmarketing.com/2008/12/01/be-true-to-your-twitter-the-auto-
dm-question
■ http://shankman.com/be-careful-what-you-post
■ http://econsultancy.com/blog/3417-list-of-uk-retailers-on-twitter
■ http://mashable.com/2009/12/08/dell-twitter-sales
■ http://mashable.com/2009/03/30/twitter-badges
■ http://mashable.com/2009/03/09/twitter-brand-voice
■ http://mashable.com/2009/10/06/retweetable-tweets

25. the end