Twitter Basics for Beginners

Twitter Basics

Mary Hall, The Recessionista,
Twitter @Recessionista
http://www.therecessionista.com

The Recessionista www.therecessionista.com

AUDIENCE:
Geography* & Age Range**

WHAT IS IT?
 A free social networking
and micro-blogging
service that allows users
to send updates ("tweets")
 “Tweets” are text-based FEATURES: short bio
Profile: very Send updates via:
Create network: “follow” Twitter.com, IM, SMS, RSS,
posts of up to 140 members email, application
characters in length Connect to network by sending “Personal” messages
followers 140-character-long Twitter public timeline
 Answer the question: “Tweets” Paid Advertising
What’s happening? BUSINESS RELEVANCE:
 Top Industries: Technology, Fashion, Politics, Gaming,
Entertainment, & News
 Opportunity:
– Create multiple Twitter pages based on industry
– Post fun and interesting tweets that will drive followers to your
websites/blogs/communities
– Include Twitter address on IBM forums and advertising to gain followers
OWNERSHIP: *Alexa Traffic Rankings, 2008
 Private: Independent **Quantcast, June 2008

© 2008 The Recessionista
2


Get Started With… https://twitter.com/
TweetDeck

Tweets: Messages
with Information for
Partners + a link for
Action

Action:
Hashtags: These are Keywords
• User navigates to Twitter.com home page and selects preceded by the # tag to help
“Settings” section, which includes setting up your User ID, people find information by
URL and Profile. conference name, event, city, etc.
Keywords help people FIND your
• Search “Find People” to find followers in your area if Interest message for followers for wider
• Use bit.ly to make your URL links short enough to fit. This also dissemination of the message
helps you track click through.
• Avoid Tweeting on yourself, your activities or even who you
RETweets: Followers resend the
messages with information for
are talking to on the phone! Broaden your subject matter to partners + a link for Action to all
include areas that are topical and newsworthy. their followers for wider
dissemination of the message
3


Getting Started

 Step 1: Set up an account
 This part is easy.
 Go to http://twitter.com and click the big green “Get Started –
Join!” button.
 On the resulting screen, enter the username you want, your
desired password, your email address and complete the spam
checker



Enter your profile information
 Twitter is, to a large extent, a social network. If you want people
to want to connect to you, you’ll need to tell them a little bit
about you. Nothing scary; nothing that will compromise yourself;
just a little bit so people know who you are.
 Log into Twitter, and click on the ‘Settings’ link at the top of your
Twitter homepage.

Sample Settings, you fill out name, URL and email. The ‘Picture’ tab lets you upload a
picture to your profile. Again, not everyone is comfortable with this and it is optional,
but it will again make you more approachable and open up the potential of Twitter a
little more if you do upload one.


Find some friends, aka Follows
 Search for people you know who are already using
Twitter Click the ‘Find People’ link at the top of the screen.
You’ll see three tabs:
 The first of these tabs lets you enter your email address(es)
and searches your address book to see if anyone has
associated any of those addresses with a Twitter account.
 Invite your friends to join The second tab lets you enter
your friends’ email addresses to invite them to join Twitter.
 Search for new people to follow Unfortunately the ’search’
tab is currently disabled. However, you can mimic this
function to an extent by using http://search.twitter.com.
Search for the city where you live to find other users who live
close to you. Enter your career area to find business peers.
Enter your hobbies to find people with shared interests. The
list of potential things to search for goes on and on



Start Posting with just 140 Characters
 You’re all set! There are just a few more things to know before
you can get tweeting.
 To post a regular message to all of your subscribers (aka.
followers), just type it into the website/application and hit
‘post’/’send.’
 To send a message to someone publically, type “@” followed by
their username, then the message. So, if I wanted to say hi to me
(I’m lonely), I’d type “@Recessionista hi there!” These are known
as “replies.”
 To send a private message to someone (aka. a direct message),
type “d” then a space and then their username. So, to send me a
direct message you would type “d Recessionista That’s a really
long blog post on Twitter!” Note: you can only send direct
messages to people who you follow, and who follow you. That
means you won’t get them out-of-the-blue.



Start Posting with just 140 Characters
 Sample tweets are short and
sweet.
 Post items that are
newsworthy, not personal,
not what you had for lunch 
 Use TinyUrl.com or Bitly to
make those long IBM URLs
short for better inclusion in
the 140 space
 That’s it. Get busy and get
tweeting! If you found this
useful, follow me
@Recessionista and send a
message. Thanks!


Twitter Basics for Beginners

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