Twitter for Newbies

Here are outtakes of a how-to document I created for the staff at my day-job. The IT personnel and Marketing personnel didn't know what Twitter really was about, nor how to use it -- had been relying on me and a coworker who is no longer with us.

Introduction To Twitter
(http://twitter.com)

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a way for our company to post quick bursts of information and interact with followers to create rapport and visibility for a variety of initiatives. Twitter involves the act of posting (pushing) and retweeting (borrowing with citation).

It’s important that information be posted in a conversational, what’s in it for me (reader) tone. Think: will this be useful and, possibly, retweeted by readers?

What’s the Lingo?

• Retweet – reposting what someone else has posted. There are two ways of doing this.
• Stream – a user’s Twitter page where a number of Twitter user posts (tweets) are showing up.
• Timeline – what you or someone else has been posting (tweets). Shows only that user’s posts (tweets).
• Tweeple – a plural word meaning Twitter users.
• Tweet – meaning a post on Twitter.

How do you…

• Post: just type in the large text box at the top of your page. Can’t see it? Check whether you’re logged in.
• Retweet something:you can: hover the mouse over the lower, right-hand corner of someone’s tweet and select Retweet. Or: You can copy and paste the retweet in the following way: 1) Great idea RT @username I am going to start creating my to-do lists before I leave work every day, 2) RT @username I am going to start creating my to-do lists before I leave work every day
• Change background/image/colors/etc.: select the settings option at the top of the page and look through each tab to make the desired changes.

What metrics are there for Twitter?

• “Followers list” – how many people are following you at any given time. Followers have added you to their Twitter stream and read your posts.
• “Listed in” list – how many people have created topic lists which include your tweets stream.
• There are also a number of websites that allow you to track various trends and other metrics, but these are just self-esteem type metrics.
  

Good to Know:

• A post or tweet needs to be no larger than 140 characters: this includes text/words, spaces, URL links, and punctuation.
• URL shorteners help you track hits and take up less space in the 140 limit. More about URL shorteners later (See Tools).
• It’s important you read other people/company Tweets before writing your first tweet so you know what to look for to share and how to word it.
• Try to spread out posts so there’s some in the morning and some in the afternoon. You can duplicate the tweets or obtain fresh information. Never dump all your posts all at once—people will get annoyed at you hogging their valuable stream real estate.
• Trending topics on the right-hand side let you know what’s popular today on Twitter across the globe – not very useful in reality. You can also track trending topics in your locality (set up locality in settings)
• Check your Direct Message number on the right-hand side to respond to DMs in a timely fashion. How to direct message:Write: d @username hi how are you, Or: go under the Direct Message page (select Direct Messages on right-hand side) once on the page you can use the drop down menu to select the user or enter d @username. You can’t private message someone if they’re not your follower or you theirs—must be reciprocal.
• The @company on the right-hand side (or @companyconference if you’re logged into that account) means mentions of that account in other tweeple’s tweets. Don’t be shy and thank them for the shout out.
  

Twitter Tools:

• URL shorteners – the most used URL shortener is http://bit.ly you need to log in with our company’s login and password (login is...)
• Twitter Tracking and Metrics:Your follower count is indicative of your loyal followers and reach, Your Listed on count is indicative of your reach, Your Retweet count is indicative of your loyal followers and your reach, An article listing web tools to help track metrics: http://www.honeytechblog.com/top-50-twitter-tracking-and-analytics-tools/
• http://twuffer.com helps you schedule posts for later that day or a few days in advance, so you can schedule your content and pace your posts out.
  

If all else fails…

• Look at what others are doing and learn from them
• Look up Twitter’s help section (http://help.twitter.com/portal), their blog (http://blog.twitter.com/) or their status page (http://status.twitter.com/)
• Look up Twitter how-tos online, such as on http://www.mashable.com