Twitter 101: A Concise Guide to Getting Started on Twitter
1. Twitter 101
Brian Wallace,
President, NowSourcing, Inc.
2. Overview
• What is Twitter?
• Do I have time to use it?
• How to use it
• Do I need to use it?
• How often to Tweet
• How to reach people on Twitter
• How to get followers
• How to connect to LinkedIn
3. What is Twitter?
Allows short posts, up to 140 characters
• Leads / Conversation / Discussion
• Sales (hard sell is a no-no)
• Customer Service
• Competitor Analysis / Info Gathering
4. What is Twitter?
• 23 million unique visits
• Off web visits
• 26th largest site in the world (source: Alexa)
5. Do I have time to use it?
• Yes
• If you have time to write 1 email, you have
time for 5 tweets
6. How to Use Twitter
• Not just you
– Be helpful
– Help others
– Don’t spam
• Retweeting
• Tweetmeme Buttons
7. How to Use Twitter
• Web
• Text
• iPhone/Blackberry
• Desktop apps
• Images
• Video
8. Twictionary
• At Reply or @reply - a reply to another user
• DM – direct message
• Failwhale – graphic that appears when Twitter is over capacity
• Hashtags or # – using a symbol at the end of a tweet to follow messages in a
series. #followfriday, #musicmonday
• Retweet (or RT) – repeating another’s tweet
• Tweet – posting a Twitter message
• Twitter Chats – becoming more popular – real-time discussions on a topical,
regular basis – see #prchat, #agchat
• Twitterverse – the Twitter community
9. Don’t Do This
Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty
paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.
Fedex sent email to Board of Directors
10. Do This
“We were able to get a good idea of Kevin's skills
and interests just by conversing over Twitter
for several months. While it doesn't remove the
need for interviews, it makes the interview
process more like hiring a friend than hiring a
stranger.” -Peter Waldschmidt, CEO of Gnoso
11. Do I Need to Use It?
• Only worth doing if you’re willing to learn
and put in the time
• Still worth getting a profile to protect you &
your company’s identity
12. How Often Should I Tweet?
• Average across Twitter is 4 per day
• Others day 22 is optimal
• Your own pace
• Weekdays
• Times of Day
13. How to Reach People
• Polling
• Search
• Retweets
• Apps
• Tweetups
• DM’s
• Hashtags
14. How to Reach People
• Search is your friend
– Saved searches
– Keyword/keyphrase search
– Search by location
– Twitabs
– Refreshes for you
15. How to Get Followers
• Not a magic trick
• Consistency and relevance is key
• Import your contacts
• Look across your other networks
• Often overlooked: signature block