Tweet Cheat Sheet: Tips & Best Practices for Twitter
February 13th, 2009
1. Sign up and fill out your profile.
- Add your location, Web site, and a short bio about yourself. Be transparent about your relationship with the company, unless it’s a strictly personal profile.
2. Follow a few people
- Start with those you know: Friends, family, coworkers, media
- When you’re comfortable, start adding friends of friends
- Friend those who are following you
3. Searching for friends
- At the top of the page, click “Find People,” “Find on Twitter”
- Go to search.twitter.com, “Advanced Search” and find people based on location, etc.
4. Start Tweeting
- Chat about anything: Your interests, news; you can pose questions to the community
- Add in a links if you’d like. Twitter automatically shortens most URLs automatically, but if not, try one of the URL shorteners below.
5. Sending messages
- Public messages: Begin a Tweet with @username followed by the message
- Private messages: Begin a Tweet with: D username
- Retweets: If you like what someone else has to say, you can send out that exact message. Format it this way: RT @username Original message…
5. Community
- Remember, Twitter is a two-way street. If you expect participation, you have to participate in others’ lives too!
TIPS:
- If you associate yourself with your company, be mindful of the people you friend. For example, before the election, if you had followed Obama, it would have been a good idea to follow McCain too. (Same on all social networking sites.)
- Each Tweet you send out represents you and your company. Be mindful to be accurate; take a second glance at your Tweet for errors before sending it out.
TERMS:
- Tweet – The 140 character or less message you send out to your community
- @ Reply – A public message sent to you by anyone in the Twitter community
- Direct Message (DM) – A private message sent between mutual friends
- #Hashtag – Want to participate and follow a conversation of a specific topic? Add a hashtag term, ex. #vday Then search it on search.twitter.com, and see what everyone else is saying.
OTHER GOOD RESOURCES:
Twitip – A great blog constantly updated with Twitter tips and news
Twitturly – What URLs are people talking about on Twitter? Keep track of them here
Tr.im – A great URL shortener that shows you how many clicks each URL receives, as well as where those clicks are coming from
Twitter improves service, base; next revenue – Good piece on the history and purpose of Twitter
Entry Filed under: Twitter
