A newbies guide to using Twitter

I recently joined a group on LinkedIn for folks on Twitter. Watching all the discussions there I noticed one piece of advice lacking: a step-by-step guide to using Twitter. So I’m taking a stab at it.

1. Go to Twitter and sign up for an account (Get started – join button)
2. Complete the sign up form. Use your real name as your user name (unless this is your brand’s Twitter account). No spaces allowed so I am lizhover.
3. Skip the ‘See if your friends are on Twitter’ window.
4. Skip the ‘Look who else is here. Start following them!’ window.
5. Now you’ll see your Twitter home page where, once you start following people, updates – or tweets – will appear (also known as your timeline/Twitter stream).
6. In the top right hand of your screen click on ’settings’ – you’re going to add information about yourself and a profile photo – the first rule of Twitter. If you don’t, folks will think your account is fake.
7. Here you can also change your name and username if need be. Doing this does not affect your account or followers.
8. In the ‘More Info URL:’ field add your personal/company blog or website address.
9. In the ‘One line bio’ field add a straight forward, clear description of yourself. Do not say ‘I’m the world’s best marketer,’ or ‘I’m just a guy.’ This is your one line pitch about yourself or your company. Instead say something interesting. For example: ‘I’m guitar-playing, poetry-writing CEO of Big Bank.’ You’ve got 160 characters to use.
10. Don’t protect your updates unless you’re being stalked. No-one will be able to see anything about you if you do this. So you’re unlikely to have anyone follow you.
11. Save everything.
12. Go to the ‘picture’ tab at the top of the page and upload a square photo of yourself. Try to use a real picture of you or your company logo.
13. Save everything. Don’t be put off if you get an error or the message that ‘Twitter is over capacity.’ You’ll see the ‘fail whale’ a lot. Just keep hitting your back button and uploading your photo until it works. If you get fed up, move on to the next step.



14. Find people on Twitter – this is the time consuming part. Canadian and US folks: Go to Twellow which lists folks on Twitter from across the Canada and the US. Scroll down to the map and click on your location. You can see who is on Twitter based on regions and provinces. Look through everyone. To see their Twitter profile, look for this line in brackets (Liz Hover is lizhover on Twitter). Hit the highlighted word and you’ll see my Twitter page. Read through some of my tweets and if they interest you, hit ‘follow.’
15. Every time I post something to Twitter it will show up in your timeline/Twitter stream.
16. You can also use the ‘Find people’ search function on Twitter. Look for it at the top of the page. Choose the ‘Find on Twitter’ tab. Don’t bother with the ‘Suggested users’ tab. As I understand it these folks have paid big bucks to be profiled here. A bit like ads on your Google search results page.
17. The first method I used to find great people to follow (which is the way you engage in conversation on Twitter and what makes it such a cool thing) is to find people you like and see who THEY follow. When I first joined Twitter I spent hours searching through the list of folks that others follow. I actually found that the best way to unearth some amazing people on Twitter.
18. Enter a keyword such as ‘marketing,’ or ‘Manitoba’ to help narrow down your results.
19. Then click on a peron’s name and take a peek at what they’re tweeting. Like it? Then follow them.
20. You’ll notice some folks will start following you back which means your tweets will show up in their timeline.
21. Once you’ve got a few people to follow, it’s a good idea to add an update – or a tweet. Don’t write about how your meeting went over, what you had for lunch or how you were stuck in traffic. Try to find meaningful information to share with others. Introduce yourself (and remember your tweets are limited to 140 characters). Take a look at other people’s tweets and see what sort of stuff they’re posting.

    

22. Because posts/tweets are limited to 140 characters, you’ll need to use a URL shortener to compress long website addresses. There are lots of providers to choose from. Twitter uses bit.ly by default. I use Cligs because it has an analytics function allowing you to see how many people clicked on links you included in your tweets.
23. Links are good. Many people use Twitter to share information. If you post a particularly good link (with a short description) it may get re-tweeted. This means that someone following you liked your tweet and forwarded it to their followers. If you do that you must credit the original source and include ‘RT.’ For example ‘Twitter SMS will come with a huge price tag for Canadian users http://ping.fm/GDgeo (RT via @mashable).
24. When you refer to any other user on Twitter you should use the following format @username – don’t worry about any other bits of the address.

Still Twitter-curious?

The excellent website Webdesigner Depot has trumped my effort above with a thorough and easy to read ultimate guide to everything Twitter. I highly recommend you head on over and check out their alphabetized glossary, a list of popular Twitter applications and instructions for incorporating Twitter into your website and blogs. UPDATE: July 21, 2009 – Webdesigner Depot has just published part two of the ultimate guide to everything Twitter.

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