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FORTY-THREE
Understand Twitter Basics
So I’ve convinced you that you should give Twitter a look-see. This simple step-by-step guide will get you up and running fast. Just follow these eight steps.
1. Set up your account. Go to Twitter1 to get started. Enter your name, e-mail, and password. Click Sign up.
You will now be taken to a second screen where you can select a user name. This is the name by which you will be known on Twitter. What name should you use?
Your real name is best—if it’s available. If not, you can try using a middle initial or prefacing it with something like the or real (e.g., “TheFrankDavis” or “RealFrankDavis”).
Also, I recommend using initial caps and in-word caps. It will make your username more readable and memorable. For example, I use “MichaelHyatt” rather than “michaelhyatt.”
Now click on the Create my account button. That’s it. You are now an official member of the Twitter community. Congratulations!
Next, Twitter will assist you in getting started. It will explain what a tweet is and give you the opportunity to “follow” a few friends, popular people, or brands. You can opt out of these steps for now if you wish. Simply click the Skip this step link.
Twitter will also give you a chance to see if some of your friends are on Twitter by checking your online address book. However, your contacts will have to be in one of the supported services: Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or AOL. Also, you’ll only see users who have allowed their accounts to be found by e-mail address.
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This wasn’t that helpful to me when I initially started, since my contacts resided in Microsoft Outlook. I had a Gmail account, though, so I just exported my contacts from Outlook and then imported them into Gmail. It worked flawlessly. If you get stuck, forget this step. You can add your friends later.
2. Tweak your settings. Make sure you are on your Twitter home page. Click on the Settings link. You should be on the Account tab. Set the time zone.
Do not check “Protect my updates” unless you only want those you approve to be able to get your updates. Frankly, if you check this, it will seriously limit the fun. Make whatever other changes you want. Click the Save button.
Now click on the Profile tab. Upload your picture. This is important. Many Twitter users (including me) will not follow users without photos, because it is a telltale sign of a spammer. Remember that the maximum upload size of your photo is 700k, so you may have to resize your image to meet this requirement.
Enter the rest of your information, including your location, web-site or blog (if any), and a brief bio. This, too, is important to keep you from being flagged as a possible spammer. Your bio can either be serious or fun, but it must be brief—no more than 160 characters.
Note that you can also connect your Twitter account to Facebook on this page. This will post all your Tweets directly to Facebook. Personally, I don’t recommend this, but you may want to do it. You can always change the setting later.
When you are finished, click the Save button.
3. Set up your phone. Twitter is much more fun if you connect it to your cell phone. By doing so, you can receive updates from those you are following (or just some of them) as well as send your own updates. It’s all done through text messaging (e.g., SMS). Be forewarned: while Twitter doesn’t charge anything for this service, your phone carrier might. It’s a good idea to check and make sure you are on an unlimited text messaging plan. You don’t want to be surprised with a big phone bill.
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Again under the Settings link, click on the Mobile tab. Enter your mobile phone number and click on the Start button. Now take your cell phone and text message the code Twitter gives you to 40404 (the number will be different if you are outside the U.S.). Be patient. Eventually, Twitter will confirm that your device is registered.
If you are using an iPhone, Twitter is built into the operating system (at least if you are using iOS 5 and up). You can set it up by opening the Preferences app, scrolling down the screen, and touching the Twitter section. This will give you the ability to post updates to Twitter from within many iPhone applications, including the photo app.
While still on your cell phone, set up a contact named “Twitter.” For the mobile phone number, use 40404. Now every time you want to send a Twitter update, you will send it to this contact name.
4. Follow family and friends. If you haven’t done so already, add your family and friends by clicking in the Search field at the top of your home page. You can type in a username or first and last name. When you do, you will get a list of users who match your search criteria.
You can also do a more advanced search (e.g., searching by location) by clicking on Refine results or by going directly to the Advanced Search page.
You can begin following your friends by simply clicking on the Follow button. If you want to also follow them on your cell phone, then you can turn the Device Updates to on. Personally, I only follow my family and a few close friends on my cell phone. Regardless, you will be able to see everyone you follow on your Twitter home page.
5. Learn the basic commands. Think of Twitter as a room full of people, all sitting in a circle. It’s a conversation. When you update your status, you are speaking to the whole group. Everyone can hear what you have to say.
• Replies. If you want to direct your comments to one specific person in the circle, but loud enough that everyone else can hear, use the Reply function. You address the person by using his or her Twitter user name preceded by the @ symbol. For example:
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@spencesmith I get my haircut at Dion’s South in downtown Franklin.
Everyone who is following Spence and me will see the message, but I am specifically directing it to Spence. (Those who are not following both of us will not see the message in their Twitter feed.)
You can also use this protocol (@+user name) to refer to someone by name. That is, mention him or her. For example:
I’m headed to dinner at Tin Angel with @gailhyatt and @megh-miller. I am looking forward to trying the new menu.
The thing about mentioning someone using @ plus his or her Twitter name is these become live links. If someone who is following me clicks on one of the names, he will automatically go to that person’s Twitter page. This will give him the opportunity to follow that person too.
• Direct messages. Continuing with the metaphor of a conversation with a room full of people, you can also use the direct message function. This is like whispering in one person’s ear. He can hear you, but no one else can. You are directing the message to him and only him. For example:
d lnobles Can you bring my Business Review notebook down to the cafeteria conference room?
Or:
d gailhyatt It looks like I will not be able to leave the
office for another 30 minutes. Bummer.
Twitter direct messages have largely replaced simple text messaging for me and many people I know.
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• Hashtags. You are probably familiar with tagging photos with a short piece of text. Twitter has this capability too. The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages. If you click on a hashtag, it will show you all the other tweets associated with that hashtag.
I have attended many conferences at which an official hashtag was announced. This enabled everyone at the conference to track what others were saying about the conference.
For example, someone might say:
Man I loved @AndyStanley’s opening talk. He
never ceases to speak to me. #cat2011
#Cat2011 was the hashtag for the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta in the fall of 2011.
• Other commands. You can add people you want to follow from your cell phone. Just type in “follow [username].” For example:
Follow KenDavisLive
You can check your stats—the number of people you are following plus the number of people following you—from your cell phone by typing “stats” without any additional text.
To stop all Twitter updates to your phone, send:
Off
To turn them back on send:
On
You can find answers to almost every other Twitter question in the Twitter Help Center.2
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6. Start tweeting. So now you are all set up. It’s time to start tweeting. You can do this from your Twitter home page or from your cell phone.
The main thing you need to know is that the message can be no longer than 140 characters. If you use the Web page, the entry field will automatically count your characters. After a while, you’ll instinctively know how long this is. I rarely go over the limit. But if you do, it’s no big deal. Your message will just be truncated.
How often should you tweet? That’s the thirty-character question. My daughter @meghmiller says, “Don’t tweet more than six times a day.” Personally, I think ten to twelve is the upper limit. Obviously, there’s a balance here.
The real issue is whether or not you are adding something of value. There’s an old Jerry Seinfeld comedy routine called “Air Travel.” In it, he talks about airline pilots who insist on telling us all about the route they are taking. (Like anyone cares.)
He says, as passengers, we don’t knock on the cockpit door and say, “Oh, by the way, I’m eating the peanuts now.” (Obviously this was a pre-9/11 bit.) So why do pilots feel the need to update us? All we care about is getting to the destination.
In like manner, no one probably wants to hear the blow-by-blow of your life—but some color commentary is good. However, this is definitely art, not science, so there are no hard, fast rules.
Regardless, you should consider every Twitter update as a branding impression. You are developing a reputation with your online friends, so make sure you are adding something to the conversation.
This is really no different than a face-to-face conversation. You want to say something that is interesting, helpful, or just plain entertaining. Don’t overthink it, but don’t just tweet the first thing that pops in your mind.
7. Be careful. You definitely need to be cautious. It’s probably not a good idea to say something like, “I’m headed to the West Coast for a week. My poor, beautiful wife is going to be home all alone.” Bad idea.
I have also had some experience with stalkers, so you may only want to tweet after you have gone somewhere, not before. Otherwise, you might find people showing up to watch you. (Don’t laugh. It has happened to me on several occasions.)
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8. Consider third-party apps. An entire ecosystem has sprung up around Twitter. Here are some of my favorite applications:
• HootSuite.3 This is the application I use to manage Twitter on my desktop. It will even manage Facebook profiles and pages, LinkedIn, and several other social media services. It is great because it allows you to segment people by groups (or columns). I have groups for my family, close friends, colleagues, and so on. It is available for both desktop systems and mobile devices.
• Buffer.4 I use this application to schedule my tweets, so I don’t flood my followers with a string of posts all at once. Instead, I put them in Buffer, and it spreads my tweets throughout the day. It gives you tremendous control. You can determine how often and at what times you tweet. It comes with extensions for the most popular browsers, so you can buffer a tweet directly from a Web page. It also allows you to buffer Facebook status updates.
• SocialOomph.5 I use this application to bulk-schedule a whole series of tweets. For example, I have identified my ninety most popular blog posts. I have written a tweet promoting each one. Via SocialOomph, I schedule one tweet per day at a specific time. I upload the text file to SocialOomph and forget about it. Everything is on autopilot. It will also post to Facebook. This is something you can’t do with Buffer.
It is easy to get overwhelmed with all the third-party Twitter apps. Don’t. Start with HootSuite and then grow from there as you have the time and interest.
Twitter is best learned by using it. The most important thing you can do is get started. You really can’t make that many mistakes—and the Twitter community is very welcoming and supportive. Just remember to have fun and enjoy the people you meet online.