The Twitter Book by O'Reilly, Tim -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

The Twitter Book

Praise for the first edition from Amazon reviewers (we don’t know these folks!) About the Authors

Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly) Sarah Milstein (@SarahM)

#TwitterBook

The hashtag for this book is #TwitterBook

Introduction

What is Twitter? What’s Twitter good for?

Ambient intimacy Sharing media and commentary Breaking news and shared experiences Mind reading—and mind opening Business and civic conversations

1. Get Started

Sign up Understand what “following” means Don’t follow people yet Quickly create a compelling profile Find the people you know on Twitter Get suggestions for cool people to follow Tweet from the road Test-drive the 140-character limit Trim messages that are too long The secret to linking in Twitter Figure out how many people to follow Join a conversation: the hashtag (#) demystified Key Twitter jargon: tweet Key Twitter jargon: @messages Key Twitter jargon: retweet Key Twitter jargon: DM Key Twitter jargon: trending topics Key Twitter jargon: tweetup Twitter jargon: Fail Whale Try it for three weeks or your money back—guaranteed! Get help from Twitter

2. Listen In

Use Twitter search Take advantage of advanced search Four important things to search for Save searches Track search with email alerts Hunt down—and back up—older tweets Search the nooks, crannies and archives of your account Stay on top of several searches at once, including live-event coverage Track tweeted links to your website Dig deeper on trending topics Find out what people are reading Bookmark links for later reading and draw attention to tweets now Use a life-changing third-party program Life-changing program #1: Seesmic Life-changing program #2: TweetDeck Use a great mobile client Follow smart people you don’t know Figure out who’s influential on Twitter Keep track of friends and family

3. Hold Great Conversations

Get great followers Reply to your @messages Retweet clearly and classily: Part 1—the overview Retweet clearly and classily: Part 2—retweets vs. quoted tweets Retweet clearly and classily: Part 3—use the Retweet button Retweet clearly and classily: Part 4—quote a tweet What to retweet Troubleshoot your retweets Ask questions Answer questions Send smart @replies Get attention gracefully Tweet often...but not too often Three cool hashtag tricks Know your followers Unfollow graciously Don’t auto-DM (for crying out loud) Don’t spam anyone Don’t let third-party apps spam (or tweet) on your behalf Fight spam Recover fast if your account is compromised

4. Share Information and Ideas

Be interesting to other people Make sure your messages get seen Link to interesting stuff around the web Link appealingly to your blog or site Use the hub-and-spoke model to your advantage Link to a tweet Post pictures Live-tweet an event Provide customer feedback—griping and glowing Overhear things Publish on Twitter Participate in fundraising campaigns Make smart suggestions on FollowFriday Mark tweets as favorites to draw attention to them Post on the right days and at the right times Repost important tweets

5. Reveal Yourself

Post personal updates Go beyond “What’s happening?” Use the right icon Fill out your full bio (it takes two seconds) Spiff up your background Cross-post to Facebook, LinkedIn, and more Divulge your location Post your Twitter handle widely

6. Twitter for Business: Special Considerations and Ideas

Listen first Have clear goals Integrate with your other channels Start slow, then build Figure out who does the tweeting Reveal the person behind the curtain Manage multiple staffers on one account Coordinate multiple accounts Be conversational Retweet your customers Offer solid customer support Post mostly NOT about your company Link creatively to your own sites Make money with Twitter Advertise on Twitter...maybe Report problems...and resolutions Post personal updates Use Bit.ly to track click-throughs and create custom short domains and URLs Engage journalists and PR people Follow everyone who follows you (almost) Four services for measuring Twitter Three bonus tools for business accounts

A. Continuing the conversation—and taking a break from it Index About the Authors