In part 1 of twitter explained we talked about the account information you enter that allows you to connect with users that will be looking at your profile.  In this second installment, we’ll look deeper at the atual tweeting you do and the ideal way to go about doing it.

Why Should You Tweet?

I’m sure you asked yourself this when someone asked you if you were on twitter yet.  It’s a simple question to answer though.. you want to tweet value of some sort.  Now this value can range from keeping friends informed about your date to getting feedback on a new product or service.

You are going to eventually have tens, hundreds or even thousands of followers on twitter, responding to and retweeting your tweets, precisely why we’re on twitter in the first place.

So let’s talk about tweets and their anatomy.  We already know we have 140 characters to fill in to get our point across, so be specific and use URL shortening services like (CLI.GS) so you can link to larger messages, like on your personal or company blog, or an industry report or campaign landing page.  There are also some neat interactive features to your tweets arsenal.

Your Timeline

Your timelnie is what you see once you’ve logged into your twitter account.  It’s the tweets of all of the folks your following as well as your own tweets (aka ‘updates’).  This is also where you can interact with the tweets of others by sending them direct messages, replies, etc.

Your Direct Messages

Direct messages are often overlooked as a method to connect with new and old followers alike.  It’s a great way to break the ice and lay the ground work for your tweets to spread far and wide.  The basic premise of direct messages is neither list can see them (ie: they don’t show up in a public timeline) and neither user can retweet (RT) or publicly @reply to them, thus making them somewhat private and personal.

Your @ Replies

Let’s say you are following me and I tweet something of value or interest to you and you want to respond to me  and allow your list of followers to see your message, kudos or critiques.  You could simply tweet ‘@JoshuaAJones Great message, thanks for sharing!‘  The beauty here is your reply to my message shows up in your public timeline, allowing your followers direct access to me.  The @  also serves as the link to other twitter users which we’ll talk about in the retweet section.  Replies and retweets are much like the ‘joint ventures’ of twitter.

Your Retweets (RT)

Sometimes one of the users you are following tweets something that may be of value to your followers, so in order to pass along the same message and give credit to the originator you would tweet like this ‘RT @JoshuaAJones Focus more on the things you have and lesson the things you don’t.‘

This kind of interaction does a number of things for both users.   The originator has his message and link to his profile embedded and passed around multiple timelines.  The users tht retweet the message are able to increase their timeline and pass valuable information to their followers.

Your Hashtags (#)

Hashtags are practically synonymous with ‘tags’ in most social media platforms.  The idea with hashtags is to build communities and timelines around topics of interest in the twitter community.  So by adding the hashtag proceeded by the hash symbol, you are addind your message to the ‘hashed category’.  For example, if I was to tweet about the swine flu or preparation for it, I might simply add ‘#swineflu‘ to the end of my tweet (positioning in the beginning or end is a matter of personal preference).

While it certainly isn’t necessary to use these tags in your everyday tweets, getting to understand them and how they can help you connect with the twitter community is worth the effort.

I hope you got a good feel for what twitter is and how you can interact with the community.  Please pass this along to new twitter users so they can become educated and participate in the community most of us enjoy!

At some point in the future I’m going to review some addons, interfaces and other tools for twitter, so be sure to subscribe!

Joshua Jones

Although there is quite a bit written about twitter, not all of it is clear concerning the usage, meaning and purpose of its elements.  I’m going to break down some of the basics so that even a new twitter user can get cranking, from day 1.

This overview will be broken into the main categories of twitter interaction: the account information and the tweets, which we’ll cover in part 2 of this series.

Your UserName

When you sign up for a twitter account, one of the first things you want to consider is the name you will be using to login with (which is different from your ‘actual name’ which you can change once you’ve setup your basic account information).  Sometimes tweeters choose to use several aliases/accounts to cover a variety of niches in their market space, while it may have advantages in some respects, it just adds to the already frustrated task of managing all of your social media outlets.  Stick with one good username for each of your ventures, including your own personal twitter page.   For example, my company, TUPOS, focuses in on several niches of small business marketing, I simply use TUPOS Marketing.

• NOTE: Your username is what users will see on your profile URL (http://www.twitter.com/YOURUSERNAME).

Your More Info URL

Your more info URL is not accessible until you’ve completed the initial setup of your new twitter account.  Once inside, you can click on ‘settings’ in the upper right hand corner of the page.  In this view you can scroll down and see the space for your link.  Make sure the link goes to a website that captures the visitors information or at the very least attempts to provide value to the users that click on it, because it will get clicked.

• NOTE: Much like other social media outlets, you want to track the traffic coming from each channel, so be sure to add a Google Analytics code to your landing page or website.

Your One Line Bio

This is where users will be able to identify you as potentially valuable for them and encourage them to follow you on twitter.  Use this space (160 characters currently).  Tell people what you do and what you are about, or your company, of course, depending on the account.

• NOTE: Be as clear as possible, use some of your industry keywords and keep it short (not like you have a choice on twitter!).

Your Location

An often misunderstood tool is your location.   You want to be using the closest metro area as your location for optimal visibility.  It’s not necessary, but studies show that  as much as 40-50% of searches are made with local keywords in them.  Food for thought, and that’s enough for your account items.

• NOTE: One last note on Account Settings.  Please, for the love of pete, don’t protect your updates.  Updates are your tweets, and if you are using twitter to get out into your target market and provide value then why shoot yourself in the foot from the get go?

Speaking of tweets, we’re moving on over to that subject now in part 2 of this series on twitter basics.

I hope you’ve gain some perspective as a new twitter user.

Joshua Jones