Twitter - Beyond Marketing

Twitter seems to be that big up and coming thing that no one knows exactly how to use yet.  I have heard the same concerns from a multitude of people “My members barely know how to use email”, or “We’re putting our efforts into Facebook”.  Well, the purpose of this article is to talk about another way to use Twitter, one often
overlooked.

Use Twitter for yourself!

What does this mean?  Has our marketing mindset has clouded our view of what Twitter can be all about? Twitter is a giant, global meta-conversation.  Sure, it’s a great marketing tool, but it has many more uses.  You can use it to help yourself become a better professional by dipping into and adding to that conversation.

First off, what exactly is Twitter?  On its most functional level, Twitter is a feed of information from sources that you select.  If you “Follow” someone, you are subscribing to their feed.  A feed consists of “Tweets” or 140 character messages sent by the people you follow. If someone follows you, they receive your messages into their feed.

The power of Twitter is that it allows users to search for people based on common interest.  Are you an ED for a small Non-Profit? Guess what, there are thousands of other ED’s in the same position of you that are using Twitter.  Are you a database admin for a trade association?  You’re in luck – There are thousands of those as well.

Personally, I follow about two hundred people.  Many of them are other consultants who do the same thing that I do.  Some of them are customers.  Some are representatives of software companies that I deal with, and some are random feeds that I just find interesting.  When all of these sources are combined into my Twitter feed, I get great information directed at me every day.   And because many of these people reciprocate followership, I now have a network of loose friends who are always willing to answer questions or give advice.   I have created a central news feed and free tech support resource all within my Twitter network.

Getting Started with Twitter

First you need to sign up at http://www.twitter.com The most challenging part is picking a name.  Because Tweets are limited to 140 characters, it’s best to find the shortest name that you can.  Second, choose one that you’re happy to share with the whole world and is easy to remember.  I landed on DarthGarry because I love Star Wars, and my name is Garry.

Okay, you’ve signed up for Twitter, now what?  Well you need to consider how you will be receiving and posting your messages.  It’s a very flexible platform and there are many ways it can be done.  The most basic way is to go to twitter.com and view your feed. Personally, I use a client that loads into my browser called Echofon, it creates screen pops when new Tweets come in, and allows me to quickly post new ones.  There are many  including Tweetdeck, Tweetmeme, and Hootsuite to name a few.  If you have a smart phone,  most apps have a smartphone version.  If you don’t have a smartphone, you can hook your Twitter account to your cell phone and choose whose feeds will be delivered to your phone via text.  Once it’s hooked up, you can text message to 40404 to send new Tweets.

What about the Lingo? 

Twitter has a few particular things that seem strange until they are explained.  Here is a typical Tweet:

@DarthGarry just wrote a new article for the #ESSAE Newsletter about #Twitter located at http://tinyurl.com/asdf

The first thing you’ll see is my Twitter name prefaced by an @ symbol.  This is effectively “Tagging” me to the Tweet.  It turns my username into a link that links back to my Twitter profile, and also alerts me that someone Tweeted my name.

The second thing is the # symbol.  These are known as hashtags.  A hashtag can be created on the fly and aids in searching.  If you were tweeting about a specific thing you wish to be given preferential treatment by Twitter’s search, preface it by a hashtag, such as #ESSAE.

The third is the URL.  Many Tweets reference other things.  Since a Tweet is limited to 140 characters, many people use URL shorteners to translate a long url into a short one.  I like TinyUrl due to its simplicity (http://www.tinyurl.com).  There are shorter ones, such as Trim (http://www.tr.im) if space is an issue.  Some Twitter clients will automatically shorten URLs for you.

Etiquette (or "Twetiquette")

Since Twitter is a social environment, it is a good idea to exercise etiquette when you’re sending Tweets, especially if you hope to maintain a followership.  The golden rule is properly attributing or passing along people’s Tweets.  The accepted way to do this is called a "ReTweet".  If you wanted to ReTweet something, you would add “RT: @Username” at the beginning to show that it is a retweet, or an alternative method is to post the contents of the tweet followed by “Via @UserName”

Tweet Content – Many people dismiss twitter as a useful tool because it can cater to the mundane.  You could literally Tweet “Putting on my left shoe”, “Putting on my right shoe”, etc.  It is advisable to post meaningful content such as “Just got back from a staff meeting and learned about…”.  Think of ways that you can add value to your followers and post those nuggets of information and forget about the banal.

Tweet frequency – This is different from person to person.  It is very easy to create a flood of Tweets.  If you do this too often it’ll make you lose followers and lower the strength of your personal network. As a general rule 1-2 Tweets per hour is acceptable.  Any more and you’re going to start flooding people’s feeds and losing followers.

A few other ways to use Twitter -

• Search - Twitter has an excellent search engine.  You can use this to ferret out up to the second information that is posted by other Twitter users.  It has often been cited as an excellent news source.
•  Join or create a Twitter special interest group - find a group of like minded folks to participate in an active conversation through the Twitter platform
• Tweet up your next conference - Create a hashtag for your conference and encourage other participants to Tweet on what's going on.  Monitor the Tweets and learn what your attendees are talking about
• Monitor your brand - search on your branding periodically to see if there's anything being said "out there" about your organization
• Offer customer service - Create a customer service Twitter account for your organization.  Using a Twitter client, you can receive notifications when people ask that Twitter account for help.
• Share news - Twitter has great synergies with blogs and press releases.  When doing a blog post or press release, Tweet about it to reach a wider audience

Twitter is an amazingly simple concept that is now only starting to mature.  While it is a great marketing tool, don’t overlook the power of the platform for your own personal and professional growth.  There are millions of people out there willing to help you on your journey, so go out there and find them, follow them, and cultivate a whole new circle of friends.  Oh yeah, and don’t forget to follow me andNimbleUser as well:

http://twitter.com/darthgarry
http://twitter.com/NimbleUser