1. How to Tweet
When you tweet, your messages show up on your profile as well as your
followers' home page. You are limited to 140 characters per tweet. A
recent tweet from someone we follow summed it up best: "Realizing that
tweeting is like writing a haiku", because it is almost a game or
puzzle to try and squeeze a good message into just 140 characters.
I log in several times throughout the day and view my Home page to see
the latest posts from the hundreds of people we follow.
If there is something applicable to our business or industry, or
something that might be of interest to our followers, we retweet that
message (basically, copy and paste the message and tweet it as though
you wrote it, except you pre-pend the message with "RT" to signify you
are re-tweeting someone else's post). In the course of retweeting, it
is courteous to include the user's twitter sign (so if we retweeted a
post from a user, we would format it like this):
RT @username (then the message)
Twitter also makes use of hash tags (a phrase or word preceded by the #
sign). Within Twitter applications this becomes linked to a search
results screen showing all tweets referencing that hash tag. If you
have something of relevance to ecology, for example, you might post
a
tweet
and include #eco at the end. The "#eco" portion of your tweet would
then be visible to all viewers as a hyperlink pointing to this results
page:
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23eco
This would show all tweets mentioning the hash tag "#eco". When a hash
tag or phrase becomes so popular it is mentioned and used hundreds and
thousands of times, it may rise to the level of a Trending Topic (which
appears in your Twitter righthand navigation menu) so you can see
popular topics. More often than not, the Trends are not very applicable
to you and seem to be used by teenagers or other people who are bored. Lots
of spam and porn tweets always appear in the Trending results.
But as for hash tags, you can brand your messages so others using those
tags will get to know you. For example, Portland, Oregon residents could try
tweeting
with
a
hash
tag
of
#pdx. Portlanders doing the same would then be able to
immediately search for and find tweets by other Portlanders (without
necessarily having to follow them) simply by searching for tweets mentioning
"#pdx".
2. Re-Tweeting and Mentioning
On your Twitter account, you will notice a link in the righthand menu
that is formatted as "@your_username". By clicking on that link you will see
EVERY post on Twitter containing your Twitter sign (so anyone
mentioning you or re-tweeting you would show up here). This can be very
useful as you can immediately see if there is any buzz astir about you
or your business.
Many times, if you mention someone they will see that and start
following you. So it can be a good thing to mention Twitter users you
are following, you like, or would like others to know about. It can be
a great way to build up your Twitter follower list.
Additionally, when someone mentions you it is courteous to publicly thank
them in the format "@username thank you for the mention!" or something along
those lines. That way, in addition to your followers, other people following
that Tweeter or those searching on their call sign will see that you just referenced
them.
A final thought about Mentions is the use of hash tags above to signify
events like #followfriday or #ecomonday. On these days, it is a common
practice to say "thank you" to those you follow who have provided you
great information by tweeting a list of those Twitterers, and adding
the hashtag to help that tweet show up in popular search results.
Here is an example tweet I posted a while back:
#ecomonday @GreenEcoVoice @dmwolford @TomatoDesign @Kenhiatt @GreenPosting @redirectguide @greenbizconf @EarthShareOR @operationcarbon
Anyone searching for #ecomonday would then have seen my tweet show up.
It contains a number of great people to follow. If you weren't following these Twitterers, you
would now know about them, could read their profiles and then decide if
you wanted to start following them.
What is nice is when people reciprocate your mention of them, by
mentioning you! It is all about building up notice for one another.
3. Direct Messaging
Many Twitter users post private messages openly to their followers,
which then become visible to anyone viewing your profile. We prefer to
send a private message (known as a Direct Message) to our followers.
This only goes to that follower and enables private exchange of
information. Direct Messages are performed by posting a Tweet with the
following format:
DM username (then the message)
Note we left off the @ from @username. DM's are simply done in this
way, probably to save on that one little character from the 140 limit.
Note that you can ONLY send Direct Messages to people following you.
Otherwise, your only option would be to post a general Tweet and
include the Twitter user's sign in your message to get their attention,
as it would show up on their @username screen.
4. Tweeting via Mobile Devices
Nice features of Twitter include the ability to upload a picture (which
is then hosted by a third-party service such as TwitPic) and have a
shortened link returned that you can include in your tweet.
We use a Twitter application called TweetDeck loaded on our iPhones. It
enables us to log into our accounts and post tweets directly from our phones.
It also lets us upload photographs we have taken, and will handle the uploading
automatically
if we simply select a picture from one of our camera's image library.
Here is an example of a tweet we posted from a networking event we
attended this past Tuesday:
Doing
a round of introductions, have met many great businesses and some of
our clients, too. http://twitpic.com/dkn1h
The link clicks through to the (admittedly poor) photograph I took in
the dimly lit room while other businesses were introducing themselves.
The beauty of a Twitter application like this is it enables real-time
updates and posts regardless of where and when you happen to be.
Canvas Dreams will be at the Green Festival in booth 665 in San
Francisco this November, and you can bet we will be tweeting every few
minutes with updates and pictures from the event, especially thanks to
phone applications like Tweet Deck.
If you have a basic mobile phone, you can still set up Twitter to
retweet text/SMS messages you send it from your phone (though you'd pay
a text message fee to your mobile provider in that case).
5. Twitter: Breaking Down the Wall
Beyond the social aspect, Twitter cuts down
barriers between industries, political systems, and generally enables
people of every walk to chat with someone they might
never have an opportunity to otherwise meet.
We actively follow, and are followed by, members of local government, major
news media, national journalists and politicians, movers/shakers of environmental causes,
non-profit organizations, international corporations... the list goes on and
on. The beauty of Twitter is its openness of sharing information, and its ability
to get around traditional communication roadblocks to enable a truly free exchange
of knowledge for all who wish to participate.
6. Why Follow? So You Can Be Followed.
You can make use of Twitter.com's many features to start building a
list of people to follow. In about half of the cases those followers
will turn around and follow you.
If you begin tweeting messages, you will start to gain followers
independently who simply like your tweets and are interested in what
you have to say. In time you will probably turn around and start
following some of them as well.
Ultimately, you will have a mix of people you follow but who do not
follow you, people who follow you but whom you do not follow, and
people you follow who follow you as well. A bit of overlap happens and
from looking at the mix, you can really get a sense for what a given
Twitterer is doing, who they appeal to, and who appeals to them, etc.
Basically... have fun... experiment around with it... even try to break
it. Play with the 140 character limit and just relax. In time you will
start to appreciate the quickness and efficiency of the tweets and you
may be surprised just how custom of a Home page you can create all
based on who you are following.
8. A Two-way Street
A final thought about using Twitter is that you may note many Twitter
users follow almost as many people as are following them. Twitter is a
two-way street and users look to see just how integrated you are in the
Twitter community.
- They want to see that you Tweet regularly or they will leave.
- They want to see that you have a lot of people following you.
- They want to see that you are following a good number of people or at
least some noteworthy people.
- What you tweet and how you tweet will determine the types of people
that follow you.
It's very much like any other networking service. In the absence of
knowing you personally, your followers and potential followers will try
to get a feeling for how you operate and what your values are, based on
all of the above. Are you friendly or rude? Professional or
unprofessional? Are your Tweets useful or pointless? Do you retweet
others' tweets or primarily generate your own interesting comments?
All of these things will determine the makeup of your followers and
through extension help others understand who you are, what you are
interested in, the issues of importance to you, and ultimately, the "face" of
your business.
9. Twitter Abbreviations
What does TY mean? Thank You. What about RT? TMB? DM? The list
is pretty extensive. Because of the 140 character limit, frequent Tweeters
have adopted acronyms for common phrases to help convey a message while not
reverting to the obnoxious phone-text terms like "U" in place of "you" or
"2" instead of "to" or "two".
A brief synopsis of the most common abbreviations and their use follows:
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Usage |
| DM | Direct Message | DM username (message) -- sends a private message to someone following you |
| PRT | Partial Re-Tweet | Notes that you are retweeting only a portion of someone else's tweet |
| RT | Re-Tweet | You are retweeting someone else's message. Always include attribuation
as RT @username (original message) |
| TIA | Thanks In Advance | Asking for info, being polite in anticipation of the reply. |
| TMB | Tweet Me Back | Asking someone to tweet or mention you in reply to an inquiry or comment. |
| TY | Thank You | Used as @username TY, to signify thanks for someone sharing info or
mentioning you. |
| YW | You're Welcome | Response to a TY. |
10. Summary
Twitter isn't for everyone.
We've been able to find some very good business uses for it. As a
lightweight and immediate form of communication, it's perfect if you
have quick notes, announcements, special offers, coupons, service
alerts, just about anything that relates to you or your business... but
that's just us.
It does require time to keep up, just like any social media tool. You
have to work it to make it work for you. But it can be an effective way
to stay in touch with people and businesses you might never otherwise
have a chance to know. Likewise, they have the ability to get to know
you. The more you use it, the more likely others are to learn about you
and what you are up to.
There are many other facets to Twitter, third-party services designed to raise
others' awareness to your Twitter profile (such as wefollow.com), and add-on applications, but
I will hold off on those for a future post.
I hope this information helps!
Thank you,
David Anderson
