Learn How to Use Twitter

Twitter is one of my favorite networks, but at first I didn’t get it at all. I followed a few friends, and searched the main Twitter stream for interesting things to read, but it seemed to be nothing but random chat. How in the world was this going to be useful for my business?

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There are a few ways for a small business to use this social media tool.Sure it can be fantastic for search engine ranking, but there are other things to consider too. All that said, Twitter is not for everyone, here’s how to decide if it’s going to work for you. Click here and read this before you continue. If you decide you’re not going to Tweet, that’s fine, but you might want to read this on listening to Twitter in real-time.

OK, I’m assuming since you’re here you’ve decided Twitter is a good fit. What’s next? You need to decide how you want to be represented on Twitter. Choosing a username is fairly straight forward. Or is it? Do you want to represent your brand or yourself? Read this about creating a user name. Once you’ve settled on a username you need to go set up your account. Here’s some information you need to know about the settings page.

You can go with the standard Twitter backgrounds or you can design one of your own. Here’s a video tutorial about Twitter background design and even a template you can download to build your own.

OK, you’ve got your account set up, a design for your background and you’re ready to get to tweetin’. Now you need to find some people to follow and attract a Twitter following of your own. You’ll also want to know some basic Twitter etiquette and protocols. You may want to browse some Twitter lists or make some of your own.

Once you’ve got a few hundred connections on Twitter you may find it easier to manage in a Twitter client like Hootsuite, Seesmic, or Twitter’s very own Blackbird Pie and you may want to start integrating your Twitter stream on your blog or your web site or combine several Twitter streams like this.

There, that should get you well on your way to using Twitter effectively. Just remember that it’s all about engagement and sharing. It’s not about spreading your marketing message far and wide. Now if you want to learn how NOT to get Twitter followers, watch this.