Digital Marketing, Social Media, Web 2.0, Web Analytics, Web Design

By Dawser Al Hadidi

This is not about “cake” I put this picture to make drool!

I decided to write this article to teach new tweeps how to use Twitter. I will write a more advanced article after this one so keep visiting this blog.

For those of you who did not read my previous posts about Twitter, I will quickly summarize it:

Twitter is a micro blogging social media platform allowing 140 characters to speak your mind, thoughts, daily events, market your brand, skills, support you customers, anything you want to say read more about how to best use this medium in my Twitterethics article.

Signing up for an account:

Visit www.twitter.com press on the green button “sign up” as shown in screen 1

Once you are on the sign up page you need to enter all fields to be able to create an account, make sure you select a light and short user name, remember you have only 140 characters to use for your tweet messages and your username is counted within those characters. So making it short will allow you to tweet easier.

Note: don’t let the CAPTCHA scare you, enter the scrabled letters as you see them if you cannot see them clearly you press reload it will give you another one until you are able to see it and type it correctly.

Now that you signed up and you got your account, you can start tweeting, so get on www.twitter.com and enter your user name and password, just click on the “sign in” button on top right of the page, the sign in window will appear and enter your credentials, make sureyou always remember your password. If you happen to forget it, there is a “forgot password” service below the sign in button.

Tour around the home page:

When you land on the home page you will see your Twitter Home page, on this page you will see a display of other people Tweets (Tweet is a term for the message entered in the text field on top, under What are you doing?) once you start following them. I will speak about getting followers in just a bit. Now we focus on getting oriented with our twitter home page.

@username on the right bar, is your mentions, anyone who mentions you whether it’s a reply to something you tweeted, or a retweet (repeating what you say will elaborate on that later on this article). Remember all @replies and retweets are visible to the public.

The Direct Message you see just under the @username, is your private Twitter inbox, it is a feature which you can able or disable, allowing other Tweeps to send you message which you will be able to view only, this will not be visible to the public. I advise you to allow DM as it will open more opportunities for you on Twitter to connect with others.

Favorites is a button you use to distinguish the best tweets, if you really like some of the tweets    you can press on the star shape next to a tweet and it will be gathered in the favorites page

The search box you see under favorite is used to search for names of people celebrities or a subject of your interest.

Trending Topic, any topic comes with a “#” symbol means it has been a most talked about subject and Tweeps have given it the “#” sign, therefore, it will be categorized within the trendy topics.

RSS it means “Really Simple Syndication” meaning you can use this tool to access Twitter Feeds without actually logging into Twitter. If you are a blogger you might want to check out Twitterfeed. This tool automatically sends your blog update to Twitter.

Getting on with Tweeting:

Tweeting is like speaking, it’s up to you what you want to say! however, I must let you know that if your tweets are not interesting enough people will not follow you. So share thoughts, ideas, knowledge, books you read, anything that will add value and raise interest, you can also speak about your day you experience, the point is to share and interact. Twitter is a social gathering place, I personally find it a great source of information, and many use it in marketing their product and services, so it can be used in the professional world.

Followers & Following:

The essence of existing on Twitter is to follow people and be followed, the term follow means follow their thread of tweets, and the same goes for you as a follower, you choose the tweeps you like to follow.

The follow menu is very easy, once you click on any name you will find a small arrow once you click on it you will find a menu as shown in the image:

@ Mention Username: is what is used to reply to this user and the message will be shown on your page, his and your followers.

Direct Message: the same as we explained earlier, this feature is to send a private message to a specific user

Unfollow: is used to stop following a particular use.

Block: is used to block a person from following you, it is possible to unblock a person. cleaning twitter for those who misuses this platform. So if anyone who you suspect as a spammer. you can report the account to Twitter.

This screen shows your own followers in brief, you can click view all, which gives you the full list of who is following you

Twitter Commands:

I will share only one very necessary commands for now.

RT @username: a command used to repeat the tweets you like, make sure you type it in the top text field box as mentioned here” RTSPACE@USERNAME” and then copy the tweet you liked and hit update.

Keep watching my blog I will write another article about more advance Twitter commands and get into the settings of an account, how to customize your background and picture and more…

I recommend you go through the Twitter blog to read more Twitter stories.

by Dawser Al Hadidi

I have a feeling that this article may result in part 2 of the same subject so I will call it 1.0.

This is to all Tweeps, old, new and people who are thinking of becoming Tweeps. Twitter is a microbloging social media platform offering 140 space of character to share your thoughts, ideas, issues you feel strongly about, experiences, daily happenings, anything worth sharing with the public. Not to forget you can use Twitter for marketing your brand and build awareness for your business. The 140 characters are good enough to make a point!

Anyways let’s get to the point; to understand Twitter, think of it as part of your social life, there are social ethics that govern it, but with less facial expressions at least for now! More exposure and wider range of social reach.

Twitter Social Rules:

Following & Followers

1. Follow your good followers
2. Send Thank you for new followers – You can use this automated service to action a “thank you message” for all who follows you (www.tweetlater.com)
3. Get to know your followers and interact as much as possible.

Tweeting:

A term applies to the 140 character you enter in the “what are you doing?” text box and send out to your fellow Tweeps.

1. You do not have to answer the “What are you doing?” question, just speak your mind, share knowledge and add value to the Twitterommunity.
2. Tweet on daily basis.
3. Do not tweet too much, or too little, you have to keep your followers engaged.
4. Keep intervals between your tweets, at least 5 seconds.
5. Ensure your Tweets are understandable, logical, and reasonable; this is what will keep them following you and increase your followers.
6. Make your tweets interesting, even if you want to tweet about taking your lunch you can make it exciting and engaging.
7. Do not tweet too much personal stuff, it’s not only unexciting it is also unsafe, there are the places for personal chats.
8. Retweet Good Tweets – Simple Command “RTspace@Username” and add the Tweet you liked.
9. Thank Who Retweets your Tweets.

Follow Friday

1. A sweet way to recommend good Tweeps for others to follow.
2. Mention #FollowFriday each Friday, simple write #FF and @username/s of the Tweeps you want to recommend
3. Thank who mentions you on #FF.

@replies and Direct Messages (DM)

The difference between @replies and DM, is the latter is private no one except the recipient can access it. The @replies can be public and will appear on the “@username” on the right side bar of your Twitter page, it also always appears in search results.

1. Check your @replies frequently

2. Reply to all @replies, since these are public and others may read it then try your best to make it understandable. I know it is challenging with the 140 character limits and that’s why I said try your best.

Only for Famous Tweeps

A note to VIPs, celebrities, companies, and businesses all must listen to other Tweeps, these Tweeps represent their fans or customers, Twitter is all about interacting, and you cannot interact without listening. You are on Twitter to deliver a message, support your service, satisfy your fans, or enforcing a global change; whatever it may be, you need to remember that you did put yourself on Twitter to get closer to the public, the way to do it is very simple:

1. Check your @replies frequently
2. Search using #subject, your name, your company name the issue your support I.E #Hunger you will find what is being tweeted about you, your service and subject you call for, then simply interact using the @reply command.

And Tweep please remember, if you got into a twitterugment make sure you listen respect what the other tweep is saying and make your point clear.

To understand the lingo used in my article visit http://business.twitter.com/basics/what-is-twitter/