How to Get On Twitter
I‘m not going to detail the basics of creating your Twitter account. Go to www.twitter.com and follow the simple instructions. This takes about five minutes of time. We will come back to many of these elements to show how you can make them more effective for marketing purposes. For now, use your real name, a brief 160 character bio, including a link to your website and add a real photo. When completed, you can go to www.Twitter.com and log on to your account. Type into the box, “What are you doing?” any brief message. Click Submit and you have made your first Tweet.
If you want help with this go to http://internetmarketingllc.com/tsg20.pdf for a free Guide on how to get set up on Twitter by Al Ferretti and Skeeter Hansen.
Here are some basic concept you will be using on Twitter.
Tweet—when you write and submit a message less than 140 characters is called a Tweet.
Follow—when you add someone to your list of people you are following on Twitter. Your Tweet show up on their home page.
Handle—Your Twitter name @alhanzal. This is like your URL on Twitter.
Replies—when a person directly replies to you at your handle. @alhanzal nice job, etc. Usually this is done to engage another person in a conversation.
Retweet—taking someone’s Tweet or other materials and passing it on to others. This is a great way to share content with Twitter followers.
DM—this is a message sent directly to another person on Twitter. They must be following you to use the DM function. It is a way of keeping a message private.
Hashtags—by putting the # before a message, it’s a way of tagging the message much like tags on a blog. So it might look like #small business marketing and by using this you can search for all small business marketing Tweets.
To be continued, your comments are welcomed…
Al Hanzal
