What is Twitter? 12 Basic Tips for Newbies

12 Basic Tips on Twitter for Newbies

1) Twitter is like a virtual water cooler. It's a cross between a blog and a chat room but you only have 140 characters to "chat" with others.

2) Tweeple (people on twitter) have user names like trucker cb radio handles. My handle is @kendraramirez. Keep your handle easy for the rest of us to remember and to be able to find you. First name and last name is just fine.

3) Twitter is just like the status bar on Linkedin, Facebook or Plaxo “what are you working on now?” It is the best customer service. Twitter enables companies to monitor their brand and jump into the conversation to correct or praise a situation. It is also a great way to drive traffic to your website or blog. Just remember this is a community. Please don't spam the community.

4) Make sure to complete your profile on Twitter so others know who you are and what you do. People will be more likely to follow you back if you have your profile completed. I know I am a little leary of following people back if they have not completed their profile or photo.

5) You can't sign up on Twitter and what for something to happen. You have to find people to follow in hopes that they follow you back. To find people you can use Twellow or WeFollow. (Hint: if you have no one following you, you are talking to yourself)

6) Currently over 1465 Cincinnati Twitter users listed in www.twellow.com. Twellow is the yellow book pages for twitter. You can look people up via location, keyword, industry, etc.

7) Check out www.wefollow.com to find others in your industry or target market to follow on Twitter.

8) Over 8 million users today and on track to hit 100 million by December.

9) Tweetdeck is another great tool for your Twitter account. It allows you to see "all friends," "direct messages," and messages where your handle "@kendraramirez" was used in conversation and much, much more. (Hint: Direct messages are a one to one conversation and all other messages are one to many- "public" conversation)

10) If you see a message you like on Twitter and would like to share with your followers, you will "Retweet" or "RT" that message.

11) When you type a message on Twitter, that is called a "tweet."

12) Best tip is all of these tools are free! Enjoy!