A friend of mine has been on the fence for about a year now and has finally forayed into Twitter and setup a profile. so now what? Well, firstly, I encouraged him not to expect miracles overnight. I also remind him that Twitter is about sharing. For those wanting to "do Twitter" simply to get something out of it (like publicity, web traffic, fame, fortune) thing again because you can only get out of Twitter what you put into it – unless you happen to be Ashton Kutcher or Britney Spears!
Remember, you likely aren’t a celebrity so forget about all the amazing stuff you hear about Twitter success from the likes of Lance Armstrong, Shaq, Ryan Seacrest and others. You are on Twitter for a different reason – most likely!
And so, some tips on setting up and getting rolling with your first Twitter:
Determine if it’s a personal Twitter, Business, or a blend of both. Blending business with pleasure can be challenging and will depend on your personality. Many people are doing this and its my feeling that active Tweeters seem to be about 70-30 or 80-20 Business vs personal with personal Tweets typically showing up outside of office hours. Proceed carefully in this capacity! If you’re unsure about how you can accomplish this then consider creating both a personal Twitter account as well as one for your business.
What’s In A Name?
The first step is finding a username (@yourname) which quite often will be a fancy reincarnation in some way of your name (like first initial last name, full name, or maybe nickname). For a business account, obviously your name will reflect the name of your business (hopefully its still available for you).
Once you have a name the most important next step is to fill in your settings and account preferences. For your personal account you’ll want an avatar which is most likely your photo. Again, if you expect to connect to professionals and colleagues, use a photo that is somewhat professional (you with a beer in your face may not be appropriate). Select a photo that is clear and in focus, preferably a head shot since you don’t have much space. If the Twitter account is all business and meant to front your commercial endeavours then consider using your logo as an avatar – this will make it obvious to visitors that you are running a corporate Twitter.
Be sure to include a description of who you are and what you do to give potential followers an idea what you’re all about and what you’ll be tweeting about (if you’re into iPhone app development then say that) and be sure to include good buzzwords that people will use when they use the Twitter People Search utility. Be sure to include your location (State is fine although a city is preferred) if you happen to be a real GeoNerd then you’ll likely enter your lat/long coordinates here although I don’t really suggest that as many Twitter directories that search people based on location will not find you! Finally, be sure to include a website link in your profile as well. If you don’t have a website or blog you can link to your face book or LinkedIn profile here.
Personalize
Personalizing your Twitter background is always a good idea and will give people a little bit of an idea what your all about. You can use a photograph or get creative and create a custom image that has images, logos, and even additional contact info on it. You might consider a third party add-on like Twitbacks to create a nifty, professional looking Twitter background (checkout @machinecontrol for an example)- see http://www.twitbacks.com/
Seek And Follow
Ok, so now you have a Twitter account, you’ve filled in your personal information and contact etc. now you need to follow some people. If you know a few Tweeple then visit their page, follow them and perhaps see who they follow or who’s following them (that information is made available and is only one click away). Twitter being a social service, you’ll find that when you follow people, you’ll also likely start following people who they follow etc… The native Twitter search application found at search.twitter.com also a good place to start. Simply search on a trending topic or buzzword (or even a company name or brand) and you’ll soon discover people who share an interest in the same things you do. You can then proceed to the person’s Twitter page, have a look at their bio and scan their recent tweets – you’ll quickly decide if its someone you want to follow. For Geo Tech people new to Twitter, I suggest you seek out popular companies that may be of interest to you (ESRI, Autodesk, Google, etc.) or try the Twitter People Search utility at http://twitter.com/invitations/find_on_twitter. Using this service you can enter part of a company name (like GISuser, ESRI or Google) or even enter part of a person’s name to see if they show up (like Letham)
I don’t suggest you start off by simply following anyone and everyone… Actually, following too many people at once could get you spam blocked by Twitter so be careful how you approach this! Start off by posting and sharing tips and tricks as well as pointers to interesting articles that contain good buzzwords on popular topics – I’m sure you’ll soon find that people will start following you. Don’t feel obligated to follow back everyone that follows you, actually, you’ll likely find that most people follow anywhere from 25% to 50% of those that follow them. Corporate Twitter accounts will often set-up an auto-follow rule where their account will automatically follow back anyone who follows them (check out some corporate twitter accounts and you’ll see that typically they either follow very few people at all or they follow more people than are following them, this is quite common)
The Hashtag (#)
Consider using Hash tags (#) Hashtags on Twitter (the pound sign on your keypad) are simply that, a way of tagging your tweet so its easier to find by others. Popular topics tend to attract followers and those that discuss the topic will often include the appropriate hash tag. For example, if you tweet something that has something to do with ESRI you may want to make sure to include a hash tag in your tweet like #ESRI or #ArcGIS. Tweets about job tips will contain a tag #job. Feel free to start your own hash tag if you think you might tweet regularly about a topic – the hash tag may wind up being viral and be adopted by others. Some example of this would be #FollowFriday where a popular Friday activity on Twitter has been to give a shout out to some cool people that you follow, you mention them and include the hash tag #FollowFriday or #FF. Another example of a Geo-centric hash tag would be #GeoNerd – this is a humorous term but has been frequently used in tweets and is a good way for you to locate some GeoNerds on Twitter! Below is a live stream of results of searching the hashtag #GeoNerd"
GeoNerd Search
Perhaps one of the most valuable uses of the hashtag is to follow events and people Tweeting from events. Most tech events will have an official #hashtag associated with them (if not them the event planner needs to wake up!). A guaranteed way of finding people that interest you is to locate people tweeting from an event that you wish your were at. For example, last summer many people were tweeting from the ESRI User Conference, Twitter hashtag #ESRIUC. Using Twitter search (search.twitter.com) and searching for "#ESRIUC" will turn up tweets from many people that were at the event (along with followers not in attendance but interested in being there). The results will turn up a gold mine of other Twitter users interested in ESRI and the conference… a perfect way to find some new followers – apply this practice to any event that interest you!
Find Yourself
Search yourself and your company. Obviously, if people are talking about you or your company then you likely want to follow them. I highly suggest you search yourself on Twitter search for @your name – this is crucial for corporate tweeters.
Grade Yourself!
Another fine search utility that you’ll want to check out is Twitter Grader http://twitter.grader.com/ You can use it to grade yourself but the real find with this resource is the ability to locate "Top" tweeters in a particular geographic area. If you select Twitter Elite / Top in Location you can then enter a place (like a town, state, or country) and retrieve a list of popular Twitter users – this is a great way to connect with active Twitter users in your local area, many of them will have some value to you. The service is based purely on numbers so the stigma of being "Top" is very subjective (i.e., just because you have 20,000 followers doesn’t really mean that you’re that interesting!) but it is useful as a starting point and search utility. A tip for you GeoGeeks. if you use your Lat/Long as your location then you likely won’t show up in Grader when people search by location.
For the corporate user, you may not want to miss out on following people who are Tweeting about you or trending topics of interest to you – enter Twollow. This is a paid-for service that provides users with the ability to automatically follow anyone who tweets a specified topic or keyword. This is a somewhat sensitive topic,. However, for the corporate user concerned about their brand then this could be a valuable resource. I don’t use it myself, however, I can easily see how it could be quite useful – let the buyer/user beware!
Directories
Now that you’re Tweeting, you may with to get yourself listed in some of the popular directories of Twitter users (think YellowPages). There’s several of them around and again, this could be a useful way to help others find you. A couple of popular services to consider are http://wefollow.com/ , http://www.tweetfind.com/ and http://www.twellow.com/. These are all fine resources where you can get listed in categories that are relevant to you and your Tweets and its also a fine way to search out and locate others that you may want to follow. Of interest, we also maintain a special directory of GIS/Geo Tweeters, please feel free to list yourself and your twitter handle there as well!
In your quest to secure a following please be careful about using any application that promises to get you more followers! Again, these apps are purely playing a number game and will almost always gain you followers that likely really don’t care at all about what you have to say. Furthermore, using these services well almost always result in you having to send out tweets that you are using the service and this could tarnish your reputation and result in you actually losing followers that are important to your social network – be careful!
Go Mobile
Finally, as your Twitter account become more important to you, there’s no doubt that you’ll want to be more connected; enter mobile Twitter. There are many apps and services that enable you to access twitter from your mobile handset. Receiving direct messages on your mobile from people who need to get in touch with you is very valuable. Be sure to enable mobile service from your Twitter account setup. As you become more savvy with your Twitter usage you’ll soon realize that your mobile connection to Twitter will increase your Twitter usage and benefit you by many orders of magnitude (you’ll also likely be Tweeting and checking your Twitter status 10x more often). To many people, sending and receiving tweets while on the road has taken the place of email and text messaging. For companies exhibiting at a trade show or presenting at a special event, there’s no better way to share the experience with your friends and colleagues as you send text tweets, mobile images, and even live video feeds from any place in the World. Mobile Twitter just may in fact be that killer app that everyone has been searching for!
Remember, you can follow me on Twitter via @gletham and follow GIS news & technology updates and announcements via @GISuser. Most important, now that you’re up and running on Twitter, tell people about it! Make sure your @username appears in your email signature, on your blog or website, on your business cards, and on your other social media profiles (LinkedIn, facebook) and add a Twitter badge to your blog or website.
Related Information
For more articles on the topic of Social Media see this Archive. In particular check out:
- 10 Ways Your Tech Business Can Take Advantage of Twitter
- Twitter Survey Usage Survey of Geo Technology Professionals – the results
- Setting up Corporate Twitter messaging or a Team Twitter
- 10 Things A Company Should Consider when starting their Twitter social media presence
In our industry directory of resources see the following sections of interest:
Finally, see also the "Twitter Topic Archive" on my blog for loads of great tips and resources