To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

To Tweet or Not To TweetEverything You Ever Wanted

To Know About Twitter

Ted Prodromou

www.netbizexpert.com

© 2009 NetBizExpert.com 2

What is Twitter?

• Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

• Also known as a “microblog” where each blog entry is limited to 140 characters


Is Twitter right for me?

• Your competitors are currently using social media or will be using social media very soon

• You need to have a strong presence on the internet whether it’s your website, blog and/or social media

• Barack Obama used social media to engage an entire generation and win the election


Ways to use Twitter

• Personal – Let your family and friends know what you’re

up to

• Business– Engage your prospects and customers online

• Informational– Share interesting news and information


Examples of personal Tweets

• I’m heading to the gym now…• Enjoying my morning low fat, double latte @

Starbucks. Mmmmm• I have a terrible migraine• I have the worst cramps EVER!• I’m so horny since I stopped taking the pill• Meet me at the beer stand near section 12

#giants• I’m stuck in traffic on 101. This sucks!


How to effectively Tweet for personal use

• Engage others in conversation by replying to their Tweets

• Start a provocative conversation with a compelling question or statement

• Answer someone’s question or help them solve their problem

• Provide a link to valuable information


Good personal Tweeters

• willotoons

• barefoot_exec – talks way too much!

• nancytierney

• chrisorourke

• joevitale

• mchammer

• lancearmstrong


Business Tweeting

• Give out free information about your products and services

• Give away free products• Connect with potential customers• Provide customer service • Respond to negative internet

conversations about your product or service

• Poll your customers online


Good business Tweeters

• comcastcares

• JetBlue

• Zappos

• Intuit

• Intel

• Starbucks

• dellsmallbiz


Informational Tweets

• Provide valuable information

• Mention interesting/helpful websites

• Interesting/odd news events

• Funny information

• Trivia


Informational Tweeters

• guykawasaki

• ed_dale

• webguild

• chrisbrogan

• joelcomm


Other uses for Twitter

• Team communication– Create a user for the team and protect all updates so they aren’t

publicly displayed– Only team members will see updates

• Keep in touch at events by using # tags– End each Tweet with your tag like #netbiz– Each user sets up a search so all Tweets with #netbiz are

displayed• Prospecting

– Search Twitter for keywords related to your niche – Start a conversation with the person using those keywords

telling them you are available to help– “I’m looking for a virtual assistant” – contact them if you are a

virtual assistant


Getting started

• Choose your username– Personal or business use?

• Use your name or your business name if available

– Your username is your Twitter URL• www.twitter.com/ted_prodromou

– Make it easy to remember for others– Don’t use numbers in your username– Keep it closely associated to you or your

business

http://www.twitter.com/ted_prodromou


Skip the next step

• After you create your username you will be asked to search your online email accounts to invite friends to follow you

• SKIP THIS STEP unless you want to send an email to every one of your contacts inviting them to follow you

• Don’t start following people until you complete your profile and homepage


Create an inviting profile

• Decide what brand you want your Twitter page to represent

• Enter your real name or company name

• Create a free offer on your blog or website and enter that URL into the More Info URL

• Create a compelling one line bio

• Upload a picture or avitar


Update your background

• You can customize your Twitter page background using images from Twitter or upload your own

• Create your own background – Create a 2048 x 1707 jpg image in Photoshop– Use a template from twitter.com/waynesutton

or www.box.net/shared/lgw2pz4gso or search Google for Twitter background template

– www.twitter.com/natalie or www.GrungeTextures.com for more samples

http://www.box.net/shared/lgw2pz4gso

http://www.twitter.com/natalie

http://www.grungetextures.com/


Almost ready to make your first Tweet


But first…Follow before you Tweet

• It’s best to follow some people to determine your Twitter style before you start Tweeting– Do you want to be a quantity or quality

Tweeter?– Are you going to be engaging others in

conversations?– Are you going to provide information?


Finding people to follow

• Search for people on the Find People tab• Go to search.twitter.com

– Enter names or keywords related to your niche

• Click on the Everyone tab and watch the conversations– Start following people you like or are talking about

your niche– See who they are following and follow the ones you

like


Twitter commands

• Each entry is limited to 140 characters

• You can start a new conversation

• You can reply to an existing post by entering @username + message

• You can send a direct message by entering d username + message

• To Follow someone follow username


Twitter tools

• TwitPic – post your pictures• Tweetlater – automatically follows people who

follow you• Twitterific – for Macs • Twhirl – PC application which enhances the

Twitter options• Twitterfeed – send your Tweets to other apps

using RSS• Twist.flaptor.com – shows you popular Twitter

conversations

http://twitterfeed.com/

http://twist.flaptor.com/


More Twitter Tools

• Twellow – Yellow pages for Twitter users• TweetBeep – lets you track conversations by

keyword• Tweetdeck – enhanced Twitter dashboard• TwitThis – adds a button to your blog so people

can comment about your post on Twitter• TwitPwr.com – shortens long URL’s for your

Tweets• MyTwitterToolbar – lots of Twitter tools built in

For more informationwww.netbizexpert.com

www.twitter.com/ted_prodromou

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

Business

Transcript of To Tweet Or Not To Tweet