Okay, so here’s a quick and easy plan that will help get you into twitter without a lot of pain and more gain. (My thanks to “ubermensch” Axel Schultze for this WAY COOL methodology…it’s really his idea, i’m just modifying it and blogging about it).
WHY: because social media is the wave of the very near future. it is changing the way everything is done. read my blog topics below.
WHY: because by 2012, 90% of marketing mindshare will be fought for in the social media space – and it takes awhile to build those spaces and gain brand recognition and loyalty to your social media spaces. If you don’t start now, your competition WILL take your customers.
WHY: because this is a goldmine area for research (for those of us who care) but you gotta know how to use it before you can research and measure it effectively
WHY: because your kids are or will live and breathe it and every parent cares what the kids are doing
KNOW: twitter is a social media tool about connecting with people with ideas and information you want or need. the more people you follow, the more who follow you (unless you’re the CEO of twitter, then everyone will follow you anyway) and the more access you will have to info, conversations, people.
KNOW: twitter is NOT just about telling people what you ate for lunch. it’s about fast, word-of-mouth INFORMATION
KNOW: once you get into twitter, you can customize the people you follow to your needs
KNOW: to start, I’ll assume you’re interested in good info on social media, twittertools, marketing, etc.
DO: Join twitter. wwww.twitter.com
– pick a professional but friendly photo, preferably one you use in other social media places like linkedin
– pick a handle that makes professional sense for you – nothing too crazy
– in 140 characters describe you – be brief but interesting. other people often determine whether or not to follow you on this info
– be sure to list your website or personal blog or company website
– finish up the rest of the process
DO: your first 10 “tweets” (these give people an idea of your interests and if they match theirs, they will follow you)
– (3) about any new online blog entry or news article you found this week – include the link
– (3) links (and comment) to something in your industry
– (3) links to other things that you find of interest online
– (1) something of personal interest to you – no link – just an idea, comment or thought
DO: Follow me
– go to “find people” and
– type in “adriennecorn” and i’ll pop up.
– click on “follow”
DO: Look at my page and the people I’m following.
– Choose at least 50-100 of them to follow. It will take about an hour to do this.
– You can see what they are “into” and choose accordingly. I have picked mostly social media/techy/entrepreneur/venture capital/human resources/education people to follow
– Be sure you follow some influential people like these: scottallen, ev, axels, scobelizer, mrtweet, guykawasaki, etc. They will have thousands of followers and this usually indicates that they are sending out regular tweets with solid information. They are also good models for the type of info you should be tweeting about. If you like what they are saying, see who they follow and follow some of their peeps. (Following is easily done in twitter or a twitter “client” such at tweetdeck, hootsuite, twithive, etc.)
WHY: Now leave it, and by the next day, you will have 30-90 people following you. This give you overnight “tweet cred” (my term)–and info that is interesting and pertinent on a daily basis. It’s the fastest way to gain followers and tweet cred (like street cred, only different!).
Next day or next few days:
DO: Learn to “retweet” or RT
DO: Learn to send direct messages (@adricorn or DMadricorn)
DO: Use a twitter “client” like TwitHive, tweetdeck or seismic.
DO: go to search.twitter.com (a google search type interface for twitter) – learn to use for you
DO: Follow those who follow you, if they are of interest
DO:
– Tweet and Retweet at least 3 items a day for a week,
– find 20 more people a day to follow for a week,
– go to MrTweet and see his tailored recommendations for people you should follow
This will set you up to be a successful tweeter….how to do more, well, ask your twitter folk! or sign up with the social media academy : ) (www.socialmedia-academy.com)
See you on Twitter!
Life is Messy - Use Your Words by Adrienne Corn 
AC, great article. Two points I would suggest is if you are a business person, 1) when choosing your username, try to choose your actual name for branding purposes. This will make it easier for people to find you. 2) On the ‘tweet’ cred, remember this is a SOCIAL tool, a communication method, so don’t forget to be friendly and engage people. Using Twitter for MLM or get rich quick schemes is the fastest way to get you unfollowed all the way back to the ‘twitter ghetto’.
Super post. I look forward to your next one!
Tim Moore
twitter.com/TimMoore
I agree, do not use twitter for a quick rich scheme that all you do is push your product, workout or service. Also try to post material that is useful to your followers that does not come from your own site or Blog. If you want to push the “best of” from your site or blog create a separate acct for it and give the readers the option to read it or not. I have had great luck with twitter driving traffic to the site but use two accounts to do this.
@UnderTheBar – my personal day to day posts, articles I find that I feel may help followers, etc.
@elitefts – used as a feed collection site for new products, posts, articles and other interesting items that are happening on the site.
If it is a big sale or very cool item I will also post it in my UnderTheBar acct but this is pretty rare.
Dave Tate
CEO Elitefts.com
@UnderTheBar
@Elitefts
Thanks a lot for writing this and provide a very valuable augmentation to the Twitter world.
@AxelS
Well said & in good detail too. I also agree with the comments. This is under 140-c how easy that is?
I read this, because I’m new to twitter, but so far I’m a little bit disturbed with the emphasis on follows and branding and marketing mindshare. I read somewhere else 90% Twitter content is produced by only 10% of the members. And I strongly disagree about kids tweeting… I don’t know anyone under 25 tweeting. I appreciate twitter for what it is, but not so sure it will evolve the way people are expecting it to. Twitter will be more about people and ideas than money.
twitter.com/NoeticMuse
Nothing for sale, ideas for free.
Great info Adrienne, thanks ! And to Axel too 😉
I’ll need to find this again later to retweet !
Antoine
http://xeesm.com/AntoineH