A Beginner's Guide to Twitter. Many of ReadWriteWeb’s readers are old hands at Twitter, but the service gets thousands of new users every day.
That includes a lot of folks who suddenly need to use Twitter as part of their job. If you’re just being introduced to the joys of Twitter (or introducing it to another user), here’s a short and friendly primer on what you need to know about using the site. After posting “10 Tips on Using Twitter Wisely” in December, I had a few notes from folks who said (basically) “thanks for the tips, but I didn’t know all the jargon.” Digging deeper, I realized that what seems obvious after using Twitter for several years isn’t so obvious to new users. Folks in the press, PR or marketing that are steeped in traditional media often get thrown into the Twitter/social media pool with little guidance. Alphabet Soup Tech folks tend to love acronyms and jargon. Follow If you’re on Twitter you probably get this one already, but let’s cover it for the sake of completeness. Why 140 Characters? Clients. 10 Tips on Using Twitter Wisely. Twitter is far and away my favorite social network, but it does have its downsides.
The 140 character limit? Nope, I actually enjoy the challenge of crafting meaningful messages in limited space. The problems come in when you have users who don't quite understand the way Twitter is supposed to work, or when people or companies abuse the service. You might balk at the idea that Twitter is "supposed" to work in any particular way. While Twitter doesn't have a written set of social guidelines (excepting its Terms of Service, of course), it does have a pretty well established set of unwritten guidelines that users should observe. Don't DM Me, I'll DM You One of the most common mistakes I see on Twitter is people asking a question of the Twitterverse in general, and then saying "DM me with your answer.
" A similar, more offensive, practice is DM'ing a user that follows you when you don't follow them. Thank You for Following Me It's also unnecessary to thank people for RT'ing you. Contest Spam. How to Get Started With Twitter Chats. One way to target your audience and expand your reach is the daily exercise your social media accounts should be getting by doing text chats with others in your network.
Twitter makes this easy, and there are now more than 500 weekly chats to choose from. Here is how to get started, no matter what your professional or personal interests might be. The beauty of a good social media chats is that they often allow the participant access to movers and shakers in a given industry. So here are some tips if you haven't tried this yet, or want to learn more. Remember, all chats are open forums. When it's time to chat, open up tweetchat.com and then search for whatever hashtag you desire to get started. Monday 8-9 pm EST #Journchat Twitter's first industry chat, a weekly conversation between journalists, bloggers and public relations folk, moderated by @PRsarahevans. Tuesday Wednesday Thursday #bookmarket 4-5 pm EST Connecting authors, publishers, bloggers, and publicists.
Friday Sunday.