What is Twitter?

An Information Network
Twitter is a website, owned and operated by
Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking
and microblogging service, enabling its users to
send and read messages called tweets.

– Wikipedia
 Tweets & Tweeps
Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the
user's profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default; however,
senders can restrict message delivery to just their followers. Users
may subscribe to other users' tweets – this is known as following
and subscribers are known as
followers or tweeps
(Twitter + peeps).
 Who Uses Twitter?
Everyone! From Dell, which reported $9m of its 2009 sales
coming directly through Twitter and Facebook to
protesters who used it to organize the 2011 Egyptian protests.
The service has also been used in
Legal Proceedings
Education
Emergencies
Survey Opinion
Campaigning
Public Relations
Reporting News
Fundraising
How Do You Use Twitter?
1. Go to Twitter.com and sign up for a free account.
You must have an email address, and it helps if you have a image that
best represents you.
2. Work on your ‘bio’. You want to make it eye catching and interesting. Do
it just right and it will help you build up followers. Bear in mind that a bio can
only be up to 160 characters long,
so you’ll have to keep it short and
to the point. Don’t worry about typ-
ing your real name or website URL
here. That information can be typed
into separate fields under Settings.
3. Figure out who to follow. You will probably find that you know quite
a few people on Twitter. Using the
'Who to Follow' page, you can find
people you know through your
various Gmail, AOL, MSN, Hotmail
and Yahoo! accounts.
 Time to Tweet!
4. Tweet. If you want to let your followers know what you are doing, type it in the
'What's happening' text box and then click on the 'Tweet' button. Note that tweets
are limited to 140 characters or less; otherwise, the "Tweet" button will gray out. A
countdown is offered to help you keep track of the character count of your tweets.
 Use @Mentions
Click '@Mentions' to see if there are any replies to any
of your 'tweets'. When tweeting, using '@' followed by a
username (with no spaces) in your tweet will send a mention
to the user you choose. For example, '@username' will send a mention to 'username',
and the entire tweet will show up in his '@mentions' section.
 Use #Hashtags
Prefacing a word with a '#' will create a hashtag. A hashtag makes a certain word
easily searchable.
Some Trending Topics will include hashtags, thus making it easier for users to tap
into a Twitter-wide conversation regarding a single matter of interest.

• A prime example of the usage of hashtags can be seen

with Major League Baseball, which uses team-name
hashtags (#Mets, for example) to pull together lists of
in-game tweets, which it displays on it’s website.
 Send DMs
DMs are Direct Messages. They go straight to the intended person that you are
messaging. It utilizes an inbox and outbox system, but you are still limited to using
140 characters; you are also limited to users who follow you. DMs cannot be seen
by anyone other than yourself and the chosen recipient, and are thus more personal.
 Learn the Lingo
Retweet or "RT" - taking a tweet from one user and posting it yourself, automatically crediting the source, so
that all of your followers can see the tweet.
Tweet - a Twitter single update of 140 characters or less, which include @Mentions to other users, hashtags,
external links, or simply regular text.
TweetUps - Using Twitter to meet with other Twitter folks.
Trending Topics (TTs) - Trending Topics are a range of subjects which many users across Twitter are talk-
ing about simultaneously. Clicking on a Trending Topic in the list will bring up a range of tweets mentioning
the matter of interest, and for each Trending Topics, there will be up to three 'Top Tweets'. These are tweets
which are relevant to the Trending Topic, that have been retweeted more than 150 times.
Lists - Users can organize the people they follow into 'Lists' of businesses or personalities which are related in
some way. For example, a user could list all of the NPOs and charities they follow into a single List, for easy
reference.
Promoted Tweets - A single Trending Topic which a company or organization can pay to 'trend,' as to gain
attention and traffic from Twitter users worldwide.
 Best Practices
Build your following, reputation, and customers’ trust with these simple practices:

1. Share. Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better, give a glimpse
of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and share the latest, so give it to
them!
2. Listen. Regularly monitor the comments about your company, brand, and products.
3. Ask. Ask questions of your followers to glean valuable insights and show that you are listening.
4. Respond. Respond to compliments and feedback in real time
5. Reward. Tweet updates about special offers, discounts and time-sensitive deals.
6. Demonstrate wider leadership and know-how. Reference articles and links about
the bigger picture as it relates to your business.
7. Champion your stakeholders. Retweet and reply publicly to great tweets posted
by your followers and customers.
8. Establish the right voice. Twitter users tend to prefer a direct, genuine, and
of course, a likable tone from your business, but think about your voice as you
Tweet. How do you want your business to appear to the Twitter community?
 Case Studies
JetBlue @jetblue
JetBlue was one of the first major brands to join Twitter, which it did in Spring 2007. Today, the company
has over a million followers, and its account is often cited as an example of smart corporate Tweeting. But
the company started out on Twitter with modest goals. It wanted to help customers.

Best Buy @twelpforce

Best Buy wanted to be a resource for customers beyond their experience in the stores. The company
developed a unique way to connect with customers through it’s @twelpforce account to provide real-time
customer service. Twitter Strategy: Instant Connections
 Twitter for Sales
Twitter connects businesses to customers in real-time.
Businesses use Twitter to quickly share information
with people interested in their products and
services, gather real-time market intelligence
and feedback, and build relationships with
customers, partners and influential people.
From brand lift, to CRM, to direct sales,
Twitter offers businesses a chance to reach
an engaged audience.
 Twitter Facts
* 175 million registered users.
* 95M tweets are written per day.
* 572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.
* 182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

Your turn to engage!

 Resources
http://business.twitter.com
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Twitter
http://www.Wikipedia.com
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/15/twitter-reveals-its-latest-growth-numbers
www.twitter.com/#@leeamoran