Twitter 101

Twitter has become one of the most popular social networking sites, mostly due to its ease of maintenance and simple, direct approach. All it entails is the submission of less than 140 characters, push of the enter key and your news, website, press release, etc. is tweeted to all of your followers. Piece of cake, right? Yes, but only after you learn the language, rules and landscape of the Tworld. Otherwise, it's a foreign land.

Here is the 'Twrommer's Guide' to using Twitter:

• Since you only have 140 characters, you'll want to conserve space by shortening those long and unruly URLs. Two tools are Bit.ly and Cl.gs which will encapsulate your long website link into a pintsize version (and will even track clicks on it so you can monitor its effectiveness).

• Need Followers (people who receive your tweets)? Go to Twellow (an online Yellow Pages) and start following people you are interested in or whose business is affiliated with yours. Most likely, they will reciprocate (most people have their accounts set up to automatically follow their followers. You can too if you sign up through socialoomph.com).

• Put a '#' in front of key words in your tweet. This acts as a SEO tool and your tweet will show up when people do a search on that word, allowing you to easily connect with people who are interested in your business and activities.

• To reply a tweet to a specific person, add a '@' to their twitter name, then tweet away. Understand that although this tweet is for a certain person, everyone can read it. To send a DM (direct message ONLY to that twitter user), the use the link on the right side of your twitter page.

• If you read a tweet that you love and corresponds to your brand or aligns with your social networking purpose, retweet it. Simply click on the little button to the right and you can easily share it with your followers. (And if you ever notice someone else RT your tweets, then make sure you send a @message to thank them.)

• And one last hint to help you keep track of tweets and who you follow. Trillian is a free download that can connect with Twitter and your IM addresses so you can have the tweets pop up. Just make sure you aren’t someone easily distracted or else this may have negative repercussions.

**Remember, once you tweet, it's out there. You can't edit it or delete it. The internet is forever. And your tweets can be retweeted which can create that shampoo commercial of the 80s- and she told two friends who told two friends who told and so on and so on. Powerful stuff when you want your news to reach thousands/millions of people. Just make sure you're putting the right information out there!