OK, I have a Twitter account. Now what?

In an attempt to ’get with it’ I have taken the first step in the Twitter plunge and got myself an account. I had a great time personalizing my ’page’ and everything is looking good. However, now I look at the screen and have no idea what to do next. Is my Twitter page like a Feed Reader where i would want to check in from time to time and see ’what’s up"? Are the Tweets I ’follow’ like the feeds I subscribe to?

My motivation to be a Twitty is mostly to find out what it is about. So far I have had great resistance to joining, and have spent very little time even reading messages in Twitter (I have a feed for MODx in twitter i check out on occasion) and have a hard time understanding the principal.

Any Twitters have any pointers for getting started?

am following this with interest...since we seem to be in the same boat...I’ve resisted Twitter for a long time and have never imagined "any use for it" personally. With all the buzz about it, surely, there must be some good to it, ha! So...lemme wait and see...

/k

What made me look closer at it was a podcast from Freelance Switch where they discussed how to use Twitter. One of the panelists described how it could be used for direct support (this is where I thought it could fit in to my life). I really don’t see myself with much to say that would be of any interest to others, and I really hate the re-tweeters who will simply regurgitate what is already available (even with my extremely limited access to Twitter I can see this is a problem).

OK...I know I certainly felt like I needed it when the forum when down on saturday...just coz I wanted information. I was kinda worried that the exploit was in modx...thankfully it wasn’t! I get your point though....but I’ll wait FTM....

/k

First of all. Twitter is not Facebook statuses or a status service like Pownce or microblogging even though this was what is was intended for.

To get the most of twitter you need to:

Follow people you want to hear from (not just your friends). If you want to find ways to follow people there is Mr. Tweet friend suggest, Twitter offers a suggest too as of this week. Follow me and look to see whom I am following. You can also use http://search.twitter.com to do location based, industry based or other tweets of interest and follow people who look interesting.

If there are news organizations or tech people that interest you with a twitter account follow them.

Next: Interact with people. Post often, don’t post: Off to get pizza, time for bed, feeling tired. etc.

Share ideas, thoughts, insights, links other tweets (via retweets) and reply to people using the @username syntax. To get the most out of Twitter you need to exchange. Lurking is fine but you will quickly get bored and say, "Twitter is lame" it is not.

Use a desktop tool such as TweetDeck or Twhirl or extended web interface such as PeopleBrowsr to organize your tweeple. I have a running search on any tweets containing "modx" and reply as I can. I also have a search for "CMS" and let people know about MODx when applicable. The idea is not to be slimey but to be helpful. I find the more help you offer the more exchange you will get.

Finally, be friendly, be real and don’t try to sell people stuff. Use a real photo of you as your avatar, use your real name or some variation thereof for your username (you can change at anytime)

To dev_cw about the retweets. Unless you look at the public main timeline you only ever see retweets from people you are following personally I find this a tremendous value add because I see shared links, posts or comments that I might not otherwise see. It is human filtering that for the most parts says "This tweet was cool, interesting, valuable, has a great link" I get introduced to more smart people, websites, blogs and news stories from retweets than I do from single tweets.

With regard to not having anything interesting to share, it isn’t about being poetic or expert or a guru etc but sharing your point of view, an idea asking for advice or a question. I post when I have something I want to share or others will take interest in. No one is uninteresting when you get to know them.

I follow over 1200 people (no I don’t read every tweet) I use groups in tweetdeck to manage my close friends, particular networks and people whom I respect all in their own pane.

Live support is something I’ve been doing for about 6months now for MODx ppl and I have made 2 clients and $1000s by helping out people with MODx.

Twitter is weird because it can be many things to many people but it is a wonderful tool to connect, share and learn. My own description of Twitter is mingling at an amazing conference and floating in and out of conversations and getting to know one another. I follow people who are real people and might have something real to say no matter how inconsequential.

Cheers,

Jay
PS: Follow me on Twitter!

Jay, thanks for the tips.

First of all. Twitter is not Facebook statuses or a status service like Pownce or microblogging even though this was what is was intended for.

Does it matter, as far as impression, if you have no followers? I hesitate to add my new twitter address on my site since it is blank and I will look ’uninteresting".

Can Twitter be a way of contacting you? Would I want to add "Tweet Me" to my contact information on my site or is that not a good idea?

Use a real photo of you as your avatar, use your real name or some variation thereof for your username (you can change at anytime)

I used the name of my site, modxguru, as my username. I was thinking about getting a second account with my name as the username for personal connections. A real photo might get me banned, also I cherish my online anonymity, as far as my identity is concerned.

To dev_cw about the retweets...

From the limited following I have done on Twitter there are interesting reTweets and there are annoying reTweets. Maybe since I am not following anyone specifically I am not filtering out the useless junk. But I often find that the reTweets are almost like annoying spam.

Live support is something I’ve been doing for about 6months now for MODx ppl and I have made 2 clients and $1000s by helping out people with MODx.

This is what I was thinking more about when I came back to Twitter. Do you monitor Twitter all the time? How do you know if anything interesting comes up that is worth responding to?

I follow over 1200 people (no I don’t read every tweet) I use groups in tweetdeck to manage my close friends, particular networks and people whom I respect all in their own pane.

How do you keep personal stuff isolated from business stuff? Do you use 2 different accounts? I can see the ’fun’ in Twitter as a personal connection tool, but I would not want to have a potential client ’following me’ while I am tweeting about something not business.

I’m not 100% sure with twitter I keep considering to use it but think it would become a big distraction? Is there really business value with twitter?

Shane,

I don’t like quoting in bbcode so I will answer your questions in a list:

• Don’t add your twitter feed to your site until you have posts.


• I don’t distinguish between my real self and my business self. They are one in the same. My opinion is that there is no difference between me as a person and my professional character but I don’t ever post things I don’t want traced back to me. I also don’t use it like I’m or Facebook Walls so I don’t post personal life updates that I wouldn’t share with a client. This is me. There is value for some to have split accounts.


• I will tell you when I switched to my real name and real photo followers and exchances became frequent and interesting. Twitter is about being yourself. It doesn’t really work for those who just want to be anonymous since it is a networking tool for networking not just anonymous rants. For those check out twitter.com/amandachapel or twitter.com/igorthetroll It works best when you treat it like a meet and greet after church or work or at the pub not like the internet. You don’t walk up to someone and introduce yourself as modxguru or dev_cw (if you do that’s your business.)


• Don’t follow people who don’t add real value but get to know the people you follow @them and ask them about a tweet or don’t be afraid to unfollow ppl who are self promoting or valueless to you (even me).


• As far as live support, I use search in TweetDeck to monitor search terms and check them periodically but you can actually grab feeds from search.twitter.com and use your gmail or GoogleReader. Much like I use google alerts to track news and blog posts about MODx I use twitter search to track modx, cms and other niches. I Twitter friend told me he even replies and asks questions of people looking for search terms such as "logo design", "website design" and makes no pitch and from his twitter profile page they contact him for work. I’ve not done this but he says he’s closed 5 clients doing it.


• I don’t post much personal stuff. Some is okay but the bulk of my tweets are around modx, web design, canadian politics, podcamp halifax and other such stuff. To track my friends tweets (no too many friends of mine are actually on twitter) I use a group in TweetDeck and add them to a Friends and Family Group.

Onesmarthost,

There are many cases for business value for Twitter, everybody new to Twitter is told its microblogging or a status service and it is a flat social network and communications tool. Companies like Comcast, Dell, Zappos and more are offering live 1:1 customer support (non personal stuff in replies). Dell has actually measured thier ROI: http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/15/twitter-has-made-dell-1-million-in-revenue/. For a web host why not post service updates and answer customer service questions? Why not use search for people looking for hosting suggestions and follow them or answer their questions. Twitter can be distracting but it can be equally engaging and result in new aquaintences, partners, investors, customers and more.

What I would say is decide what you want to get out of it and then set limits make sure you evaluate your returns.

Cheers,

Jay

Thanks for all that info Jay, after reading that I can see that twitter can be a very good business tool.

When you monitor search terms for your business niches do you then reply to these people offering services? or is it the case that you have previously wrote something about the niche and people contact you for help?

All I need to do now is think of a twitter id.

Thanks

Thanks Jay, you have shed some light on a number of things.

You don’t walk up to someone and introduce yourself as modxguru or dev_cw (if you do that’s your business.)

I have a history of market myself always by company name. Do you think that branding yourself by your real name is more efficient than building up a brand name?