How to begin on Twitter
The Twitter phenomenon
In 2006 the internet changed forever, as a new website answered the prayers of many developers jaded by the constant changing playing field of SEO and looking for new ways to promote their content. Responding to an ever-increasing demand from users to share information quickly and concisely, the micro-blogging concept was born. The first site to harness its revolutionary potential was Twitter . In less than three years the growth of Twitter has been nothing short of stratospheric, giving search engines a real run for their money as users mine its near-limitless encyclopedia of user-created knowledge.
In 2007 Twitter had users in the thousands. Today they are in the millions and Twitter’s user base continues to grow by hundreds of thousands each and every month. Compare that to MySpace, formerly the darling of social media, and even Facebook – still a burgeoning presence – and it becomes obvious why you can’t afford to miss out on the site some are calling ‘the new internet’.
Twitter was launched without a strong search capability. In the beginning it was difficult to locate users’ posts, a huge opportunity missed by the developers. But as Twitter has grown up, the proprietary search and a raft of powerful third-party tools have been developed and refined to give strength to the argument that Twitter really could become a Google beater when it comes to finding information on the web.Why? Real-time information, on demand. Google has to index pages from websites, and this takes time. The moment users post content to Twitter, it is available to search. And the user base is of such magnitude that there are few subjects yet to have been discussed at length on this revolutionary website. Your author has been ‘tweeting’ on Twitter (for the website has a language all of its own) at http://www.twitter.com/JohnMerrick for a long time and it is the easiest thing in the world to sign up for an account.
Why you need to use Twitter – now
Twitter has a membership base of people keen to hear your message, with whom you can network, and to whom you can market your products. To take advantage of this free marketing tool you simply join up and start ‘following’ other members. As a result you will begin to receive ‘followers’, the number of which will continue to rise as you continue to follow people yourself.
It’s absolutely vital that you share meaningful information with your followers. Since there is already quite a lot of ‘noise’ in the Twittersphere you can stand head and shoulders above many other members by posting content relevant to your niche. Think of Twitter as your window on the world, and your followers as your friends. What do you want to tell them? How can you best sell your product wisely and interestingly?
Once you have established yourself on Twitter you can share all manner of content and links to websites among a huge audience. What’s more, once you are recognized as an information expert, it is likely that people will ‘retweet’ your Twitter posts to their own networks, thus spreading your news among a potentially limitless group of users.
It’s easy to see, therefore, why you’re missing out if you’re not on Twitter.
How to begin on Twitter
Here’s a quick guide to getting started on Twitter – and developing your own strong presence:
• Go to Twitter and create an account.
• Use the Advanced Search feature at http://search.twitter.com and define the type of people you’re looking to network with.
• Trigger a daily report based on subjects discussed by Tweeps (other users of Twitter) at TweetScan
• Use a directory of Tweeps such as Twellow and search for followers by occupation and subject preferences
• Add yourself to a directory of Tweeps such as Wefollow.com During registration you will be asked to categorise yourself based on your preferences. Be as specific as possible here since the great user base means that the ‘long tail’ concept works best here if you want to stand out from the crowd.
• To instantly generate a list of followers use the free service at MrTweet.Net. This can be hit and miss but it’s a great way to add a wide range of followers from the get-go, and you will find some great people to network with this way.
• The Twitter Traffic Machine is a great resource detailing how to setup an automated system that will help you grow your Twitter followers. Even if you don’t implement the whole system there is some great golden nuggets of information that will certainly help improve your Twitter usage.
• Twitter Money Tree contains detailed methods on how you can make a profit from using Twitter. Learn stealth techniques to get people and your followers to see you as a trusted friend and hand you money no matter what niche you are in.
