Let’s be honest. Some of us are intimidated by Twitter. It’s hard to jump in and understand what in the world people are tweeting about because they are all using this unique truncated text-speak that might as well be in Sanskrit. It’s perfectly normal and natural to be freaked out. But now it’s time to get over it.

Twitter is a useful social networking tool that’s fun and effective. It offers more “spread” of message than Facebook and is a punchy way to communicate news and ideas. People who love to be informed love Twitter. And so should you.

Getting Started

To get started on Twitter, create an account and start searching for people, companies, and subjects that interest you. Start “following” people that are tweeting about the stuff you like or that is relevant to your organization. Before you know it, some people will start “following” you too. This simply means that when you post a tweet, they will see it in their feed. When people you are following post a tweet, you see it in your feed.

Twitter-ease

@ symbol

For those not Twitter savvy, an @ symbol is how someone from one Twitter account speaks directly to someone else’s Twitter account (and all their followers). You might tweet to me: @AngieCaunce I read your blog post and want you to check out this site www.yourlink.com. This tweet would be visible to all of your followers and all of my followers.

The #

A hashmark (#) indicates a subject that people are interested in and want to follow, but don’t want to have to follow each and every person talking about it. Do a search on #SocialMedia and you’ll be inundated with advice, useful links, and theories on the subject. You can save these searches and check back on your favourite subjects as often as you like. You can tweet anything you like within a hashmark subject just by including it in your tweet. For example, you might tweet: I just read a great article about charities using #socialmedia to drive donations.

RT

A “retweet” is when you want to pass on someone else’s tweet and credit them for it. You retweet simply by typing the letters RT and pasting the tweet you like (including the twitter account that originally tweeted it). Example: RT @ATwitterAccount I just read a great article about charities using #socialmedia to drive donations. Not only is retweeting good manners, it also introduces you to the followers of the original tweet and broadens your network.

Let’s talk about following your followers

The only people on Twitter who have thousands of followers and barely follow anyone are really famous and just have to show up for people flock to them. The rest of us have to work at it. Chances are, if someone follows you it’s because you represent something they are interested in. By following them, you are doing market research, finding out what interests them and what they are talking about. You may learn something that could benefit your organization. You may realize something about your demographic. You will certainly know who to ask when you need to gather support. Following people who follow you is how you gain Twitter momentum. At the same time, you don’t want to appear desperate. A 1 to 1 follow/following ratio is perfectly reasonable. You can always unfollow people that don’t add to your conversation.

Who are social media influencers?

Influencers are people who have a lot of followers. What’s “a lot”? More than 1000 is a good place to start. They could be people (like Rick Mercer or Avril Lavinge) or media (like The Globe and Mail or The Hour) or other organizations (corporations or associations).

You may already have influencers following you. You may already have influencers supporting your work. Find your influencers and start talking to them. This broadens your network and gets people with a big voice talking about you.

Every day, do a search on your topics of interest and see who is talking about them and supporting them. Everyday do a search on who is talking about your organization and talk back. Better yet, follow them and start talking. Engage your audience and they will follow you, literally.