The best way to get started harnessing the power of Twitter is to just jump in with both feet by creating an account and starting to tweet!  A twitter account will only take you a few minutes to create and you’ll be addicted in about 15 minutes afterward.

The main Twitter page is certainly not confusing or difficult to navigate. Simply go to Twitter.com and you will see a page that looks like this:

Click the green button that reads “Get Started – Join”, and you will be taken to very basic registration form that looks like this:

Choosing your username:

Give some thought to your username if you’re using it to represent yourself as a person, or a marketer, and not just your website. This is the name people will know you by, so try to find an available name that suits you, and not just a name like “twit579J” that would look like a spammer’s account.

You are able to choose a name that i a maximum of 15 characters (without spaces) so you need to use that limit wisely. If you want to choose a name that directly promotes your business, that’s acceptable, but having a sort of personal touch seems to work better on the big scheme of things.  The key to all this is the “being social” part, and in most cases, a more personal name will seem more genuine.

Other Settings:

Once you’re finished creating a username for your account, you’ll be taken to a screen that auto-suggests some followers for you. You can quickly glance through these or you can simply skip this step and be taken right to your new account home page.

That was basically it. No sweat, right?

Now, you’ll have a page that asks you the infamous “What are you doing?”.

However, don’t forget that, unless someone happens to stumble across your account, nobody is going to see you until you have followers so you might want to add a tweet or two and then head off to find some people you’d be interested in and choose to follow them by clicking the “follow button” at the top of their page.

Customize And Personalize Your Account:

You still have some settings in the backend of your Twitter account that looks like this:

From here, you can choose to set a couple notification preferences (such as mobile communication via Twitter), add a short bio, and customize your Twitter page a little bit visually (which is highly recommended).

Twitter has some built-in designs for the background of your page under the “design” tab, but you also have the option of uploading your own custom image to be used as a background as well!

That’s it! Now that you have an account, start tweeting and networking in!

Popularity: 23% [?]

What’s up tweeples? Anyone who wants to follow me, please do so, and send me a quick tweet on Twitter.

If that makes absolutely no sense to you, then read on, because you need to get involved and grasp the power of  one of the hottest (if not THE hottest!) marketing tools available on the Internet right now!  That tool is known as Twitter.

Twitter is a website that allows you to keep in contact with people in an ultra-compact way known as micro-blogging.  The term fits Twitter perfectly as each post made from a user is limited to a maximum of only 140 characters. Now, when you first get a glimpse of the size of a 140 character message, the first thing that comes to mind is probably something like “what could I possibly say of any value that would fit into that amount of space?”.  However, once you start particpating and get the hang of things, you’ll quickly be amazed at how informational a “tweet” can be.

A “tweet” is the user’s term that replaces what you would typicall refer to as a “post”, or a “message”. In fact, many Twitter users also refer to themselves and others as tweeples.

The Basics Of Twitter

Twitter is a social platform that allows users to share their tweets with each other in real time similar to a chat program. There are millions of people currently signed up with profiles on Twitter and the messages range from every end of the spectrum from life’s little chit chats, to marketing tips and business deals.

When you create a profile on twitter, you get to choose a unique user name, and your page has a bio section that also allows you to upload a photo, create a short bio, and link to a url of your choosing.

This same profile page has a link that reads “follow”.  This is where the magic happens. When you’re using Twitter, you only see updates (tweets) from people that you choose to “follow”.

As your list of followers grow, so does your network capabilities as you can reach all those people who have chosen to follow you, instantly. The power lies in your network. As you begin to capture the interest of your followers,  you have the potential to reach their network of followers as well…and so on…and so on.

Twitter is free, it’s fun, it’s great for business networking. The only possible bad side is that it takes discipline to not get addicted and spend too much time on it when you should be working on other things, so maybe you better stick to a rigid schedule with your “tweet blogging”!

Popularity: 5% [?]

When I first start talking to people about Twitter, some people have at least heard of it, others have no clue what I’m talking about.  I usually describe it as less intrusive than chat, less formal than email, yet enabling you to hear and learn from a wider audience where everyone is on an even playing field.  Also, it’s good to think of Twitter as a party, or networking event – You can walk around, shmooze with people on topics of interest – engage in conversation, ask questions, answer questions, and more.

It’s about conversation.  It’s about meeting people.  It’s about learning.  It’s about sharing.  It’s about connecting.

It’s a free web and sms social networking service.  It’s called “micro-blogging” because of it’s simplicity and because your blog entries/tweets are limited to 140 characters or less.

From the beginning…

1. Get an account through the web or send an SMS text to 40404.
2. Choose a username consistent with the rest of your social networks.
3. You can scan your address books for people and/or take recommended tweeps.
4. Upload a photo (don’t leave the default avatar) and upload a background picture.
5. Add a basic bio and keep it comical and/or informative.  Add your website.
6. Set your Profile to Public (everyone can see) or Private (just people you personally approve).
7. Find people to follow through http://search.twitter.com or http://twellow.com.

Get used to lots of things starting with a TW sound.  Just tweal with it

Some Twerms:

• Tweet – Verb or noun, depending on usage.  The micro-blog post you enter.
• Retweet – Repeating someone else’s Tweet – Mentioned in detail below.
• DM (Direct Message) – A private message.
• Device – Refers to your phone (SMS/Text).  Click Settings/Devices and add.
• Followers – Readers who follow (subscribe to) your Tweets.
• Following – The Tweeple that you are following.

Follow People.  Listen to them.  When ready, reach out though a DM or a @Reply.

• @Replies are flagged to the recipient and viewable by the public
• D (direct) messages are only viewable by the intended viewer.

So, to send a message to me privately you would put D williger in the message box.

Make Sure to read your @Replies and Direct Messages, which you can see this from your ‘Home’ navigation on Twitter.  People may be reaching out to you and expect and deserve your reply.  Well, usually – some people have automatic DM’s, it’s not a bad thing – just makes you weed through your inbox.

Be Cool – I can’t stress this enough.  You may razz your friends in person, don’t do it here – especially when starting out.  Micro-blogging, SMS, email, they all lack inflection – remember this.

Don’t Worry – Don’t be afraid to start talking about what you are doing or engaging in a conversation.  It’s just like any other type of communication, get used to the medium and run with it.

Promote It – Add your Twitter URL everywhere – Email Signature, Facebook, Myspace, Business Cards, etc.

To follow-back or not.  This is a tough question with varying answers.  It’s not an easy one to address as neither is right.  Personally, I follow back everyone who follows me (well except spam bots and the like).  Basically reciprocals, like myself look at this as good etiquette, a way to increase follower numbers, and give you more people to learn from.  Discriminators focus on following very few people, which limits the variety of people they communicate with.  Discriminators argue they have tighter relationships, and reciprocals argue they learn from more people.  No way is ultimately right – start slow and see what works for you.  Yes, it’s really easy.

Some Tools and I compiled a more comprehensive list HERE

• TweetDeck - Adobe Air Twitter management for Mac or PC desktop.  I use to keep my tweetstream organized, with multiple columns.  It really works great.
• Mr. Tweet – Mr. Tweet helps you find new people to follow and recommends you to other users.
• SocialToo - This web service can provide surveys, auto-follow new followers, and even send a DM to someone who follows you (don’t use this for an affiliate link).  I like the daily reports telling you who started or stopped following you and the last thing you said beforehand.
• Friend or Follow – Another free service, easily see who is and isn’t following you (and vice-versa).
• Twitter Grader – It ‘grades’ your Twittering.  You can also use this to check Twitter Elite’s by city.
• Twitter Counter – It shows you # of followers, can predict future growth and compare to others.
• Twitterholic - Another tool for tracking changes in your follower counts and top 100 Twitterholics.
• Twitter Feed – Use this to insert RSS feeds (from your blog, netflix, whatever) into Twitter.  When used correctly it can enhance your stream with articles, blog entries, etc. just don’t over-aggregate.
• Tweet Value – This is for fun, you put in your Twitter name and it tells you what it’s worth.
• Twollow - You can add 5 keywords to monitor and auto-follow people.  Careful.
• Easy Tweets – You can actually schedule tweets with this, perhaps useful when traveling.  It has a nice interface to manage multiple accounts (past 3 and the fees start).
• Tweet Later – Another scheduled tweet service.  In addition to being able to set your tweets to auto-pilot, you can also automatically follow people back or unfollow those who unfollow you.
• My Tweeple – This is a useful tool for at-a-glance view of details when reviewing followers.  You can also use this to see who you follow and isn’t following you back.
• Tweetburner – Track links you share on Twitter and FriendFeed.

The ReTweet – A RT, R/T, or Retweet is a way to compliment someone’s Tweet by forwarding it to your Twitter follower stream.  For instance, if I posted a useful quote, or a link you could take that quote or link, type RT @williger (and paste my post here).  What this does is 2 things – it gives credit for the Tweet to the original author, and it introduces people in your stream to the author.  It’s considered generous to RT.  I will be putting together a separate site about this soon.

This should be a solid reference to start with, and I will be adding more articles here to help.  Please feel free to @williger me any questions along the way.  I’m learning more every day, just like everybody else.  Come back for my next Twitter articles about integrating other sites, making backgrounds, RT etiquette, and hash tags.  I have met some amazing people so far who I really enjoy communicating with.  This is why I keep encouraging everyone to Tweet it up already!

If you found this article interesting or useful, Tweet it to your friends!  Twanks.

Original article: http://www.darrenwilliger.com/blog/social-media/how-to-win-friends-and-twinfluence-tweeple/

Popularity: 73% [?]