If I Can Tweet – So Can You!

I’ll be the first to admit I was skeptical about using Twitter to promote my book and career consulting business but now I am hooked. Social Media is a very efficient way to get your message out to the masses, expand your horizons, and build your network. The biggest perk is that it’s free so if you are not using it to promote you or your business, you should seriously consider it.

Since tweeting can be daunting at first, I’d like to share 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners that I learned from Sean Ludwig who writes for PCMag. So what is Twitter anyway? It’s a free service that lets account holders micro-blog using 140 characters at a time. Recent statistics report 190 million Twitter users so this really is an incredible resource for making connections.

Here are Sean’s 10 Twitter tips to make your new tweeting experience easy:

1. Shrink your URLs so you don’t have to waste characters on very long web addresses. A popular URL shortening service that is free is bitly.com.
2. RT=Retweet. If you want to copy and paste someone else’s tweet, have at it but be sure to give the original tweeter credit. Put “RT@name” in front of their tweet and post it again yourself.
3. Direct Messaging. With Twitter’s direct-messaging (DM) function, you can send a private 140-character message to another user, kind of like abbreviated e-mail. However, you can only direct message Twitter users that are following you.
4. Use the @ Sign. To create a reply or to give someone props on Twitter, simply place an @ sign in front of their Twitter name. If it is a reply, the @ sign must be the first character of the tweet. To see replies to your own tweets, click on @Replies from your profile page.
5. Search for Your Friends. Search.twitter.com works well for finding your friends or organizations, or for searching for specific topics of interest.
6. Categorize Your Tweets for Added Visibility. If you’re tweeting about a popular subject (Obama, Trueblood etc) putting a # in front of the subject makes it easy for others to find your tweet, and perhaps they will want to follow you.
7. Share Pictures. People love sharing their photos with the world and services like TwitPic let users easily upload their photos and post them directly to Twitter.
8. Tweet From Your Phone. Twitter allows you to update your status and receive updates via text message. Under Settings, go to the Devices tab and enter your phone number to start sending and receiving mobile tweets. If your incoming tweets/texts are overwhelming you, disable this option by going back to the same panel and following the instructions.
9. Pick a Good Desk Top Client. With desktop clients such as TweetDeck, Twhirl, and TwitterFox, you can receive tweets in a much more manageable fashion, especially if you follow a lot of people, respond often, and use direct messages a lot.

10.  Download a Mobile Client. If you have a BlackBerry, an iPhone, or another smartphone with Wi-Fi or 3G access, a mobile client might be a better option than using text messages. Mobile Twitter clients worth checking out include Twitterific, TwitterBerry, PocketTweets, and Twidroid.

Thanks to Sean for sharing his expert Twitter advice. Happy tweeting and I hope you will consider following me on Twitter at:  CDowdHiggins.