Twitter: New User Quick Start Guide

I’m the type of person that doesn’t like to go blindly into new experiences.  I do my research beforehand so I know how to make at least a B+ at whatever I’m attempting.  With Twitter, I definitely needed a short workshop before I flew into the birds’ nest of tweets and retweets.  After I started enjoying the platform and a couple of friends asked me how I got started, I decided to make a step-by-step guide for Twitter newbies.

First, pick a simple Twitter username.  Mine is as simple as JWCrump.  An easy-to-find username will help other friends and users search and find you.

Second, before you start writing, read this article and find out about what makes a bad twitterer.  I’ve been guilty of several of these missteps in the past, but after reading this, I’m on the watch for them.  Save yourself the trouble by starting high on the learning curve.

If you dig social media like I do, add some of these top blogs to your Google Reader or Netvibes account to come up with some good ideas for tweets.

One of the best free Twitter-related products on the net is FutureTweets, which allows users to schedule tweets to appear in the future.  Found four great links that you want to share, but don’t want to cram them all together?  Use this to spread them out throughout the day.

Be sure if you use devices like FutureTweets that you still provide the human touch by checking your account every day, and replying to any messages sent to you.  It’s also great to comment on tweets that you found particularly interesting or informative.  This is especially important for twitterers representing a brand.

Once you get good at tweeting, try these sites for managing multiple accounts, filtering out the ‘noise’ in your tweeting, and searching for topics within tweets.

The sweet spot for daily tweeting seems to be about five a day, with two or three of those being links to things that you found interesting or relevant to yourself or brand, and the others being life updates.  Of course, the best way to find out for yourself is to practice, practice, prweet.