Why and How to Twitter? Part 1

I recently posted up on Facebook that “I love twitter”. One of our parishoners replied that they did not know what to do with it and that they needed “Twitter for Dummies. LOL.” So I thought that I would post here why I twitter and how you can get the most from your twitter experience.

Here we go. If I missed something than please comment and add.

1. Twitter is not Facebook. This is essential. For many, Facebook is the gateway drug to your social media experience. If you were born after 1980 then Myspace was your gateway drug. So you judge all social media through the filter of Facebook or Myspace. But Facebook is not Twitter. As much as Facebook wants to be twitter. It will never be and I hope that Twitter is careful to keep what is twitter to be twitter. I have heard it explained this way. Facebook is for connecting with old friends. Twitter is for connecting with new friends.

2. Sign up with your name and a picture. Since twitter does not have authetication like Facebook where you have to be approved to be a friend. To get real people to interact with you I recommend being you. Twitterers usually do not interact with people who do not have a real name and a real picture.

3. Fill out the bio on the twitter profile. List it with things that interest you and don’t make up stuff. This is how people start following you and start interacting with you. Also when you are making a new follower they will be looking at your twitter profile to see if you are worthy.

4. Use the search feature in twitter. Click here. Type in an interest that you have. I’m interested in church planting, air miles, United, leadership. So what I do is type in and watch what is being said about these topics. Then if there is someone who is saying something interesting I will check out their bio. Check out some of their recents postings and make a decision to follow them. In the twitter search there is something even better which is the advance section. This is really where the power of twitter is. It can narrow down the results – check it out here.

5. If you like someone and think that the people that are following you will also like them then use the #followfriday. On Fridays, it is customary to recommend those that you are following and interacting with to your followers. At the beginning of twitter this was much more common but I think it being less used. Up to you.

Okay that is the start I will finish up the list in a couple of days. To read on further on why twitter. Check out my friend Sam Luce’s post here.