How to use Twitter

Twitter is a way of communicating similar to text messaging.

You can communicate with your "Followers" directly or with all Twitter users who may choose to follow you or spread your message.

You can use Twitter from your phone, your Blackberry or your computer and probably lots of other neat techie stuff too!

You have to be concise as only 140 characters are allowed. It is also sensible to be aware of business etiquette on Twitter. This will give you some business etiquette tips for Twitter.

Signing up is free.

"Tweeting" is also free.

"Retweeting" (RT @) is when you spread someone else's message.

"Retweeting" is also free.

At present Twitter makes no money directly.

Twitter has great potential for all business activities.

You can use Twitter to promote and advertise your lenses.

You can use Twitter to advertise your products and websites.

Hashtags can be used to track messages or phrases eg Happy#HumpDay

Twitter can be fun!

Twitter is not a business, although it would be wise to read up on those business etiquette tips!

It is not a direct way of earning a living.

It is not truly a social network.

It is not a scam.

It is not difficult to use.

Watch out for those who would make you pay for information that is freely available.

You are basically interesting!

You are not anonymous but have filled in some information on your profile!

You do not send me exactly the same message 15 times in a row!

You are polite to people.

You make a contribution to the Twitterverse.

You do not send me dating site links.

You do not send me porn or gambling site links.

I see you send out retweets of cool stuff.

I know about you from mentions.

You follow me.

Twitter, like any other community, has a few rules. Most of those rules are unwritten of course!

Sorry, that's life - but a community that grows organically develops rules along the way as they become necessary. Some of these rules are vital and you will read them in the Terms of Service when you sign up. Others are less obvious, but here are a few tips:

It is worth just "listening in" for a while to see what really goes on.

Don't spend all day on Twitter, get a life!

Don't tweet all the time about that life - it is a fully public network and anything you tweet is theoretically available to scammers, spammers, work colleagues, friends.... For example, many people get accounts hacked because they use child or pet names as passwords - then broadcast news about little Johnny or naughty Fido on social networks!

Tweet sparingly and effectively. Some people recommend no more than 10 a day!

Tweet generously - those who retweet are more likely to get retweeted!

Don't retweet a URL you haven't first checked! Even the nicest seeming profile is capable of sending a hard porn site out as something else!

Keep tweets short. If you use 140 characters you can't be retweeted!

Thank people who retweet you and return the favour!

Above all, keep an open mind to learn new things - there are some wise old Giant Squids swimming out there among the sharks!

Yes, you do need followers on Twitter and there are several ways to get them:

Method 1:
Use Twitter in an interesting way, contribute positively to the community, be nice, retweet cool things, follow people who say cool things. Build your following by being sociable, honest and likeable.

Method 2:
Buy into someone else's scheme to get thousands of followers quickly with little effort.

Method 3:
Paste a lot of trending hashtags with a link and hope for the best!

The advantage of Method 1 is that most of your followers are going to share your interests, which is neat if you want to sell them a product or an idea. The disadvantage? It takes a LOT of time and effort (a bit like becoming a Squid Giant)

The advantage of Method 2 is that your stats go up very quickly and because of that people might follow you more. The disadvantage is you are being followed indiscriminately by a lot of people you don't know - except for one thing - they ALL want to make money from Twitter without trying. Simple maths should show you how good an idea that is! Another disadvantage is that you will probably have to pay for it!

Method 3 is even less worthwhile than Method 2, the reasons for this are as follows:

Firstly, the searches on the Top Ten hashtags flip so fast you can't even keep track of your own tweets.
Secondly, most of the people using that method do not have G-rated links!
Thirdly, anybody looking for people to follow who sees a tweet like that is likely to think you are a spammer or worse.

And a final word on the subject of followers.... There are an awful lot of Tweeps out there who don't listen, don't click on links and don't retweet. They are not followers, they are shouters. They remain intent on shouting above the noise, recycling wise sayings and affiliate scheme links. The chances are they are not really interested in listening to anyone new.

There are those who follow for follow - then unfollow you to make sure they don't have to read your tweets. That is just plain rude! It is usually young people who do this (but not always) I keep TABS on "shouters" and "unfollowers" with this free app.

Who Unfollowed Me?

Your mission? To boldly go where no man has gone before and identify your "listeners" - much like Squidoo, you have to find your niche and be interesting as well as interested. Try to use a sense of fun or mystery so people might just follow your links and don't expect to crack it overnight.

Good luck!