Twittering For Fun And Profit

Twitter was founded in 2006 by three programmers; Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone. Evan Williams is an entrepreneur who originally founded Pyra Labs, a software company that created project management software. One of the features of that software was the ability to take notes, this features was later developed to become Blogger, which is now a part of the Google empire. Legend has it that it was Williams who first coined the word 'blogger' to describe people who write web logs.

Evan Williams left Google in 2004 to create a podcasting company called Odeo, and in 2006 he created Obvious along with Biz stone, a programmer who had joined blogger after it had been brought up by Google. The new company bought up Odeo and later sold it to a company called Sonic Mountain, and now focuses its attention on Twitter.

The original idea for Twitter came from Jack Dorsey who was an emplyee of Odeo. The idea was to find a way of intergrating SMS with the web. This is the reason that Tweets are limited to 140 characters as this is usually the size limit of SMS messages. Twitter was eventually launched in october 2006. It picked up a South by Southwest Web (SXSW) Award in March 2007, and in April 2008 it was a separate business headed by Jack Dorsey.

Twitter quickly took off. Helped along by the SXSW Award, references on Blogger and by making itself an open platform which allowed other developers to develop apps and extent the service.

Why Is Twitter so Successful?

Probably the biggest reason that Twitter has become so popular is it's simplicity. There are other micro blogging platforms out there but most of them have features that people either do not understand, or want to use. Twitter is simple - You send messages in no more than 140 charaters. They can be sent via SMS allowing for micro blogging on the go, and all of your followers can see your posts. Twitter has also recieved a boost from the fact that many famous people, both polititians and celebrities, use Twitter to let their followers know what they are doing. Barack Obama has his own Twitter account
www.twitter.com/barackobama, institutions like the British parliament have an account www.twitter.com/UKparliament, and celebrities like british comedy actor Stephen Fry http://twitter.com/stephenfry has an account and is a keen twitterer. The fact that so many famous people realise the power of Twitter and regularly use it can only add to it's ongoing success. One of the great things about Twitter is that you have the potential to reach people who would usually be out of your reach.

For more information about the history and success of Twitter check out;

Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time

I will not take you through the whole signup proccess as Twitter has one of the easiest signup processes on the net! But I do want to give you a few pointers that will help you to get the most out of Twitter.

So you've signed up and have your new twitter account, now what do you do? Well the simple answer is to start to post interesting tweets in 140 characters or less! But there are somethings that you should do in order to get the most out of Twitter. First let's look at your profile.

Your Profile - How To Brand Yourself

Your profile is the most important part of your Twitter account. It is here that you get the chance to tell potential followers a bit about you and why you are worth following. There are a number of things you need to do if you want to maximize it's potential.

Add a Photo

Twitter is a social network and part of it's power is that people feel that they know you. Adding a picture helps with this process.

Your One Line Bio

Twitter bios are very limited. Unlike other social networks you only get 160 characters. It is therefore important that you think carefully about what you write. Mine just says:

"Squidoo lensmaster, YouTube Vlogger, Father, husband, grandfather and internet addict!"

I have tried to add things about me regarding my online activities along with a small amount of personal information. If you are using Twitter primarily as a way of getting the word out about your company, you may just want to write something about what your company does. As I said, your bio is very limited but there is a way to add even more content to your profile. I will discuss this later.

Add A link

Twitter only allows you to add one link to your profile so choose wisely. It is better not to link directly to a product you are promoting, as this might put some people off following you in case you keep sending them spam messages. The best thing to do is to link it to a personal blog that lets them know more about you, or if you are a Squidoo lensmaster you could link to your lensography. My latest Twitter account is link to my 90 Day Squidoo Challenge which this lens is part of. I am using Twitter specifically to try and get people to follow my challenge.

Customize You Profile Background

Twitter gives you a number of backgrounds to choose from but they are limited. If you look at your home page you will see that there is a lot of space to the right of your profile. This is space that you can use to add more information about yourself. Twitter allows you to upload your own customzed background. If you take a look at Joel Comm's profile for example you will see how he has added a background to utilize this otherwise wasted space www.twitter.com/joelcomm

There are a number of ways you can do this.

Firstly there are quite a few sites that offer free customizable Twitter backgrounds. I have provided a list of these below. The only problem with them is that you are limited for choice. But they are better than using the ones provided by Twitter.

You could of course build your own. This is what I have chosen to do on my new Twitter page www.twitter.com/squidookaazoom. It did take me a bit of time but it was free. I used the free graphics software Gimp. It is free, very versatile, and easy to use. Gimp does come with instructions but if you are like me and like to be taught via video I would recommend The Ultimate Gimp Tutorials This is a huge set of video tutorials and graphics . Well worth checking out if you want to be able to do your own graphics for Twitter or any of your own products. You might even want to started your own twitter background service!

If neither of these methods appeals to you there are anumber of services that will build you a customised Twitter background for around $70. I provide you with a list of such services below along with other Twitter resources below.

So you have set up your profile. Now you need to start to try and get people to follow you. The best way of doing this is to start following other people. But take care, you want to try and make sure that the people you are following are likely to be interested in your Tweets. Adding everyone you come accross isn't a good idea. For a start Twitter have recently set limits on the ratio of people you can follow in comparison of those who are following you, and how many tweets you can make in a day. You will find the information about this Here

The best way to start adding people is to use the search feature . The link for it can be found at the bottom of your main page. This is a really effective tool as you can use it to find people who might be interested in your niche or the same things you are interested in.The search engine will find all of the conversations that are taking place about the subject you search for. You can then add these people and start to reply to their conversaions, thus starting to build a relationship with them.

Phew!! You have made it to the end! I hope this lens has helped and inspired you to make the most of Twitter. I am sure there is much that I haven't covered. Perhaps I will include some more in a future update.

if you would like a even more indepth look at Twitter I would liek to recommend Joel Comm's new book Twitter Power. It is over 200 pages of information on how you can make the most of Twitter. click the link below to find out more.

Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time