Twitter Marketing Part 5

Account Creation

Talk about simplicity; Twitter’s three-step account-creation process couldn’t be easier:


1. Create a username and password.

2. Enter your email address to find contacts.

3. Start following people.
(You can even skip steps 2 and 3.)

Users are encouraged to share their real names, but doing so is not required.
Twitter user profiles can be completed and customized, but they do not have to be to
allow someone to use Twitter. Currently, there’s no user agreement to read and sign or
email confirmation link to click. (Although there is no user agreement, Twitter does
have Terms of Service, which you can find at http://twitter.com/tos.)

Just Start Typing

Once your account is created, you’re ready to start tweeting. You may simply
tweet your status, or you may create a welcome tweet introducing yourself to the
Twitterverse by telling a little about yourself and your reason(s) for joining Twitter.
This is good practice for the art of pithy writing! You can also hang back and lurk
a while. The term lurking has been around since the early days of the Internet, and
it merely means to hang back, become familiar with the process and culture of the
Internet channel you’re about to get involved with, and look a little before leaping. On
Twitter, lurking is reading other people’s tweets before venturing out to post your own.
The eager new user may seek the help of a willing friend who’s already on Twitter to
act as an accomplice, introducing you to their tweeps. Most Twitter users are warm
and welcoming of new users who acknowledge their “newbiness,” although these same
experienced users might be less tolerant of newcomers who don’t take time to learn
or who intentionally ignore better twetiquette, and some might even make a point of
calling the offender out. A very funny YouTube video showcases actor Kevin Spacey’s
appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, in which he shows Dave how to
use Twitter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z1aZ7Gs46A.

Find Friends

Twitter has several tools to help you find friends and start building your Twitterverse.
We’ll cover this topic more in-depth later, “Week 1: Get on Twitter;” for now you
just need to know that Twitter’s friending functionality is both simple and without boundaries.
If you find someone you want to follow, you do not need to send this person an invitation
or even get their permission to start following them. Simply click the Follow button,
and you will officially befriend this person

When someone chooses to follow you on Twitter, Twitter sends you an email
notification with the new follower’s name, handle, and their followers/following/update
stats. This not only alerts you to the fact that you have a new follower, but you can
also click on the link in the email to view this new user’s Twitter page

Twitter alerts you by email when you have a new follower.
Unlike other social communities, however, friending on Twitter is not a two-way
arrangement. Following someone does not ensure that they are going to follow you, nor
should you expect them to do so. Because Twitter has basically no barriers to friending,
you will find yourself being followed by total strangers—and because you don’t know
these people, you may be reluctant to follow them. Some people have no problem with
follower reciprocity and they might even use automated software to instantaneously follow
you back; on the other hand, others are far more discriminatory about this practice.
These latter types of Twitter users will usually visit your Twitter profile page to learn
more about you and make their follow-back decision based on how follow-worthy they
feel you are. Regardless, following someone back is just as easy: all anyone has to do is
click the Follow button, and they’ll become a new follower.

Ease of Use

Twitter’s simplicity doesn’t stop once you’ve gotten started. Twitter’s clean interface
and easy-to-understand activities make it incredibly accessible to anyone. Because, in
theory, there are very few technical things you can do directly on Twitter, it has left
little room for functional error.

Straightforward Design

Twitter’s web interface is clean, attractive, and user-friendly, with little to detract from
its purpose. You can really do only a handful of things on Twitter.com,
and even listing them makes it all sound more complicated than it really is.
• Read tweets from your followers (your tweet stream).
• Mark a tweet as a Favorite.
• Send a message or reply to your followers.
• Read your direct messages.
• Send a direct message.
• View your followers.
• View who you’re following.
• View your tweets (you also have the option to delete your own tweets individually).
• View your favorites.
• Conduct a search (you can also save a search as an option).
• View your saved searches.
• View Trending Topics.
• Subscribe to your feed by RSS .
• Modify your profile.
• Change your settings.
• Find friends.