This post is part of our week of Twitter. Check out this page for all the posts.
If you’re new to Twitter there’s a lot we’ve got to tell you, well we don’t want you getting lost and confused out there. Here is our jargon-busting glossary, the best tools and all the tips you need to become a top tweeter.
Glossary
Before you get stuck in you’ll need to know the lingo…
Microblogging: a form of blogging where users post text updates or micromedia (such as photos or audio). Microblogging typically allows these messages to be submitted by a variety of means. A single blog entry could be just one sentence or an image fragment. Many microblogs feature news or statements and often concentrate on a single subject.
Twitter: a social networking and microblogging service that allows you to answer the question, “What are you doing?” by sending short text messages of 140 characters in length, called ‘tweets’, to your friends or ‘followers’.
Hashtags: a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to tweets. Used like tags on Flickr they are created by simply prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag and including this in the body of the tweet.
Tweet: a 140-character update on Twitter.
Follower: someone who signs up to receive your tweets in their Twitter stream.
Tweep/Tweeter: a Twitter user, the plurals of which are tweeple/twitterers.
@reply: a public reply to one user, these are publically visible.
Direct Message (DM): a private message, where only the person who is sent the message will see it.
Twitter Trends: algorithms pick up topics of conversation on Twitter that have been tweeted the most, in real time. The Trends appear on the right hand side of the Twitter web application.
TwitterFall: a stream of tweets on a particular topic aggregated using hashtags.
Tools of the trade
HootSuite: able to manage multiple Twitter profiles, add multiple editors, pre-schedule tweets, and check stats and metrics of links posted.
Seesmic: a very popular Desktop/iPhone/Web app with full Twitter management.
Twitterfox: a browser add on for Firefox. Tweets appear in an overlay toolbar within the browser.
Twitteriffic: iPhone and Mac Desktop app with many basic features.
TwitPic: a service that ties in to Twitter allowing upload and attachement of a photo to a tweet.
Yfrog: a competing service to TwitPic.
Tinyurl.com: one of many URL shrinking services popular on Twitter, other examples include; www.is.gd, www.bit.ly and www.ow.ly.
An extensive list of Twitter apps can be found here: http://twitter.pbworks.com/WindowsApps
Top Twitter tips
There are no set guidelines to creating a successful Twitter campaign, but the following tips are a good place to start.
Transparency is key. Always declare any corporate (or personal) interests when tweeting.
Complete your Twitter profile. Take time to fill in the ‘bio’ section of your profile and add a link to your website or blog. Pick a profile picture that shows who you are; brand logo and good personal head shot.
Commit resources and time to be successful. Twitter is a long term conversation/relationship.
Welcome participation, feedback and co-creation. Encourage users to get involved in two-way conversations.
Listen. Know what people are saying about your brand and try to be helpful by answering their questions.
Don’t be pushy or overtly salesy. Instead, be entertaining and useful.
Integrate across other social media platforms. This will add depth to your conversations and give users a fuller picture of your brand and campaign. Add a Twitter widget to your website.
Select good #hashtags. Ensure the word chosen is relevant and as few characters as possible.
Keep tweets to less than 140 characters if you want to be ReTweeted. Leave enough characters for ‘RT @yourname’.
Don’t be afraid to break the rules. Just ensure you have a response strategy in place.
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