Twitter Series – 7 Steps to Get Started on Twitter

With all new things it can take a bit of time to get into it. Here are 5 things I learned to make your introduction much easier.

  1. Make sure you add a photo (of you, or a logo) and a description in the bio section of your profile. People with the Twitter default profile picture are often robots and spammers and are often ignored by users.
  2. Find local people (Twitterers or Tweople) who you can interact with – you can do this by searching for place names in Twitter and in other Twitter Directories like Twellow.com
  3. Find people who have similar interests or are in the same industry (I have a list of Web and SEO people I follow). You can find these in similar directories like wefollow.com
  4. Use a program like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to make your interaction with Twitter much easier
  5. Don’t use Twitter to hard sell, especially at the start – you will look like a spammer, and people will not follow you
  6. Join in the conversation. If you find something that interests you – thank the person and provide things of your own
  7. ReTweeting is seen as a good thing. If you like something, retweet it – it then flows to your sphere of influence.

Twitter requires effort as it is a conversation. Find some people you have a common interest whether that is location or subject and make and effort to be involved in some of the conversations.