The Twitter Revolution
The "Twitter" platform enables users to post brief messages (140 characters or less) to a thread that others may read - a practice that's been called "micro blogging" - and it's very similar to a blog or RSS feed in its implementation: a list of "tweets" in reverse-chronological order (newest first).
It was designed to accommodate mobile computing (hence the short message length), and gets a lot of media attention, particularly in disaster scenarios (e.g., in the 2009 US Airways crash on the Hudson river, many passengers used Twitter to get messages out to indicate they were OK) and has become a "go-to" source of information on breaking news and a popular mobile blogging platform that has tens of millions of users. The mainstream media very often give air time to twitter posts during crisis scenarios.
Twitter is (allegedly) evolving toward a more conversational medium, where people can use twitter to comment on other people's posts and even participate in interactive conversations (much like instant messaging or chat rooms). However, the capabilities in that regard are limited - a twit may gain thousands or millions of "followers" and it may not be feasible to conduct a conversation of that scale using the service and the limited capabilities of the mobile computing device - so it seems likely it will largely remain a one-to-many broadcast medium.
Twitter also tracks emerging topics in real-time, such that if a lot if users are posting about a specific topic (such as a crowd in a stadium all commenting on the game in progress), it gets top billing. Otherwise, you must subscribe to a person's feed to get updates from them (and this is usually done through other media - you "follow" someone you know in real life, or a blogger you follow, etc.)
Getting Started
As with other media, the first step is to create an account and establish a profile.
Recall that account name will be the name of your "feed" for subscribers, so it should reflect your company, product, or brand. However, brevity is of the essence on twitter, as people will have to type the name to get your attention or send a private message - and because twitter is most often used on mobile devices, keyboard entry is difficult.
Also, names can be used by anyone, so your company's name may already be taken, though Twitter is experimenting with "verified" accounts to prevent/discourage jokesters (or fraudsters) attempting to impersonate others. Even so, you can't prevent others from taking a name, or using it (though you may be able to pursue them in court if it's detrimental to a registered trademark), and you may have to use a variation of your own name.
Besides that' there isn't much to the twitter "profile" - you have some basic color choices, a 160-character bio, and an image to show beside your comments (in some media). That's it.
The author provides a list of some of the concepts you may need to learn to twit with confidence:
- A "tweet" is a twitter comment - it's also used as a verb.
- A "follower" is a person who subscribes to your twitter feed
- To "block" someone is to prevent them from seeing your posts.
- A "tweetup" is a meeting of twitter users who use their posts as a kind of group IM.
Some common conventions:
- The "@" symbol is used to indicate that a comment is meant for a specific person (@username means "I am speaking to username")
- "RT @user" indicates a "re-tweet" - the writer is repeating what someone else (specified by @user) had previously said.
- A hash tag "#" indicates a specific topic in a conversation that may be swirling ("#lunch" means "this comment is in regards to lunch")
- You can send a direct message by using "dm username" or "d username" - it goes only to that individual.
- Short URLS - Many Twitter users will use an URL shortening service (like TinyURL and bit.ly) to be able to post a link without having to type a long address
Twitter can is primarily designed for use with mobile devices, but can be used from the desktop, and the twitter feed is commonly integrated into other social media sites (such as FaceBook). Even when used from the desktop, it is more common for individuals to use a twitter client rather than to go to the twitter.com Web site to post and read tweets, and a twitter "widget" can be imported into other sites.
Also, a person can subscribe to a specific user's twitter posts, or set up a feed that will give them posts that mention the keywords they have entered.
Tweeting for Fun and Profit
The author recommends keeping an eye on Twitter to monitor remarks and conversations about your brand. You need not get involved (and probably should not horn in on conversations), but you should have some level of awareness of what's being said by others about you. The twitter sites, and client applications, have built in searching and filtering capabilities to help you keep track of this and get an early warning of trouble. As a quickie, visit searh.twitter.com to search current conversations.
You can utilize Twitter as a form of announcement medium and publicize that you have a twitter feed for customers who currently use the platform. Anyone who has set up a "feed" for themselves containing keywords used in your tweets will see them, and people may eventually subscribe to your feed if they have sufficient interest, which makes it a good medium for broadcasting promotions and announcements.
However, you should also consider setting up a (separate) Twitter account to participate in the community as a user on a more interactive level (not just tweeting out announcements). As with other media, this means having a conversation that's of genuine interest to the other participants rather that a constant blast of marketing messages. The author provides examples of some "corporate" feeds that are highly successful because the majority of posts are "utterly normal" rather than promotional.
Even so, don't shy away from offering special pricing, promotions, coupons, or other deals to Twitter followers. Twitter-exclusive offers reward your followers and provide an incentive for others to join (the author gives an example of Dell, which has grow its Twitter audience to over a million followers by offering early announcements and special deals through the channel)
Twitter is also mentioned as a go-to medium for times of crisis. Followers (and the media) already look to it for that purpose, and users don't expect a lot of detail in a 140-character post, just a quick update on unfolding events.
Case Study: Fundraising with Twitter
An individual example of an individual (David Armano), who was trying to assist a family friend during a nasty divorce in which her husband cut off her access to fuinds. He used Twitter and other social media to ask people for help in getting funds to help his friend and her children take care of the bills for a while. He asked for $5K, and got $17K within a couple of days. The author credits the reputation Armano had developed with the online community in being able to get such amazing results.
Sidebar: Twitter Metrics
For most online media, marketers measure click-through rates and rely on the assumption that higher is better. The author asserts that there are no good benchmarks for Twitter, but in his own "semi-scientific" approach, he has found click-through rates on URLs in Twitter posts to be between 0./8% and 1.7%, though it depends a great deal on the relationship you have with your followers.
How to Be a Jerk on Twitter
The author provides a list of things that will annoy and alienate Twitter users:
- Sending a "thank you" message when someone becomes a follower of your feed. It's not customary, and annoying.
- Overusing twitter as a news feed for updates made to other media, such as status updates on Facebook and new blog posts.
- Reposting your tweets to other media. (The reverse of the last one: don't have Twitter update your Facebook status)
- Constantly changing topics is bad. While it's acceptable for a personal feed to be on whatever random thing is on a person's mind (where they are, what they had for lunch, what they think of a movie, etc.), a "business" feed is expected to stay on topic.
- Having public conversations that should be private. If you're shooting tweets back and forth with another users, consider making it a personal chat rather than cluttering up your feed with information other people don't care about.
- Providing no context for a message. While some people may be aware of the conversation, others only get the last message in the thread and ahven't heen keeping up.
- Being too brief - While 140 characters isn't much, be care ful about being so terse the reader doesn't understand what you're talking about. This is a particular problem when using shortened URLs, as the name of the link gives no context (click this :l[ink])
- Spamming - A promotional offer is not necessarily "spam" on Twitter, but if you put in random words to draw attention to it, it's annoying (and you may get banned).
- Blabbering - Sending out a constant stream of tweets is annoying. If you legitimately have a lot to say, consider starting up multiple different feeds to segment by interest; or if it's all on one topic, write it up on a blog instead.
- Obsessing over follower count - Twitter is informal, and people will join and leave your feed regularly, and don't expect to be hassled about it, nor do those who remain attentive want to hear complaints. In general, don't worry about your feed's audience unless you notice a mass entrance or exodus - and even then, worry privately, not publicly.
- Ignoring @replies - These come from users who want your attention and may expect a response. You don't necessarily need to respond to every one of them (and you certainly don't need to respond publicly), but sometimes, you might alienate someone by ignoring them.
The author notes that Twitter etiquette is evolving, and conventions and expectations will change over time.
Sustainability of Twitter
The author is "not quire sure" whether Twitter is sustainable: it's very large right now, and quite popular, but seems rather faddish. Given the limitations of the medium, and the speed at which technology (especially mobile computing) is advancing, the author remarks "we give it another few years" before some other technology takes the spotlight.
(EN: I can't entirely disagree, but I think there's too much actual value in Twitter to write it off as a passing fancy. It is an excellent fit for mobile computing, overcoming the limitations of device size and time constraints, which are unlikely to change much in the near future, so I would expect a more sustained demand for a lightweight solution for sentence-length publishing).