A Beginners Guide to Setting Up & Using Your Twitter Account

A QUICK OVERVIEW FOR SETTING UP YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT, & A FEW ONLINE TOOLS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR TWITTER EXPERIENCE

Project OutlineSetup your Twitter Profile:

◦ Signup for an account with email, username and password

◦ Setup your Bio – Profile and Background Pic

◦ Customize Your Settings – Notifications

Ways Twitter is Used:

Common Types of Tweets :• ‘Follower Feeds’

◦ Sharing from Outside Sources – things to include:◦ Short Title, @ the Source, Shortlink, Relevant #’s

Shortlink Services:◦ Bit.do, Bit.ly, Po.st, Goo.gl, Tiny URL

Automate Your Tweets – Time Management Tools

◦ Buffer

◦ Hootsuite

Etiquette:◦ Leave at least 20 characters for retweeting

◦ Thank you Tweets to encourage engagement

Twitter Buttons◦ Where to Find Them and How to Make Them

Twitter Widgets:◦ Where to find them & How to Make Them

Apps to Help you Find Content – Readers & Others

◦ Feedly, LinkedIn Pulse, Digg Reader, Flipboard, StumbleUpon, Pinterest

Tools to Automate your tweets◦ Twitter Counter◦ Social Bro, Twtrland, Social Oomph, Twitter

Counter, Topsy, Twitonomy

Digital Hoarding Tools◦ Instapaper, Pocket, Diigo, Readability

Twitter Terms Defined

Hashtags and @ Signs

Helpful Resources◦ Hubspot

◦ Moz

Articles and Info - Further Reading

Outline Continued

Setting up your Twitter Profile

• Go to Twitter.com

• Click Sign Up

• Enter your Name, Email Address and Password• You will eventually need to choose a ‘Twitter Handle’ or your name on Twitter

• Handles need to be unique – Can be changed at any time – Shorter is better than longer• More on Twitter Handles from this adweek.com article: bit.ly/1CtVJsu

• Click Sign Up

• Follow the Prompts until your reach your Profile Page

Completing Your Profile• Seek out your ‘Edit Profile’ button once logged in

• Hint: It’s near the bottom right-hand side of your profile page

• Add a Profile and Background Image• Max Twitter Header Size w: 2560 x h: 600px

• Min Twitter Header Size w: 1024 x h: 280px

• Recommended Size: w: 1500 x 500px

• Profile Photo Size: 200 x 200px

• Further reading about this on the website ct-social.com here: http://bit.ly/1xl5vN2

• Add your Bio (A bit about yourself) – Geographic Location (Twitter is Global ) – & Website, Blog or Social Account to advertise.

Remember to Customize your Notification Settings1: Click on your profile photo (upper right corner)

2: Locate and select ‘Settings’ from the dropdown menu

3: Click: Email Notifications or Web Notifications to adjust your notification settings

A Few Ways to Use Twitter• A Conduit to other Online Content

• A News Source

• A Forum for Social Engagement

• An Online Marketing Platform

• A Medium for Generating SEO

• A Great Place to Advertise

Shortlink ServicesWhat is a Shortlink?

◦ Essentially they take a long URL and make it smaller. Pretty Simple - This is relevant to Twitter especially, because of their 140 character Tweet limit. Long URL’s take up space and don’t look great either.

Popular Link Shorteners: ◦ Sign up with or try Bit.ly

◦ Sign up with or try Po.st

◦ Try Tiny Url

◦ Try Goo.gl

◦ Try Bit.do◦ Try this Bit.do link for Additional URL Shorteners: http://bit.do/list-of-url-shorteners.php

◦ Try this Bit.do link for an explanation on uses of Shorteners: http://bit.do/what-is-url-shortener.php

Automate Your TweetsYou can sign up for services that will help you automate your tweets (and posts to other platforms). This essentially lets you schedule your posts far ahead of time.

These time management tools can help you regulate your posting, help you find content and connect multiple social accounts. 2 popular options are:

◦ Buffer

◦ More about them at: https://bufferapp.com/about

◦ Try their Blog here: https://blog.bufferapp.com/

◦ Signup for an account with them here: https://bufferapp.com/

◦ Hootsuite™

◦ More about them at: https://hootsuite.com/about

◦ User-guide from the Hootsuit blog at: http://bit.ly/1H1rhGJ

◦ 2013 article via Mashable on Hootsuite setup: http://on.mash.to/13yTply

◦ More Options: Great blog article on this at: http://bit.ly/1EnELii - via www.linkspiel.com

Twitter EtiquetteTry to leave at least 20 characters or more at the end of your Tweets, so it’s easier for others to retweet you.

◦ This limits you to roughly 115 characters or so with #’s and @’s

When people follow you, it’s not a bad idea to go to their page, and Favorite or Retweet some of their content.

◦ This encourages engagement, adds some diversity to your feed and shows others who may be considering to follow you, that you may actually Retweet their stuff

Thank your recent followers.◦ Try to use some discretion on the amount of Thank You tweets to keep some variety in your feed. They are

important though for letting your followers know that you’re an active and engaged person to follow

Be Nice

Twitter Buttons for your Blog or WebsiteTwitter provides tools to help you add their buttons to your blog or website – All it requires is some copy/pasting and fill-in-the-blank – Check out your options from the Twitter Resources Page at: https://about.twitter.com/resources/buttons

How to Make Twitter Widgets1) Profile 2) Settings 3) Widgets 4) Create New

5) Choose Your Source 6) Save the Code & Paste into your Blog or Site for a live feed

Twitter Widgets ContinuedAfter Clicking ‘Create New’ Choose from your Timeline Sources to Create Different Widget Types

◦ For Instance a ‘User Timeline’ Widget shows the posts of the username entered

◦ Or you may elect to try the Timeline Source under Search – This performs a search on any term you may input

Timeline Widget Search Widget

How to Find Stuff to Tweet A bunch of online tools exist that you can use to help you find articles that you might want to share on your feed. A short list of some useful sites can be found below:

◦ Feedly.com – What is Feedly?: http://bit.ly/1Aa8iIp

◦ About Feedly: http://bit.ly/1B9zMfd

◦ Digg Reader – About Digg: http://digg.com/about

◦ LinkedIn Pulse – What is LinkedIn Pulse: http://bit.ly/1wouDM2

◦ Pulse: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/discover

◦ StumbleUpon – About StumbleUpon: http://stumble.it/1vfgJvq

◦ Pinterest – What’s Pinterest: http://bit.ly/1xRlJNH

◦ Flipboard – About Flipboard: http://bit.ly/1HI80bR

How to Analyze your TweetsSocial Bro: http://www.socialbro.com/

◦ Account type: Free & Paid. Very comprehensive, user friendly. Connects to your Instagram as well with options to connect your Buffer or Hootsuite with Best Time to Tweet statistics automatically implemented for you with the click of a button.

Social Oomph: https://www.socialoomph.com/◦ Account Type: Free & Paid. Very comprehensive, user friendly. A myriad of features – a great tool for your Twitter account.

Twitter Counter: http://twittercounter.com/◦ Account Type: Free & Paid. User-friendly site. Great analytic options that are easy to understand. A great tool for the beginner in Twitter

Analytics

Twtrland: http://twtrland.com/◦ Account type: Free & Paid. User-friendly tool. Easy to understand and lets you benchmark your progress with others in your field. Can connect

and analyze your Facebook & Instagram accounts as well.

Twitonomy: http://www.twitonomy.com/◦ Account type: Free & Paid. Very useful & easy to understand - useful insights. Great features on this site as well.

Topsy: http://topsy.com/◦ Account type: Free & Paid. Great statistics provided and easy to use.

Great Article Featuring some of these and additional tools from RazorSocial.com Found at: http://bit.ly/144py5D

Digital Hoarding Made EasyDon’t want to lose that Tweet, link or page you’re temporarily looking at? Whey not save it? The sites below are free to signup for, and will save, store and help you organize your links for when you have the time to read them.

About Instapaper: https://www.instapaper.com/help - Sign up here

About Pocket: https://getpocket.com/about - Sign up here

About Diigo: https://www.diigo.com/about - Sign up here

About Readability: https://readability.com/about - Sign up here

Twitter Terms Unofficially DefinedAll tediousness aside, Twitter does have its own language and at times it can you leave you wondering what the heck someone just said. Below, please find an unofficial and very short guide to Twitter Acronyms.

◦ #RT: Retweet

◦ #FF: Follow Friday

◦ #FB: Follow Back

◦ #M: Mention

◦ #MM: Monday Mention, Music, Motivation, etc.

◦ #SO: Shout Out

◦ #TYSVM: Thank You So Very Much

◦ #YW: Your Welcome

◦ #F4F: Follow for Follow

Other helpful terms can be found on Twitter’s Glossary Guide: http://bit.ly/1xo0MdM

You can also try this article from: The Next Web – It’s a bit older but still works – found at: http://tnw.co/1wO9Q9Sc

A Brief on: # Hashtags - @ Signs# Hashtags

◦ Hashtags are essentially search terms embedded directly into your post.

◦ If ever you see a Tweet with a ‘#’ in front of a word, you’ll notice that word is colored blue and if you click on it, will direct link you to a feed on Twitter which contains all the other Tweets from the Twitterverse that include the same #.

◦ Picking Hashtags may take a bit of practice, but essentially you want to use descriptive keywords, which help to classify where you might want your Tweet to show up. For example, if you ‘#’ Science (#science), ideally you want your Tweet to somehow relate to science.

@ Sign◦ The ‘@’ sign is simply an easy way to tell Twitter that you want to create a direct-link in your Tweet,

which funnels people to that specific user.

◦ You would use the ‘@’ sign if you wanted someone on Twitter to know that you were Tweeting at them, or if you were referencing information from a news source or outside article for reference.

Helpful ResourcesHubspot.com: Hubspot is an analytics and marketing platform◦ Try their ‘About’ section here: http://bit.ly/1robWfQ

◦ A beginners guide to using Twitter for Business (pdf): http://bit.ly/1CLTJwV◦ Read about Inbound Marketing at this link: http://bit.ly/1y8Kord

Moz.com: An analytics and marketing platform◦ Try their ‘About’ section here: http://moz.com/about

◦ A beginners guide to Social Media – Step 7 (Twitter)

Found at: http://bit.ly/1zY94a0

Articles & Info – Further ReadingTwitter: Getting Started with Twitter: http://bit.ly/1HLra0F

Digital Trends: How to Use Twitter: http://bit.ly/1zEUoz0

Wikihow: How to use Twitter: http://bit.ly/1Bc6fRU

USA Today: Twitter for Newbies: Top 10 Things to Know: http://usat.ly/144spvnc

Blog Article: Mom This is How Twitter Works – Found at: http://bit.ly/1Bcp6fO

ConclusionGood luck to everyone. Twitter is a versatile tool though it takes a bit of practice.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions at chrisserafin@yahoo.com

Or you can of course Tweet me - @Honu2000

Thanks for making it to the end, and have a great rest of your day!

-Chris Serafin, MBA

linkedin.com/in/chrisserafin