How do you get started on Twitter? Alexandra Samuel, of Social Signal in Vancouver, had an idea, which she turned into a really fun post: a Twitter “starter kit”, so to speak. With her tongue firmly in her cheek, she’s created 21 tweets any newbie can use while they find their own voice for this ultra-condensed medium.
The tweets cover everything from the “hinting at big business plans to come” strategy to the mundane “what I ate” self-revelation. Someone new to Twitter could copy and paste one into Twitter each day manually, or they could use HootSuite to do it for them, as you can input your tweets now for posting later.
But finding something to say each day isn’t even half the battle on Social Media. Anyone with a burning passion, a nifty idea, or perhaps neither of those but a desire to share their stuff nonetheless, can blurt out 140 characters’ worth of “broadcast”. The real art lies in listening and responding to the people you connect with on Twitter, and doing it in a way that offers value to others, and respects what they have to say.
Here’s the mark of an experienced and truly interactive Twitter user: go to their profile and read down a page or so of tweets. Ideally you will see a mixture of straightforward tweets, tweets with links attached for more information and value, retweets of good information from other people, and of course @replies to those that they follow and that follow them. Some of the tweets appear to be “in the moment” – very specific and conversational in nature. If you find that, you find a truly interactive tweeter.
Interactive tweeters are like gold. And I don’t just mean they are more likely to retweet you. I mean, they are truly wonderful people who enjoy the connections they make with others. Hang onto them. Better yet, emulate them. This is the kind of interaction that creates community, enhances business relationships, promotes actual offline friendship, and builds trust.
Isn’t that the reason you are hanging out in these social networking sites in the first place?
Catherine – I got your note at thedailyupload.com about this post. But your feed in my feedreader still isn’t showing anything new. For that matter, it’s not showing that there are any posts at all in your feed.
Dave