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So, you’ve set up an account on Twitter. You’re following mellon & co. You’re following some of your email contacts – or not – now what?

Start Listening

This is social media 101, and so often the important part that gets ignored. You can’t expect to become an active part of the dialogue if you’re not hearing what is being said. Start following others that you’re interested in and tune in to their conversations.

How many do you need to follow? There’s lots of theories out there on how many people you should be following. You could be like Britney Spears, with over a million followers and follow over 300,000 people, (well, you could try anyways) or you could take the minimalist approach and only follow people you know in the physical world. I recommend something in the middle.

The key point – You need to be an active part of the community. By not following anyone, you’re not reciprocating. You’re not a part of the community. And by following others, it doesn’t mean you’re endorsing them, you’re just interested in what they have to say.

Following Tips

Don’t follow a ton of people in the hopes they will follow you back. Make sure you have a valid reason for following them – they are in the same industry, share some of your interests, work in the cubicle next to you – whatever the reason, just make it a valid one.

Only spammers randomly follow hundreds of people at a time. If you follow too many people in one day, you may be deemed a spammer and Twitter will suspend your account! Keep it to under 10 people a day.

Don’t feel you have to follow everyone that follows you. You’ll know when someone is following you because 1) you’ll get an email saying so & 2) You’ll see the number of followers listed above “followers” on the righthand side of your profile page when you’re logged in to Twitter.

Do follow those who consistently tweet about things you care about. It’s not hard to find these people. Get started with some of the tools below. Grow your network – add a few a day – and sign in to Twitter to scan what your followers are saying. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll learn!

Tools for finding Twitterers of value:

Find People – This is the “find people” link at the top of your Twitter page. Search for names you know are already on Twitter, or, if you didn’t do so when setting up your account, invite people by email. Give this a try by inviting 5 of your colleagues via the “find by email” tab.

Search.twitter.com – This is twitter’s search tool. It’s a great starting point for finding people who are tweeting about topics that you’re interested in or those searching for services or products that you offer.

Hashtags.org – Now this is a tool that helps you track different tags, which are just keywords given to a conversation on a certain topic. But I’ve found it to be a good tool to find like-minded people to follow. Visit http://hashtags.org and type in something you’re interested in – art, for instance – in the top, righthand search bar. The results will reveal a number of twitterers that have tweeted a message including that tag. Read the comments, find their profiles, and if they’re someone you think you may be interested in, follow them!

Tweettop.com - Mentioned in the previous post, this tool works much like hashtags.org for finding people, the work is just done for you. When you visit the website, you’ll see a list of topics. Click on one that interests you and you’ll be taken to a page full of the top twitterers on that subject.

Geofollow.com – Search the Twittersphere by location, keyword, name, etc. This is a great tool for finding the “locals” that are on Twitter. And don’t forget to add yourself by following the instructions on the page.

That should get you a good start. And don’t forget to actually listen to some of your followers by scanning your Twitter feed each day. You don’t have to read everything word by word. You wouldn’t get anything else done! Just give it a scan every now and then. Next post will walk you through how to join the conversations you’re following.

Go through the following steps to set up your Twitter profile:

1. Go to twitter.com and click on <Get Started> at the bottom of the page.

2. Provide the information that is requested – Full name, username, password, etc. Your username cannot contain any spaces. If your chosen name is already taken, Twitter will prompt you to enter a different name.

TIP: For a business profile, pick a username that clearly identifies your company or brand. If people were to search for your company, what would they use? If this will be a personal account, use something that identifies you as a person. And keep it short. Try to find something under 10 characters.

3. Click on <Create my account>.

4. Twitter will then invite you to go through your email contacts to find people you know to follow. You can select all or choose a few by checkmarking those you wish to follow.

TIP: Even if this is a Twitter profile for your business, reaching out to your personal contacts, along with your existing business contacts, is a great place to start.

5. Twitter will then ask you to invite your contacts that do not have a Twitter account associated with the email you have in your address book. The ones that you checkmark will be sent an email by Twitter inviting them to join.

6. Finally, Twitter will recommend some popular twitterers for you to follow. As with the previous steps, just click on the people you wish to follow.

TIP: Do not follow people just to follow them. Make sure that they are someone you are interested in following. Maybe they are within your industry or share common interests with you.

7. Click <Finish>. Your Twitter homepage will be displayed.

Congratulations! You just joined one of the fastest-growing social media platforms on the web.

Now start finding people to follow! Practice by following mellon & co:

Click on <Find People> on the top menu of your homepage. Type in mellonco in the “who are you looking for?” search bar. Click on the <mellonco> link that appears. This will take you to mellon & co.’s profile page. Then all you have to do is click on the <follow> button that appears under our logo! Voila!

Build your network by following others within your industry or with similar interests as you. You can find these people by using services like www.twollo.com or www.tweettop.com. So dive in, and stay tuned for our next post on the essential Twitter lingo and actions to help you start engaging with those you are following.

For those who are new to Twitter, or the social web in general, it can be a little overwhelming. There’s lots of advice, services and proclaimed experts out there who make it even more overwhelming and confusing. Our intentions are to give you the straight talk: How can you, as a business person, use social websites like Twitter to promote your business goals?

One note before we dig in. Twitter is just one of an ever-growing number of online tools that you can use for business purposes. To really make social media work for you, you need to sprinkle your brand, your content, yourself and your company all around the web, on more than just a single website. Our intentions are to first highlight the ‘heavy-hitters’ and to get you started on platforms that you can’t afford to leave out of your arsenal of social media tools.

It’s also important to remember that Twitter is a tactic. It needs to be part of your larger communications and marketing strategy, not a replacement of it.

The Benefits of Becoming a Twitterfied Business

(Please excuse the not-so-clever Twitter reference. Just couldn’t resist!)

Think about what you want to get out of Twitter. Despite Twitter’s proclaimed purpose of allowing “friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” Twitter is really a place for exchanging value – you get something that you need and offer others something of value in exchange. It’s a place of shared community and common interest.

You may choose to use Twitter for personal reasons – like communicating with friends, or maybe following your favorite celebs – and this is great. But from a business perspective, Twitter can offer a lot, including:

• Competitive Analysis. What perceptions are out there about your competition? What’s being said about them? Are they even being talked about?
• Brand Positioning. Face it: Chances are people are talking about your company, whether you’re initiating the conversation or not. If they are, you need to know about it. You need to start listening and contributing to the conversation.
• Industry Trending.: Twitter is a place where thought leaders gather. What better way to stay on top of your industry than to follow and join in their conversations.
• Networking. Connect with like-minded people you have never even met and probably never will. It’s the perfect place for people who cringe at the word “network” to showcase what they have to offer.
• Lead Generation. Find people who are in need of and are actively seeking the products or services you offer.
• Relationship Building.Don’t just find your prospects, get to know them and allow them to get to know you. Build even stronger bonds with existing customers.
• Customer Feedback. Reach out to your customers, on a personal level, and find out what they’re thinking. Two-way communication is key.

These are just some of the uses of Twitter for business. Every day, companies are discovering new benefits and ways to advance their business goals - one 140-character-or-less message at at time. The only way for you to know, is to get involved. Think about what it is you want to achieve on Twitter. For those who have yet to hop on the Twitter train, our next post will walk you through the step-by-step process of signing up.

Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Whether you’re a professional communicator, dentist, accountant, student, small business owner, or just not living under a rock, you can’t go long without hearing that word. It’s all over the blogosphere, the nightly news and is a frequent buzzword in conversations around the water cooler.

But what the heck is it?

Twitter is the latest social web craze and rightly so. The website – twitter.com – is a microblogging platform. After setting up an account, or profile, you can share messages of only 140 characters at a time. It’s the ultimate cure for writer’s block, forcing you to be concise and get your point across.

Once you’re signed up, you can follow other people, whose tweets will be fed into your homepage, and others can follow you. Then, you can start the conversation. You can direct message (DM) other Twitterers, which will only be seen by them. Or, if you don’t mind if the world sees your message to another, you can use the @ symbol in front of their Twitter name when you compose your message. They will be able to see the message in their @ responses section and the message will be posted to your profile, visible for any in the Twittersphere to see. 

So should you tweet? 

This is the wrong question altogether. Although Twitter has its critics, naysayers and a lot of “I just don’t get it” folks, it’s really a no-brainer.  You will benefit from being on Twitter. Whether you’re an ad agency looking for new clients, an artist looking for inspiration, a business person just looking to make connections or just a college student looking to procrastinate on that paper due tomorrow, Twitter is the place to do it. 

So why Tweet? 

The million dollar question. And, fortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Everyone uses it for different reasons and new uses are constantly being discovered as new apps are created and new creative ideas come to life (tweetups and twestival being two of my favorites). The only way to find out how it will work for you is to dive in. And that’s half the beauty of Twitter. 

If you’re not sure how to start, stay posted. We’ll be dedicating several upcoming posts to Twitter – how to sign up, ways to use it, Twitter terms and so on  - with a particular focus on tools and tips for businesses.

In the meantime, you can find us on Twitter at twitter.com/mellonco. Also check us out on Facebook.