A step by step tutorial on how to use Twitter, designed for beginners.

1. Twitter: from the basics to creating a strategyby@KellyRigotti KR Consulting :: http://kellyrigotti.com

2. This slideset has been designed to beshared online and is not for presentations. In otherwords, it’sratherwordy! I createdthispresentation as a resource for my clients and I’mpleased to shareitwithyou. For any questions, please contact me! Kelly Rigotti http://kellyrigotti.com @kellyrigotti +33 (0)6.67.33.74.91 ! Important Information Ahead!

3. Why Use Twitter Twitter is an incrediblypowerful networking and communication tool. With Twitter you are able to access and communicatewith people worldwidewho: Shareyourinterests Are potentialcustomers or clients Creativethinkers Industry leaders And more! I use Twitter daily and, I getresults.

4. The Basics Twitter is a one way communication system- youcanfollow people withoutthemfollowingyou back. Twitter is the opposite of Facebook or LinkedIn, whichrequire the relationshipbetweenyou and the personyoufollow to bebilateral.

5. The Basics Twitter allowsyou to shareyour message easilywith a widevariety of people! By sharing whatyoufindinteresting, in an interestingway, youwillattract a following of people whoalsofinditinteresting.

6. The Basics: Definitions Messages are calledtweets. 140 characters in eachtweet, includingspaces, punctuation & links. Following people meansyoureceivetheirtweets in yourtimeline, or tweetstream. The people youfollow and the people whofollowyou are displayed on yourprofile page.

7. The Basics: @somebody To write a message to somebody, or to talk about somebody, write the symbol @ beforetheir user name- withoutusing a space. For example, if somebodywants to send a message to me, theywouldwrite@kellyrigotti. This wouldmake the message pop up in mytweetstream.

8. The Basics: @somebody Messages sent thisway (@kellyrigotti) are public. They show up both in yourstream and on the profile of the personthey are sent to. You do not need to follow the person in order to sendthem a message, nor do theyneed to followyou.

9. The Basics: d somebody To writesomebody a private message, use dbeforetheir user name- with a spacebetween the d and theirname. It looks likethis: d kellyrigotti Direct messages canonlybeseen by the people sending & receiving the message. Direct messages onlywork if both people are followingeachother. Important! Don’t use the @ symbol, or the tweetwill pop up in the public stream.

10. The Basics: Hashtags Hashtags are ways of sharing information on a topic or keyword. By using a hashtagyoucreate a link to a word or concept. Anyoneelsewho uses or tracksthathashtagwillbe able to seeyourhashtag(and tweet) simply by clicking on the link. For example, if I want to share information about an event in Grenoble, I would use #Grenoble in mytweet. This wouldallowanyonetracking the word Grenoble to have my message appear in theirtweetstream.

11. CreatingYourTwitterAccount Chooseyour real name, or the real name of yourcompany (or as close as youcanget) for yourusername. This canbechangedlater, but is not recommended.

12. CreatingYourTwitterAccount Your Twitter name is 15 characters at most. Although Twitter names are not case-sensitive, Twitter will save the name exactly as you enter it when you create your Twitter profile. So although you can create your profile with “JohnSmith” and be listed as @JohnSmith, your Twitter fans will be able to find you by using @johnsmith.

13. CreatingYourTwitterAccount Usingyour real name, or the name of yourcompany or brand is best. Avoid names with numbers, uncommon abbreviations and names that are difficult to remember. If you have difficulty saying your Twitter handle, or find yourself needing to repeat it in order for others to understand it, it’s probably best to change it. Keep mobile users in mind and avoid underscores and combinations of letters and numbers, which require extra steps to type in on mobile phones.

14. CreatingYourTwitterAccount Let othersfindyouthroughyour email address. You may change this option later, althoughitis a greatway for other people, especiallythoseyou know, to findyou.

15. YourTwitter Profile Makeyour user name as short as possible, sothatitdoesn’t use toomany of the 140 charactersallowedwhenothersreply to you.

16. YourTwitter Profile Use the email addressyou contact customerswith, sothat if they look for you on Twitterwithit, theycanfindyou. You caneasily change itlater if youneed to.

17. YourTwitter Profile Chooseyourpreferedlanguage for the Twitter interface. This doesn’t have to be the languageyoutweet in and only affects whatyouseewhenlogged in, not whatotherssee on your profile.

18. YourTwitter Profile Setting your time zone allowsyou to seewhentweetswere sent according to your local time. If location is important to your business, set your location. This canbeturned on/off for eachtweet.

19. YourTwitter Profile Don’tprotectyourtweets. This defeats the wholepurpose of building a company, business, marketing or communication profile on Twitter. Otherwise, go ahead.

20. YourTwitter Profile Certain countries allowusers to tweet via text messaging. If yoursdoesn’t, but youstillwant to tweet on your phone, there are a number of appswhichallowyou to do so, including a Twitter approvedapp.

21. YourTwitter Profile Check the first two boxes, to bealertedregardingfollowers and messages. The thirdisoptional.

22. YourTwitter Profile Fill out your profile as completely as possible. Use an easily identifiable image for yourpersonal brand- the best is one thatyou use across all social media platforms.

23. YourTwitter Profile Use your (or yourcompany’s) real name- or as close as possible. Say whereyou are based- be as specific or as general as yourtargetmarket.

24. YourTwitter Profile Addyourwebsite. Describewhatyou do. You have 160 characters- go wild! You need to give people a compellingreason to followyou. The description alsohelps people findyou in Twitter searches.

25. YourTwitter Profile Don’t use a default background- createyourown, or use yourbrand’scolors. Manyuserstakeadvantage of the background image to addadditional information about themselves.

26. YourTwitter Profile Many applications interface withTwitter. LinkedIn and HootSuite are two of the best.

27. Finding People to Follow First: Findyourfriends. Link youraccounts to Twitter, and follow the people youalready know.

28. Finding People to Follow Then, click on the ‘Who to Follow’ linkat the top of the Twitter page. This will show youTwitter’s suggestions of people youmaybeinterested in following.

29. Finding People to Follow Next: Search for appropriate keywords. Example: CRM Seewho’stalking about those keywords and followthosethatinterestyou. Trackthose keywords (in HootSuite, for example, as a hashtag or as a savedsearch in Twitter), to follow future people talking about those keywords. Seewhoelsethose people follow and followtheirfollowers.

30. Finding People to Follow After: Search for yourcompanyname and the name of yourpartnercompanies, customers and competitors. Followany Twitter accountsthatyoufind. Seewho’stalking about thosenames and/or brands and followthem. Seewhoelsetheyfollow and followthem. Trackthosenames (in HootSuite, for example), to follow future people talking about those keywords.

31. Finding People to Follow Finally: Find opinion leaders in yourfield (websites, magazines, talkingheads). Search for them on Twitter or visittheirwebsites, findtheir Twitter link (they’llalmostcertainly have one) and followthem. Seewho’salsofollowingthese people and followthem. Follow the people that the opinion leaders themselves are following.

32. Finding People to Follow Sometips: Try to avoidfollowingmany more people than the number of people whofollowyou, otherwiseyoumight look like a spammer. 2:1 wouldbe the max. Finding people to followis an ongoingtask- youwillfind a greatmany people to followat first, but youshouldtry to find a few new people to followeverymonth. You don’t have to followeveryonewhofollowsyou- onlythoseyoufindinteresting. Don’tbeafraid to unfollow people.

33. ManagingYourFollowers Here are severaltoolsthat help you manage yourfollowers: TwitCleaner: http://thetwitcleaner.com/: helps you find people who may be spammers, who are no longer active, etc Fllwrs: seewhofollows/unfollowsyoueveryday TwitBlock: http://twitblock.org/Findsspammersamongstyourfollowerssothatyoucan block them

34. Starting to Tweet So whatshouldyoutweet about? In the beginning, introduceyourself: Whoyou are Your expertise Whereyou live Whatyou do Whatyoulike Whoyouwant to meet Whyyou’re on Twitter…all in separatetweets.

35. Starting to Tweet As people begin to followyou: Sendthemthankyou’s for following. At first, personalize the messages. If youget in the 1000s of followers, youcan set up an automaticresponse. Begin a conversation: askthem about themselves, wherethey live… As youbegin to follow people Sendthem an introductorytweet- whoyou are, whyyou’refollowingthem. Not many people do this, soyou’ll stand out!

36. Starting to Tweet Sometips: Don’tjust talk about yourself. The best Social Media platforms are about creating a conversation and Twitter is no exception. Strive to hit 70% of conversation about the Other and 30% about Yourself. Repeatingyourowntweetsis OK (not everybodyis in the same time zone), but try to rewordthem or spacethem out withothertweets in between. Don’t do ittoomuchthough, or you’ll look like a spammer! Services likeHootSuiteallowyou to scheduletweets in advance.

37. Starting to Tweet Sometips: Use a linkshortening service like bit.ly or the toolsintegratedintoHootSuite or TweetDeck. Otherwiseyour links willeat up the majority of characters in yourtweets!

38. The 8 Do’s & Don’ts of Twitter Do be easy to find Don’t shout Do provide timely info Don’t repeat yourself Do ask advice Don’t be aggressive Do engage with your community Don’t auto-tweet or auto-DM Via Maggie Hoffman at Open Forum

39. Twitter Management System In order to best use Twitter, youneed a system to manage it. I use HootSuite, whichallowsyou to: Manage yourtweetstreamsacrossseveralcolumns (up to 10), Addotherusers, Manage multiple Twitter accounts Manage other Social Media accounts (Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, etc).

40. GettingStartedwithHootSuite If you use HootSuite, here’s how to getstarted: CreateyourHootSuiteaccount AddyourTwitteraccount Addcolumns: Tweetstream Direct Messages: inbox & outbox @ responses Mentions of your brand Keywords: up to 3 per column LeaveHootSuite up and running sothatyoucan pop in throughout the day

41. I teach people and organizations how to use social media to meettheir marketing & communication needs. For a personalized tutorial or other questions, please contact me: Kelly Rigotti http://kellyrigotti.com @kellyrigotti (on Twitter, of course!) +33 (0)6.67.33.74.91 Thankyou!