The amount of interest in Twitter continues to soar. But, even with its popularity most small to mid-size businesses still haven’t figured out how best to use it. Areas of Discussion include: How to use Twitter to generate traffic to your blog and website; the importance of sharing resources with Twitter; how to Educate Your Audience; using Twitter to Add Connections; building Your Community With Twitter; how to Cultivate Collaborations.

1. What is Twitter All About? (Workshop III) Publishing YOU-niversity

2. What is Twitter? Twitter lets you write and read messages (“tweets”) of up to 140 characters Started in 2006 Dec. 2009 1st month Twitter processed more than one billion tweets

3. Getting Started - Tweeting Share useful information “tweet” regularly Type of Tweets: DM: Direct Private Message RT: reposting a message giving original sender credit #hashtag: Allows users to categorize tweets @username: public message to or about a person Repeating Tweets is OK Retweet other messages you find useful

4. Getting Started – Engaging Others Don’t Spam Follow those you Respect & Admire Consider following those you follow you Mind Your Conversation & Reputation Tweet useful info - not just stuff about youself Respond to praise, questions, comments, complaints

5. Twitter For Your Business Use URL shortener, like bit.ly Try to engage high quality people Initiate conversation, become a thought leader Provide/Obtain customer service Search your product, name and related subjects Deal publically, nicely with tough business issues Offer deals and other promotions

6. Twitter Support Applications Twitter is most efficient when coupled with external support applications Twitter Search: http://search.twitter.com Tweetdeck: http://www.tweetdeck.com Social Oomph: http://www.socialoomph.com Social Too: http://socialtoo.com