Business Tip

"@A Twitter Primer "

By Lena West, Women Entrepreneur

I talk a lot about "social media spaghetti"--a term I use to describe the ball of entanglement that social media has become. There are so many tools and so many different permutations of use that it boggles even the most organized and compartmentalized of minds.

Whether you know exactly what do to with it or not, by now you've at least heard something about Twitter. And, chances are, you really want to be involved because secretly (or not so secretly) you think: a. It's cool. b. Your market would love to hear from you on Twitter.

But first things first. When my company deals with clients who want to learn more about Twitter, we approach the tool from two angles--the logistical angle and the marketing angle.

The Logistical Angle
To use Twitter effectively, you need to know a little about the elements of the tool and the "lingo," so here's a quick cheat sheet:

Tweet. The act of using Twitter or the mini-updates that people post to Twitter. Let's use it in a sentence: "I'll tweet that!" "Did you see that tweet about your company?" A tweet looks like this:

Retweet. If you like someone's tweet, you can retweet, or RT, it to share it with the people who are following you. To RT my above tweet, you would type this into your update box:

Twitterstream. This is the mass of tweets that comes from one person or company. Usually these are listed in chronological order, with the most recent update at the top of the page.

Follow. In order to follow someone, you visit his or her Twitterstream page and click on the Follow button. From then on when you log into Twitter, you'll see that person's updates. Why do people bother following someone? For the same reason you would give your business card to someone you just met at a networking event--to stay in touch.

@replies. Everyone automatically gets a Twitter "handle" or username when she signs up for the account. The username is the text that comes after the trailing slash after the link to someone's Twitterstream. For example, the link to my Twitterstream is http://www.Twitter.com/LenaWest, which means that my handle is @LenaWest. You use other people's handle with the @ sign in front to speak to them directly on Twitter. So if you wanted to speak to me on Twitter, you would type "@LenaWest I read your Seriously Social article" into your update box, and I will see it. And yes, other people see this--that's the whole point. But what if you want to have a private conversation?

Direct Messages or DMs. Direct messages are exactly what they sound like. If someone is following you and you're following that person, the two of you can exchange DMs to have private conversations on the Twitter website. I use the word "private" loosely because, in reality, nothing on the internet is truly private. I have found that sending someone a DM on Twitter is a more effective and immediate means of reaching that person than e-mail.

Next Stop on the Twitter Train: Your Profile
Now that you've familiarized yourself with some Twitter shorthand, you need to know about a few of Twitter's features that will help you stand out from the pack.

Before you do anything on Twitter, you must complete your profile. Now, you'd think the way to do this would be to click on the link in the top right-hand corner that says "Profile," but that's not true; that only takes you to your own Twitterstream.

To edit your profile, you would click on the link in the top right-hand corner called "Settings." This is where you control everything from your mini-bio and links back to your main website to the design of your Twitter page and the setup to Twitter from your iPhone or Blackberry.

The Care and Feeding of Your Tweets
Now would be a good time to write some pithy tweets to populate your Twitterstream, so people can retweet you and send you DMs. Did you catch the lingo?

Seriously, write a handful of tweets so people can get a feel for who you are. These shouldn't be blatant self-promotional tweets, like "buy my stuff!" but rather smart, witty tips you can offer that are helpful and actionable. Take the time to get this right; there's no rush, and you'll thank me later.

Get Followers by Following
For some people, Twitter is nothing more than a big numbers game. They want to see how many people they can get to follow them. But smart entrepreneurs know that Twitter can get them increased visibility, a better connection with their market(s) and can update the perceived image of their brand. So once you've completed your profile, you need to start getting some followers under your belt. The best way to do this is by following other people or businesses.

Many times when you follow someone, she'll follow you back automatically. This isn't mandatory, but it happens often.

If you find that people aren't following you back, you might want to take some time to write a few interesting (read: not boring or stiff) tweets to showcase your brand or approach to life and business.

This is more than enough information to get your mind wrapped around the tangible aspects of Twitter. I hope if you don't have an account, you start one today. And if you have an inactive Twitter account, I hope you'll brush the dust off and spark it up again.

In the next column, I'll cover the "soft stuff," such as exactly how you can use Twitter to market your business--among other objectives.