I’ve had several friends in the last week ask me questions about Twitter, how to use it, how to get started, and whether or not they should promote their blog posts automatically to Twitter.

In a previous post I talked a bit about Twitter, but did not address my friends’ specific questions.  So, I thought I’d expand a bit further here and share the feedback I gave, as well as some other observations on getting started with Twitter and making the most of it.

Why Use Twitter?

There are many reasons why people are using Twitter, but not everyone is using it effectively.  If you are using Twitter for one or all of the following reasons, you are off to a good start:

1. Use Twitter to have conversations.
2. Use Twitter to share ideas and information.
3. Use Twitter to gather intelligence.
4. Use Twitter to establish online relationships with others.

I know a lot of people are also using Twitter with the intention to do business, build one’s personal “brand”, sell things, promote their sites, etc.  Rest assured, you - can - also achieve these things with Twitter.  However, be careful not to do this exclusively at the expense of the primary four purposes listed above.

Twitter: A Cocktail Party (Online)

Twitter is essentially an online cocktail party. It’s a “social” tool - so, it requires us to be social. Just like cocktail parties, the best way to interact on Twitter is to:

1. Listen to what people are saying.
2. Reach out & talk to people.
3. Ask questions.
4. Respond, share thoughts, opinions (respectfully).
5. Share helpful and interesting links, information, events.
6. Be social. Be polite. Engage.

If you are using Twitter solely to promote your own blog/site, then the chances are high that people will stop listening to you (following your updates).  There’s no exact metric, per se, but I think if you are “others-interested” at least 95% of the time, then you can get away with 5% self-promotion. 

(So, if you create new blogs posts frequently, you may want to reconsider “automatic” blog post links to Twitter, to prevent coming off as overly self-promoting or as a spammer.)

The key is this: if your posts on Twitter are interesting, helpful, and show that you care about people, you should not need to promote yourself on Twitter much, if at all.  People will naturally be drawn to learn more about you and will visit the link you provide in your Twitter bio.  There’s a lot of truth to the saying: “the best conversationalists are those who listen.”

Who I Follow:

Below are some of the things I usually look for when deciding who to “follow”:

1. Profile photo (is this a real person?)
2. Link to the person’s website (to see what they are interested in)
3. Engaging in conversation: (do they self-promote most of the time, or do they listen and engage in conversation? do they reach out with “@username” notes?)
4. Topics of conversation (are the posts interesting? funny? fun? are the post topics about things I care about?)
5. Follower vs. Following Ratio:

• Does this person follow about the same number of people who follow them? If someone has 300 followers but only follows 40 back, it looks like they do not want to engage: so I will probably not follow them.  If this person is a thought leader, I may follow them for awhile anyway, but eventually may stop following them.
• On the flip side, someone who follows 2,000 people but only has 50 people following them back gives the appearance of being a spammer.

I’m sure I left some things out, but overall these are my general guidelines for connecting with new people, finding out about upcoming events, and learning new information and ideas.  To get started with Twitter, the best way is to start slowly - just by listening. Then find a few people to talk to. If you like what they say, see who else they talk to - and follow those people. Repeat steps. : )

If you’d like to connect on Twitter, you can find me here. And, if you use Twitter and have other tips to share, please feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks!

Photos CC from Flickr, originally uploaded by Besimo, The Dana Files, & Beppie K: thank you : )